Giuseppe Santacroce

I've always dreamed of leaving my mark on the world around me, without limiting my expressive stamp. I love design because it is the means of expression that can best tell a story and a function. I decided to become a designer when I was 18, I am passionate about sculpture, and when I realized that I could shape my imagination and at the same time allow people to use my ideas in everyday life, I decided to study Design. I always thought that "only through craftsmanship can we bridge the distance between Art and Design. If you don't live the essence of your materials, you will end up becoming an artist without a canvas or a designer without sincerity". I hope to develop a communication skill that can give any type of emotion to those who touch my products.

Giuseppe Santacroce Design is a design studio based in Milan. Founded in 2015, the studio embraces various sectors (hospitality, residences, offices, yachts, product design), offering unique solutions, personalized concepts and refined projects, with turnkey projects. I hope in the future to be able to invest more in my studio, in order to grow my brand. My creations present an essential and decisive style, linking Art and Design through a fine craftsmanship.

For me, design is an art that must touch the heart, eyes and hands. The hands because the design must allow to live the works daily.

I don't have a priority, but I would like there was always a feeling between me and my customers.

The "eternal" design. When you draw something that still excites you after years, that's good design. I don't have a favorite one, because each one has its own history and characteristics, but I can say that of all my projects, the "Pacàma" project was the most suffered and perhaps the most satisfying afterwards. Pacàma is an Italian cafeteria. Where relaxation is the main element. Colors, shapes and materials bring peace back.

My first project was a cup of coffee, I was inspired by the snake scales to create a wonderful texture. I carried the texture of scales on the saucer that becomes more or less visible based on daylight. The whole product is white, saucer and cup, while the handle of the cup is in gold. An object to use every day, or even to collect. In its simplicity this product has a lot of character.

The noble and eternal olive wood, typical wood from my homeland. For me it is the first wood in the world. The olive wood is very hard, it is compact and homogeneous, and it is resistant to woodworm. It grows to about 15 meters, the trunk is twisted and often hollow. The olive tree is a very resistant and long-lived tree, and specimens over 100 years of age are often found. I always try to make my designs by hand.

During the night I have the greatest inspirations. It's really the time to be alone and hear the ideas inside me in silence, there are things in a silence that you never expect, and it is there that I can bring out my ideas with the right delicacy.

Each idea must have 3 fundamental aspects, functionality, aesthetic and sensorial pleasure. I focus a lot on functionality, after which you just have to draw, by simplifying each draft until you get to the soul of the project. All is there

I feel different emotions, I don't hide from you that I often also feel anger or suffering. When a project is not linear, it creates embarrassment, annoyance. There you have to fight some worries, until you reach visual and sensory simplicity.

As I said before, once you have reached the ideal form, you have achieved peace and satisfaction. You must love every project, because those who are close to you perceive the love you put into the job.

As with art or poetry, what a designer feels makes creation successful. Moods (of any kind) are the centerpiece of a brand's personality.

Good design must have the right basic idea, but an idea remains only an idea if form and function are not combined. Good design must communicate, be useful and must have its own story.

There is only one word, respect. Respect for the environment, respect for feelings, respect for people who invest money in your design.

Design changes as society changes, so it is important to have solid roots, the future is built on the past, and this is what I try to do using materials and craftsmanship in my creations.

A strange coincidence, my last project on display was the coffee cup mentioned above, a great satisfaction was exhibited at the "HOST" in Milan, next to the Lavazza cups. I hope to partecipate in a new event as soon as possible.

The relationship with the beaches of my native land in southern Italy often inspires me. I have a great feeling with the sea, the smells, the colors, the sensations that it conveys are the design of nature.

I'm probably oriented towards a minimal style, characterized by the use of olive wood. I like to give shape to the beauty of natural wood, but without exaggerating. The material is often the protagonist. Matter takes on a function, the right function for the right place. I always try to make everything very "clean", linear and pleasant. There is no need to overdo it, just transmit your thoughts through the materials.

I live in Milan, but I come from Calabria, a land of historical and landscape beauties often unknown, which is why I hope to make my land known through my works in the future. I hope this competition could be a launching pad, to rediscover the beauty of the south.

To select a good designer, a true designer, you need trust. And as for love, trust allows you to build something together.

I always draw by hand and pen, I don't use a pencil because the mistakes I can make by drawing must be visible to improve myself. Later I transfer my idea to the software. Technology helps you avoid material waste and speed up production times. After elaborating the design I contact the best craftsmen for the realization of my projects.

I often work at night. I wake up in the morning at 8 am take a shower, drink coffee and start the day from there. In the planning phase I finish working at 3 in the morning. I pause to reflect on where I go outdoors and listen to a lot of music. The words of the writers make me think a lot about what I do.

Always say your idea, without being conditioned by social media. Following to a word is copying, listening and understanding many words is research.

You don't have timetables and you are often forced to "suffer", but this also means that you are putting all of yourself on the sheet.

If you keep your idea, you have no rules, that's the beauty of it, you can express yourself without rules as long as what you do makes sense.

It is essential to understand the client's dreams, what he wants, what makes him (even unconsciously) happy. The designer must be able to read people's emotions, be able to read historical moments, trends, and in all this he must be able to put his mark.

Absolute simplicity: Feelings, pen and sheet, cad and 3ds, then, go to the lab.

I divide my time in blocks of 2 hours, at the end of every two hours I make a small revision. The designing takes a long time, but "thinking" is everything in life. So it is right to devote as much time as possible to the design, hours, days and sometimes even months. But during the designing you are facing the most beautiful and most difficult phase.

More or less 3 weeks, research, drawing and various tests are needed.

I am often asked how I can turn an idea into reality. The answer is simple, you have to think about what can give an emotion, and give it life.

Pacàma, the project of a cafeteria created for myself. It is the work for which I have suffered the most, and also the work most appreciated by the public.

I really like making works that are or become necessities for others, sometimes you realize you need something only after seeing it, or you need something that has not exist yet, it's the right time.

As mentioned before, I am working on a project that I hope will help everyday life now and in the future. A product born after the latest emergencies of the COVID-19.

The next outgoing works concern a high class home, I immediately created a feeling with the owners who like me love materials rich in history. I can't say more, hahaha!!!

I decided to become a designer when I was 18, when I realized that I could shape my imagination and at the same time allow people to use my ideas in everyday life. I come from a small province of Southern Italy, a country in Calabria, a place of sea, fishing and wonderful landscapes. I spent most of my life in close contact with the sea until I decided to move to Milan to study design. In my homeland there are many good craftsmen, so I thought of combining craftsmanship with the experience I gained studying in Milan. I have never lacked fantasy, and after deepening my studies first in the IED university, and then at the Accademia Di Belle Arti in Brera, I decided to start my career by creating customized products and unique handmade pieces. I hope to grow my studio following this philosophy. Currently I also work in the family business, a coffee company, and I deal with the whole Design sector. This allows me to have funds to invest in my creations. I think that through hard work I will be able to put my mark. I currently live in Milan, but I hope to be able to be appreciated in other states, transporting my ideas and the craftsmanship of my works, which are the result of a long thought, and of noble and eternal materials such as olive wood.

I've always dreamed of leaving my mark on the world around me, without limiting my expressive stamp. As I said before I decided to become a designer when I was 18, I'm passionate about sculpture, and when I realized that I could shape my imagination and at the same time allow people to use my ideas in everyday life, I decided to study Design. I love design because it is the means of expression that can best tell a story and a function. I always thought that "only through craftsmanship can we bridge the distance between Art and Design. If you don't live the essence of your materials, you will end up becoming an artist without a canvas or a designer without sincerity". I hope to develop a communication skill that can give any type of emotion to those who touch my products.

Obviously it was my choice, a choice that allowed me to travel between art and function. I love materials, nature and technology, and Design allows you to do all this.

My design includes different sectors (hospitality, residences, offices, yachts, product design), I don't have a real priority, each of my creations has my own state of mind, or a situation that I am currently experiencing. If I had to choose, I would like to devote a little more time to the design of yachts, this would combine design and sea, two worlds that I love.

Well to become a legend I still have to go a long way, my fortune is to have started studying design early, so I'm still young. And to young people like me I would say to always express their idea, without being conditioned by social media. "Following a word is copying, listening and understanding many words is research".

I think there are two fundamental aspects. One is the ability to help, help the environment or people in life, therefore a more "scientific" design. The second is the ability to tell something, tell it in a unique and exciting way, then an "artistic" design.

To evaluate this many factors come into play. We need to understand what that particular product leaves to the world, and what that product conveys. It can convey beauty, emotion, or even contempt, hatred and anger. The difference in my opinion lies in time, a perfect design is a design that lasts over time, which becomes "eternal". It is beautiful and exciting today, and it will be in 50 years. So, for me a winning design must keep its characteristics unchanged over time. It must be useful today and tomorrow, exciting today and tomorrow.

Because design has to excite you, it has to make life better, to the point that you can't do without it.

There are two environments that I would like to know better and maybe work on. I know one and it's yacht design, here I could combine my passion for the sea with my work as a designer, it would therefore be a perfect environment for me. Another truly amazing field is that of motoring. I love the automotive design of the past years (50s/60s/70s), it fascinates me a lot and as an Italian I am passionate about motors. Just think of the history of Ferrari or Lamborghini, stories of shapes and innovations that come to life through design.

The dream project must remain a dream, I think, so that we can always pursue it. This allows you to never stop, to not settle for something well done, but to seek more and more. Here's how you can achieve ever higher goals. I think that in this work you never end, your style and your ideas grow and change with you, and consequently also your goals and your dreams.

The secret recipe is made from the union of many small ingredients. Emotions, and ideas and materials, through these elements you can let anyone touch your soul.

The great masters have shaped the past, but we must shape our present, we must study the masters of the past, but be inspired by our present to make the right Design.

There are really many, and it would take a long time to describe everyone. But in the last period I have been passionate about the history of a great designer, namely Horacio Pagani, the creator of the famous Pagani car manufacturer. I'm very passionate about the way he followed his dream, creating his shapes and making them become a brand of great prestige worldwide.

The ways to improve are endless. I like to think a lot and travel. Knowing other cultures allows you to be more careful even with your own culture, and to appreciate design in the world in many forms.

Probably I would have tried to make my way in two opposite worlds, if I speak of dreams, I would have tried to make a career as a race car driver, but I would also love to make a career and know the world of agriculture well. Nature always offers great emotions.

For me, design is an art that must touch the heart, eyes and hands. The hands because the design must allow to live the works daily.

All the people who love or hate you help to shape your personality. But of all the people from whom I drew inspiration to form my person, the one who most supported me in my choices, is my mother. I could say that the last revision of each of my projects, I leave it to her, from her reactions I understand the validity of my ideas.