Between design & dreams with Guilio Cappellini

Does a good design make us dream?

Italian designer Guilio Cappellini — who prefers 12-hour flights over short hauls because they give him a chance to read, sketch, and maybe, just maybe, dream up the next great design — thinks so. 

This design story begins when Cappellini was 25 years old in Italy, 1979. He was completing his degree in architecture and was serving an apprenticeship with architect-designer Gio Ponti. It was the evening of the day and, possibly drunk, Guilio got struck down with a lightning bolt of an epiphany: he didn’t want to be an architect; he wanted to be in the family business. And the family business founded by his father Enrico in 1946 being furniture-making — a small, craft-centric/non-design one with only 15 workers at that time.

“I am an Aries, so when I want to do something I want it done the soonest,” explains Guilio. “I thought I could change everything in six months (and set up his concept of a design-oriented furniture company). Now I understand that one lifetime is not enough to do everything that you want (laughs).”

But what a life so far for Guilio Cappellini who owns the eponymous high-end Italian design firm based in Milan and with showrooms in Milan, Los Angeles, Manila, Paris, Brussels and New York (with mono-brand or multi-brand stores in the key cities of the world — Rome, Munich, London, Cologne, Miami, Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Florence, among others). He is an architect, art director and widely-recognized taste-maker in international design. Time magazine even hailed him as one of the top 10 trendsetters of our time and as one of the most charismatic leaders in the field of design. Cappellini helped launch the careers of award-winning designers such as Jasper Morrison, Marcel Wanders, the Bouroullec brothers, Nendo, and Tom Dixon. Many of the Cappellini-designed products have become iconic pieces and are exhibited in museums around the world: Victoria & Albert in London, MoMA in New York and the Pompidou Centre in Paris.

The man travels 250 days a year. Last weekend he was in Istanbul and the Belgian capital; tomorrow he’ll be heading for South Korea; today he is in Manila in time for the opening of the Cappellini mono-brand showroom in Bonifacio Global City. The Cappellini Home settings are religiously created in The Fort showroom, which boasts modular furniture, home décor and container systems with iconic designs. The name behind Bench and Dimensioné, the Suyen Corporation — with its 25 years of retail experience and a growing number of home brands and franchised brands — is the exclusive distributor of Cappellini in the Philippines.    

Bench vice president for business development Bryan Lim says, “We hope to be able to represent Cappellini in the Philippines the same way in Italy, France, the US, and the rest of its flagship locations. It is a very good opportunity for Mr. Cappellini to visit the country and to speak with architects, designers and members of the design community.” Lim says Bench founder, chairman and executive creative director Ben Chan is a big fan of Cappellini; in fact his house in Los Angeles is furnished with items from the Italian design firm.  

What virtually jump out of the Cappellini showroom are those sleek post-modern, ultra-contemporary chairs (the Proust Geometrica and the Tulip Armchair), as well as the Side 1 Side 2 drawers designed by Shiro Kuramata. (Twenty five years ago, Guilio spent a fantastic afternoon with the late great design master in his Tokyo studio — in silence. The two just working on colored pieces Plexiglas that changed shape and color depending on the sun’s movements. “Long silences,” Cappellini reflects, “are worth more than many words.”)

I’ve seen the catalogue and marveled at the Sistema filing cabinets and Kuramata’s Homage to Mondrian. But for me it’s love at first sight with the Passepartout bookcase, which Guilio designed with Rodolfo Dordoni. Imagine your Modern Library or Viking book collection, those tomes on Francis Bacon and Damien Hirst nesting on those babies that can function as contemporary sculptures in a white-walled home.

Like all true greats, Guilio downplays his designing genius. He chuckles and says, “I like to call myself a ‘Sunday afternoon designer’ because I designed very, very few things.” But what cool things they are: those cabinets and the Guilio Cappellinni-designed Bong table. “That’s one object I designed in the past that’s very important for me, and it was made with a particular kind of technology.

But the idea still holds true: to design everyday-use, small objects.

Today, inventing shapes is very, very difficult, the man admits. “The most beautiful shapes have been done in the Fifties and the Sixties, but today you can work with new technologies and new materials.” And then come up with something blindingly brilliant. 

 “People want to create a home that reflects their own spirit,” he explains. It’s not like in the past where the Smiths always want to keep up with the Jesus Joneses. Cappellini hates the term “mono-culture” which smacks of furniture or home décor straight from 1984 or something scary by Ray Bradbury.  

“Freedom is the word for the end-consumers of today. I want to work very much on the idea of ‘contamination’ — people would want to mix products made by different people, created in different periods by different companies from different parts of the world.”

The Cappellini products in the catalogue bear this idea out: some are more organic, some are minimalist charmers, and some are very Pop-oriented.

“I try to give total freedom to the designers — for them to be themselves,” Guilio points. “And for my part, I try to work on the global image of the Cappellini firm, and connect everything that the designers come up with.” He says that celebrating eclecticism or fostering design democracy is a beautiful beast that’s difficult to control but the important thing is, Cappellini reiterates, “to speak many languages in design.”

The language is legion. Cappellini is currently designing a limited-edition Ermini sports car (aluminum-and-carbon fiber collector’s-edition beauty). He digs Hermes products (the older they get, the more beautiful they become) and — believe it or not — Mickey Mouse comics.

He explains, “In our life, we don’t only have to go one way… otherwise every day would look the same.”

Designing mystery

When he encounters a new object, how does he know if its design works or not?

“One’s first impression of the design is essential. When I see a (well-designed) prototype or a new object, it is something very personal — I can’t be without it, I want it in my home. For the more innovative product, it takes time to be successful.”

The same with modern or contemporary art, the avant-garde: how many sneers did Picasso’s Les Demoiselles d’Avignon get before it was adjudged a masterpiece, how many rioted when they first heard Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring?

What makes the Cappellini different from other design firms is the strategy itself: to create long-sellers and not bestsellers as well as the emphasis on the consumer and not on styles or trends. What is good today should still be good 20 years from now.

He explains, “We have Cappellini products that weren’t quite successful when they first came out. But year after year, they become more and more popular. You know, I want to keep adding new pieces on the catalogue but I don’t want to replace the old ones… because they have such a history.” 

The firm keeps upgrading, to do something better than what it did 10 years ago — whether in material, finish or color, since the thrust is to create a collection of the “new classics” in design. 

At the showroom in The Fort, Cappellini points out they try to paint each showroom all over the world depending on what color each particular city communicates to him.

Here is the Cappellini color chart: Milan is yellow (just like the color of the old Milano taxicabs or the risotto). Paris is purple (because purple reminds the designer of an old couture atelier in the Fifties). New York, red; Brussels, blue. And for the Philippines it’s — tad ah! —turquoise. How come?  

Years ago, Cappellini constantly visited Cebu because he was having items made in that part of the archipelago. “I was working in the city during weekdays and went to the beach during weekends. One time, I gazed into the ocean and it was this turquoise color. Turquoise stands for the sea of the Philippines.”

Cool design philosophy right there: always keeping the meaning behind the motif surprising.

He explains that with globalization, you will find anything anywhere in the world, and there is no more element of mystery. “You could be in an international airport and won’t know whether you’re in Milan, Miami or Hong Kong. That’s why it’s important for us to look to the future, but not kill our history. We should strive to be modern, but we strongly defend our culture — otherwise everything looks the same worldwide and nothing makes sense anymore.”

Does he get a lot of inspiration from contemporary art in his designs?

Cappellini counts two artists as inspirational: Lucio Fontana (his cuts are still, pardon the pun, “cutting-edge” today) and Jean Michel-Basquiat (he drew inspiration from artworks made by three- or four-year-old kids).

“That’s very important,” Guilio concludes, “to look around the creative world with the eyes of a child. We designers should try, on one side, to create useful and beautiful products. And, on another side, to keep people dreaming.” 

And you know how this designer wakes up in the morning? He opens his eyes, stretches his arms, and thinks of a design yet to come.

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The Cappellini is at G/F One Parkade, 28th St., Bonifacio Global City, Taguig City. For information, call +69905-3360680.