We spent an afternoon at Maddalena Casadei′s home with Giada Storelli and overheard them conversing about Eccetera, the first collection of accessories designed by Maddalena for Quadro Design.
GIADA STORELLI: I wanted to start by asking you about your profession. I read that you are involved in product design, exhibit design and art direction. How do you manage to combine these three fields into a single personal vision, and what do you think is the common denominator?
MADDALENA CASADEI: I am an architect, so I have a certain sensitivity to space and the objects in it. So over the years, it has come naturally to me to create products and later, to deal with product photography and so to follow the shooting of the product with photographers as well as taking care of set-ups for exhibitions and presentations. Rather than putting them together, these aspects of my work came one after the other, concatenated, and it was spontaneous.
GS: A single vision that has several applications.
MC: Yes, it’s all part of the same context. I think my approach is very similar to other designers, meaning: you always start from your perceptions, experiences and needs you encounter in your daily life as to the way you live with objects. For example, this object [she says while holding a double towel rack, part of Eccetera collection] came out from the fact that in some homes it would be very useful to have two functions in one object, for reasons of space and organization. We tend to approach a design brief in relation to our personal vision and experience. You start by designing a product and having an image of a context for it and then, as a result, it is easy to imagine it within a shooting or exhibition as well.
GS: Of these three aspects of your work, which one do you enjoy the most?
MC: I think each part of this process has some very fascinating moments. Working on the product is interesting: you imagine something and then when you can actually touch it with your hands, it is very exciting. At the same time being able to convey through the set-up, or a photo shoot, your perception of the object or your feeling about that thing to others is equally fascinating. So I would say that each step has its own fascination.
Their entire conversation can be heard on Quadro Design’s official channels starting from October.