You collections feature a quite bizarre side: how do you pick their look?
I get inspired by colors and patterns from the Sixties and Seventies, which I reinterpret with contemporary geometrical hues and forms. Beside my designs I also employ a pattern range specifically created by Karim Rashid with which I “dress up” the custom pieces of my collection. I also collaborate with pop artists such as Willow, TV Boy and Ludmilla Radchenko, and I’m licensed to use the Beatles’ iconography.

What’s the secret for a timeless design product?
Neatness, shape and function. When a product has these features it becomes timeless, and that is why our brand has decided to reinterpret the design pieces that made the history of design.

What distinguishes the Italian product from the others?
The so called “made in Italy” is the actual resource of our cultural heritage. Handicraft, detailed work and Italian taste will keep on distinguish us in the coming years. Everyone craves for our creativity and innovation which make us unique, that’s why we have to cherish them at any cost. And that’s why foreigners no longer copy us, they want to buy our products.

Choosing your products means choosing…?
My products mean handicraft and detailed, sophisticated yet accessible design. Buying a piece by us is for the first time a way to enrich your home with an actual design piece without making major economic efforts, unlike what happens when you try to buy something by other important brands. I want to offer a quality product but also turn my clients into designers in order to make them create a unique custom product.

How important is technology to contemporary design?
There is no design without tech innovation: it’s a field that demands to manage new technologies. One example is augmented reality that makes you virtually see an object inserted in your domestic environment. In this way we can see the final result without having to just imagine it, with no efforts and with a significant saving in terms of time and resources.

Which materials do you prefer? Why?
After spending 15 years in the fashion field I’m obviously into fabric. I love its physical side, I love to make my clients “play” with all my fabrics because my mission is to “dress up” an interior.

What would you suggest to emerging designers?
To put people’s needs first, create simple refined products, easy to move and also affordable. Trying hard to create a “cool” expensive object is pointless: the real challenge is to produce a piece that targets everyone and not just an elite, and this means understanding how to optimize the production process and how to make materials both beautiful and functional. Cesare Cassina once told my dad: «We are “doomed” to make things that are “uselessly” beautiful and uselessly expensive». 50 years later, sadly nothing has changed.

INFO: www.lucaboffi.com

PHOTO COURTESY: Luca Boffi