The work of studioPANG affects many disciplines from architecture to design and graphics. Which was the original aim of the studio?
studioPANG was founded spontaneously by two people - architect Fabio Damiani and product designer Marco Quistini - willing to merge passion and skill together in order to produce a richer approach, with new ideas and perspectives. Before turning into actual work projects, architecture, design and communication represent conversation fields. Our aim was to turn our passion into our actual job, and after more than two years it looks like we are accomplishing such goal.
What’s the common feature shared by any of your projects?
The exchange of views, the discussion.
What’s the key for a successful design item?
A good idea is not enough, especially today: you also need the right environment and the right contingencies, so to say. Emerging designers really need to be in the right economic and social scenario, in the right place at the right time, supported by a company that is willing to help them out. It’s really not that easy.
You participated in many contests and won several awards. Which is your favorite and why?
The project that makes us proudest is Wheely, as we consider it sort of our design pioneer.
This seat/table was the result of the "Decò Ter Competition" which made us participate in the Salone del Mobile Fair during our very first year of business. Even though is quite an unusual item, and it won’t ever be a successful top product, it’s so much important to us. Go Wheely! Go Wheely!
Tell us about one of your current projects, fastdesign.
Fastdesign is more pure entertainment rather than an actual project as it takes us pretty far from our world: it’s a small brand which looks at music in a quite playful, almost irreverent way. Basically we turned our everyday music-related jokes, gags and puns into actual garments by writing those words on t-shirts. Fastdesign was founded by our friend architect Stefano Tacchinardi, you can check out the collection and shop online here: www.fastdesignshop.com
What about Bergamo City Kiwi?
Bergamo City Kiwi is a project fully dedicated to our city, Bergamo: we launched it in January, along with two dear friends (Margherita Bonaldi e Raffaella Algani). It’s an unconventional online guide (www.bergamocitykiwi.it) aimed at enhancing the value of hidden places and business which happen not to be mentioned by the regular tourist guide just because, for instance, of their less-central location. Bergamo City Kiwi doesn’t just target tourists, we want it to make locals more aware of what the city has to offer. Merchants and locals’ feedback has been positive since the launch, so that we are now planning to do the same in Brescia, and hopefully somewhere else in the future.
What does innovation mean to you?
studioPANG completely endorses the definition on Wikipedia:
Innovation is a new idea, more effective device or process. Innovation can be viewed as the application of better solutions that meet new requirements, inarticulated needs, or existing market needs. This is accomplished through more effective products, processes, services, technologies, or ideas that are readily available to markets, governments and society. The term innovation can be defined as something original and more effective and, as a consequence, new, that "breaks into" the market or society.
Which are you favorite materials? Why?
We certainly find natural materials fascinating, especially wood and stone which we work in many ways. However, designers must keep on experimenting, researching and looking for new solutions in terms of matter, otherwise their work can’t go further. As it’s really hard to invent new things today, the key is to reinterpret existing forms, codes and rules, to push materials beyond any limits or even create new ones. This is the current attitude in design, even though it is not necessarily something that anyone – including us – agrees with.
What’s the crucial ingredient of an interior design project? Is it always easy to meet the clients halfway in terms of style?
We do believe that an interior design project needs to be accurate, consistent and well-finished. The relationship with clients is the core of any work and today we follow a precise scheme to deal with them in the most pragmatic way. When synergy and mutual communication are on the table, we easily reach a result which satisfies both parties. If we find harder to create a fertile dialogue, we comply with the clients’ requests as much as possible, even though the result only please them.
Which are your plans for the future?
We hope our business will keep on growing as we would like to further implement our communication/web branch so that it can be much more independent. This would make us fully focus on our design and architecture projects, which as you know take a long time to be finalized.
Which is your personal philosophy?
The idea of adventure, as explained by this video by us: https://vimeo.com/100386107
INFO: www.studiopang.it
PHOTO COURTESY: studioPANG