Some matches are just meant to be. Gaetano Pesce has reigned as the king of quirky, fun design since the late 1960s, with the launch of his Up collection, an armchair with a distinctive female form and a ball-shaped ottoman that symbolizes “the shackles that keep women subjugated,” as he so famously described the piece. Up is such a timeless classic that B&B Italia reproduces it to this day.
The New York-based designer has since spent years exploring the versatility of resin and its rubbery appeal, creating such objects as bowls, flower vases and placemats that are so rich in colour and texture they look almost good enough to eat. With Andrea Corsi, he opened the Corsi Design Factory in 2003 in Milan as a laboratory and showroom to hand manufacture and display the products of Pesce’s Fish Design studio.
Now, Pesce and Corsi have invited the Campana Brothers to explore the material using their own kind of quirky style. Like Pesce, the brothers share a love for handmade primitive forms and brilliant colours, traits that are perfect for the attributes of Pesce’s signature translucent resin, a material that can be stretched, moulded and manipulated like putty before it solidifies.
The table lamps, which launched during Milan Design Week in April, also utilize materials typical of the Campanas: leather, natural fibres and wood branches that are skillfully integrated as exposed structural supports.