Do SELETTI and Stefano Seletti move in perfect harmony? You are friendly, you have a positive and optimistic attitude, you wear international designer clothing and you perfectly represent the brand’s values and vision. How have you influenced the brand and how has the brand influenced you over the last 10 years? 

Seletti and Stefano Seletti move in perfect harmony because they have always coexisted. My memory is scattered with events belonging and related to the company’s history. Working in the warehouse during school breaks, driving forklifts, travelling in Asia for the first time when I was 17: these experiences affected me, they blended the company with the individual. The company development followed the personal development and vice versa. I think I gave a lot to Seletti, but I also received a lot by the company and by the people working in it. These people trusted me and supported the changes due to my personal development. Compared to the previous decade, the last 10 years represent a step forward and, considering the ongoing projects, I am sure that we will do many other projects in the future. Projects such as Toiletpaper or the Studio Job’s one represent a parallel concept to practical design. It is more about a “movement” than about single products. A new way of looking at a sector that needs to approach to young generations in a different and more contemporary way.

Things could be done in a conventional way, as usual, to avoid mistakes. Why do you adopt such a subversive approach to normality?

A different approach to normality is not a creative choice, but a matter of evolution and survival. Over the years, we have worked with different products such as “art de la table”, “lighting” (that represent now the biggest part of the turnover), outdoor furniture and, from this year on, furnishing. I have always started working in “mature” and already developed sectors. For this reason, the only possible strategy was to look at these sectors in a new and different way. 10 years ago, “Estetico Quotidiano” was created: the range for a perfect table, especially for those customers who had never dealt with this sector before.

I could not compete with historic companies that have been producing porcelain for hundreds of years, so I looked at the product and at its distribution in a new way. We developed the same concept in the lighting sector. Compete with companies the likes of Flos, Foscarini, Artemide, etc. was impossible, so we tried to think at this sector with completely different and revolutionary concepts. The neon light letters “neon font” are a perfect example of this, Marcantonio’s monkey (an international bestseller) dismantled the basic rules of academic design. Created in collaboration with Studio Job, the outdoor “Industry Garden” focuses on shapes recalling memories and materials that are no longer used. The result is product that is completely different from anything else offered by the market. Our products seldom pass unnoticed: either you like them, or you dislike them. Probably, this is the opposite of the Scandinavian design and, for sure, it is less profitable.

I guess you travel very often. What does you make feel at home?

Living in a very small village where probably my neighbor doesn’t know what’s happening in those weird offices; a warm and simple house situated 50 m from the office, full of objects, memories and colors; a wonderful family made up of two little girls of 8 and 12 years old and a wife with Brazilian origins: these are very inspiring elements of my daily life that make me very happy.

Before starting production, how do you understand or decide if a project is crazy enough to sell a few million pieces or if it is a flop?

After many flops, I am more and more convinced that “you learn by your mistakes”. For many years I’ve been choosing products for a very wide and heterogeneous target public, so I sort of did my training. Then, my learning process brought me to the large-scale distribution, a difficult sector where we did very well.

How is your typical day?

When I am at home, my wife gets up at 6.40. She gets prepared, she prepares our daughters and then I go downstairs and have breakfast with them. Then, they go to school and I exercise for 30 min. At 8.30 I arrive at the office and usually I have a short meeting with my sister, my father, the sales manager and the general manager. At 12.45 I go back home, I have lunch with Adriana, at 2 pm I start working again until 7 pm approximately. In the evening, I have dinner with my family and then we all sit together next to the fireplace.

Which values connect you with 5VIE? Why did you choose this district?

The values that connect me with a place are the same that connect me to people. As for 5 VIE, I have always had to do with very kind and helpful persons who have always supported the crazy works that I presented, year after year. I am and I will always be very grateful.

You often work with young Italian designers and you travel a lot. What is the most significant characteristic of Italians, recognized at an international level? What should we learn and who should we learn from?

I spent many year taking inspiration from others and in the past I’ve even copied some ideas and some styles that did not belong to me. There are always many things to learn and we learn every day from both young designers (no matter whether Italian and/or foreign designers) and above all those who are capable to dialogue with the public in a direct, simple and intuitive way, through music, art and, why not, design. This also needs standards that are more immediate, “stupid”, immediately usable and comprehensible without the need of words.

Hence, my will to address to young people by using the “Design Pride” as a tool, without giving it a deep meaning but trying to enhance the instinct related to electronic music, to a “healthy and educated” protest, inebriated by the happiness of being together.

It is necessary to start again addressing to a cultured public in a simple way, because it does not speak a single language anymore but it uses an ungrammatical form of communication made up of just a few words. For example, to prevent streets from getting dirty we should start using again those signs indicating that if you through a plastic bottle away, it will take a certain amount of years to be destroyed, the same happens for a cigarette butt, etc. Well, those signs are easy to understand, they are readable and comprehensible.