‘The only intellectually honest answer to who this book is for is to admit that we designed it for us,’ admits Simone Farresin of Formafantasma about their new eponymous monograph. Designing for others is a normal part of the Italian design studio’s everyday. Co-founders Farresin and Andrea Trimarchi didn’t want the book to be received as a simple marketing gimmick, nor did they wish to produce an image-led coffee-table book – rather, they wanted to create an honest reflection on their work.
The duo have collaborated on the project with curator and art critic Alessandro Rabottini, with contributions from authoritative voices including Paola Antonelli, senior curator of Architecture & Design and director of R&D at MoMA; Hans Ulrich Obrist, artistic director at Serpentine Galleries; and Alice Rawsthorn, design critic and author. ‘When working on a monograph you consider involving people that are close to you and have had an influence on you. Some of those names were obvious for us,’ says Farresin.
‘We wanted to include moments of struggle or failure; it shouldn’t just be a mythical book about how great we are’
Simore Farresin
He and Trimarchi feel that their audience, including young designers who are influenced by their work, deserve honesty about their creative practice. ‘We told Alessandro that we wanted the monograph to include moments of struggle or failure, and that it shouldn’t just be a mythical book about how great we are.’
‘Ours is not just a professional story, it’s a love story, too’
Simone Farresin
The book follows a chronological order and includes early experimentation. It delves into the reality of their studio, from the research to the commercial elements. ‘We are more emotionally attached to the early works because, looking back, some of the ideas that inform what we do today were already there,’ Farresin says.
‘But there is also naivety in those works that we personally love. We also remember how we were. Ours is not just a professional story, it’s a love story, too. So it’s impossible not to look back at those works and feel emotional when reading the monograph.’
Keen to understand more about Formafantasma’s influences and inspiration? We asked Farresin to share some of his own favourite reading matter.
3 books that have shaped Formafantasma’s creative thinking
‘I vividly remember the impact this book had on me, even though I only understood a quarter of it when I read it at the age of 18. It is a book that also explores identity. But what I like about it is that it was overcoming binaries. It was not actually about technology as you would assume. It was this deep, post-human feminist manifesto and I think the implications of that book remained with me for a very long time.’
‘This is a book that I read within the last eight years, and it was the first book that vividly and sensually described other species in a way that made them feel alive. The book makes you look at other species differently.’
‘This is a queer French author who wrote several books and I really liked that when I was growing up reading his works, that I could see myself in them.’