Dare to gift
22 November, 2022And you, are you more of a giver or a receiver? We have set out to fantasise about what gift we would give to some of our referents, icons and masters of design. Extraordinary men and women. This is the result.
From imposition to fun. Because it is not the same to givea special gift to someone you know and admire, then to that distant relative who you see from Christmas to Christmas with your only relation is that distant memory… Because of this, for this holiday season at Diabla we want to go further: imagining the reaction of some of our masters, idols and icons to some our favourite designs. What would their response be? It is time to imagine.
What if everyday objects could work better if they were put to a radically different use? We would be amazed at some of the positive results we could find. Or at least that is what we would try to explain to a master of conceptual design like Bruno Munari.
Teresa Sapey has extrapolated the virtues of baseballs to create a fantastic pouf that naturally highlights what it would typically hide: COSTURAS (seams). Elegant yet simple, comfortable and light, it reinvents its essential elements in a playful way. Without this component, design would be a tedious discipline and would lose its charm.
It would be hard to find a more perfect design essential than the CLIP. Perfectly suited to its use, leaving no room for improvement ¡, it is the inspiration of José A. Gandía-Blasco Canales for one of Diabla’s most ingenious sets, from which just two elements compose a variety of furniture: from armchair + table to lounger, to sofa with as many seats as you could want.
In conclusion, José A. Gandía-Blasco has daredto transfer one of the most recognisable elements of cosmetics to furniture design: the LIPSTICK. Something completely out of the ordinary that would leave the magician Munari himself speechless. A set including an armchair and a side table with marked geometric shapes, and the capacity to transform a space with style.
What could you give the privileged author of more than 300 industrial design projects and almost 200 architectural projects? Achille Castiglioni has been able to do it all from such an original and surprising perspective that Italian design would not be understood without him. But at Diabla we think we have the answer.
Because Alejandra Gandía-Blasco was inspired by the master’s teachings to create the PATOSO pouf and reflect on the functionality of everyday objects that surround us to give them a twist. A design as free as some of Castiglioni’s most recognizable designs so light that it can be transported anywhere, so original that it goes beyond the limits of rooms The ideal choice if you are looking for unrestricted comfort, both outdoors and indoors.
We wouldn’t be too surprised if we found him sat around fantasizing about his next creation in a pink PATOSO… But if Achille Castiglioni is renowned and remembered for anything, it’s for his lighting design. So, to his list of gifts, we would add the PLISY UP lamp. A piece that is both functional and fun, perfect as a wildcard to set any atmosphere with its own personality.
Without Lilly Reich it would be impossible to understand industrial design today, in a female key: it is not in vain that the first director of the Deutscher Werkbund and one of the few female Bauhaus teachers was also the first protagonist of a monographic exhibition at the MoMA in New York. She also deserves all kinds of recognition as she was responsible for bringing the Mies van der Rohe archives down to the present day. As well as being the co-author of some of his most famous creations. There is no doubt that she too deserves a tribute from us. One with her name in capital letters: the LILLY armchair.
Democracia Estudio was inspired for its conception by the iconic curved lines of the Brno Barcelona chairs. With timeless geometry with a wide colour palette, which the designer would receive with pleasure and even pride as of a teacher devoted to her students. And if we had to place bets, we would go for red, whose presence stands out from the rest: the furniture is the true protagonist of Lilly Reich’s signature interiors.
