Interview with Roberto and Fabiana

We decided to become designers for the love of curiosity and to explore the limits of our ideas in the practical and tangible scale of the object design industry.

It was always a personal choice, maybe supported by our frustration when we looked around for modern good quality products for our architectural projects here in Kenya and we couldn’t find anything at a reasonable price.

We specially like to work on light and household products

Just do it, again and again until you find yourself in your design

A great designer tends to break any established boundary by pushing the limits of production techniques and technology.

We all live in a narcissist society so the first aspect we all analyses is the aesthetic quality of an object. The shape of a product can attract you in many different ways, from pleasure to disgust or curiosity and it immediately establish with the consumer an emotional link. The analysis on the functionality of the product come immediately after or even before according to Fabiana, as we believe that even the nicest object without even the simplest functionality is utterly useless. Otherwise, after our experience as volunteers for some community projects in Kenya we also recognize the importance of the positive impact that a product can have in every community.

Good design is timeless, therefore it always retain a value, either emotional or economical.

We always dream to design for brands like Artemide or Flos or to some extent Ikea

A big light installation for a contemporary space made of natural materials coupled with advanced lighting technologies.

Humbleness, curiosity and perseverance

Any of the Italian design masters of the sixties and seventies.

Icons like Parentesi or Arco the lamps designed by Achille Castiglioni or Eclisse by Vico Magistretti among many other.

Keep researching, travel a lot and build your network with other professionals from different disciplines.

We started as Architects so if it wouldn’t have been for our curiosity which supported our attempt to be designers, we clearly would have kept working in the architectural field.
Otherwise I (Roberto) would have pursued my dream to be a famous musician.

To design is to answer to a necessity with a functional and aesthetically elegant solution

The organizers at Afrika Handmade Gallery gave us a huge boost of confidence and our friends and relatives always supported us

The administration of our Company and the business side of our work has been and still are two of the biggest obstacle in our career.

It always depend on the context, the type of product and the results you want to achieve

Our responsibilities are enormous, as the creators of products used by the masses we have the chance to show how to live a comfortable and pleasant life using object that have a minimal impact on the environment in a cradle to cradle production setup and which can possibly enhance the quality of life of the community

we are facing a major environmental and economic crisis and part of the problem is to be found in the mechanisms of mass production, if we want to increase our chances to survive we have to re-think our approach to industrial manufacturing, for example by using materials directly harvested from nature and by following a "producing on demand" philosophy

Time varies depending on the emotional attachment to that particular design

Our design process usually start with a conversation during a meal, with one of us rushing to look for a piece of paper and a pen, then follow a drawing, after that a small scale model to understand feasibility and then boom... the sky is the limit!

Just do it, again and again until you find yourself in your design

Powerful iconic designs always sets the trends, all the others just follow it.

Technology is playing a marginal role in our latest design; the only industrialized components are the electrical fittings. Our designs though are still evolving to integrate more hi-tech and sophisticated components.

Hands, pencils and paper for the concept sketches and working drawings.
Simple handmade techniques and materials are at the core of our production line.

Textures, colours and emotional values are all enhancing the experience of the customer.

Most of the time we try to imagine the manufacturing process behind it’s realization

We are open minded and we believe that the future is in the collaboration of many disciplines and expertise.

Most of the Italian design masters of the sixties and seventies.
Leonardo Da Vinci if I really could travel in the past.

Honestly this is our first awards and we’re still speechless but it doesn’t seem hard at all.

The joy of our son when we gave him is Giraffe Chair which we specially designed for him.

Our surprised faces when we received the invitation to exhibit our products at the Afrika Handmade Gallery

The shock when we realized that we won the Silver medal in the A’Award competition

Frankly we would have never imagined it

We will probably become extinct or we will have colonized other planets, meanwhile on Earth Nature will repossess its own spaces

Our architecture and design company is based in Mombasa where we landed 5 years ago after about 10 years of professional experience around the world, mainly in Italy, Argentina, UK and USA.
We both share the strong belief that nature is offering us everything we need to live a comfortable life therefore we should re-discover any humble and simple natural material and use it directly harvested from the nature as a solution for the impact that the design industry has on the environment.

To design is to answer to a necessity with a functional and aesthetically elegant solution

We specially like to work on light and household products

Our favorite designs are always characterized by simplicity and subtle elegance

Our first works were focused mainly on corporate identity and graphic design

We share a deep love for natural materials, especially when harvested directly from nature and used with minimal modifications.

We both love to travel and our most creative moments happen probably during a visit to different countries and cultures.

As Architect we're both interested in the aesthetic quality of any object and at the same time I (Roberto) am more interested in technical details while Fabiana is the one with the practical sense and practical approach to production.
We always said we improve each other designs.

Happiness, euphoria, stress, apathy all in a continuous cycle.
for me (Fabiana) whenever I have an idea, I feel the urgency of stopping whatever I'm doing to start drawing in the air with my finger.

Pride and joy, relief and a strong desire to start again.

Define the term "successful"....
In an ideal world the "successful" formula is based on a mix of aesthetic, practical, cultural, social and economical factors.
In the real world when a product is successful in terms of sales percentages, it doesn't necessarily mean that it's the best (if at all) design from an aesthetic and technical point of view, it doesn't even mean that it brought a positive social and cultural improvement to the community.

We all live in a narcissist society so the first aspect we all analyse is the aesthetic quality of an object.
The shape of a product can attract you in many different way, from pleasure to disgust or curiosity and it immediately establish with the consumer an emotional link.
The analysis on the functionality of the product come immediately after or even before according to Fabiana, as we believe that even the nicest object without even the simplest functionality is utterly useless.
Otherwise, after our experience as volunteers for some community projects in Kenya we also recognize the importance of the positive impact that a product can have in every community.

Our responsibilities are enormous, as the creators of products used by the masses we have the chance to show how to live a comfortable and pleasant life using object that have a minimal impact on the environment in a cradle to cradle production setup.

The design industry has been deeply marked by the spread of academic education. Today we see thousand and thousand of designers around the world and in some way we lost that magical appeal that an object of design could have had for example in the sixties.
On the other hand we are facing a major environmental and economical crisis and part of the problem is to be found in the mechanisms of mass production, if we want to increase our chances to survive we have to re-think our approach to industrial manufacturing, for example by using materials directly harvested from nature and by following a "producing on demand" philosophy

Our last exhibition was at the Aliance Francaise in Nairobi whit our Baobab Tree installation holding more than 30 pendant lights and the equivalent amount of Baobab decors.

We take our inspiration from multiple disciplines: literature, art, cinema, biology, technology, fashion, through books, movies, magazines, internet and travels.
Recently though has been the process of observing the nature and its biological patterns which mostly influenced our design.

DIY style ah ah...no, seriously, we both come from an architectural professional background and we never studied product design so we never think in term of style. Our style is the result of the materialization of our concepts through the less complex production process we can use.

We currently live in Kenya but we both come from Latin countries (Italy and Argentina) and of course we have been deeply affected by our cultures, full of historical and artistic marvels.
In particular the Italian design culture had a profound impact in the design industry in the last century and it's sometime difficult to overcome the burden of such a prestigious heritage.
At the moment though the hardest part of our job is related to the lack of "modern" design culture in Kenya and consequently the lack of workmanship and hi-end production facilities.

We haven't yet work with other companies , but we are open minded and we believe that the future is in the collaboration of many disciplines and expertise.

Our design process usually start with a conversation during a meal, with one of us rushing to look for a piece of paper and a pen, then follow a drawing, after that a small scale model to understand feasibility and then boom... the sky is the limit!

the giraffe chair we built for our son, the table we designed with as stump cut from a tree which fell down in one of the first compounds we lived in here in Kenya, the hedgehog pencil holder made from a Baobab tree pod, a lamp made with just one hanging coconut palm leaf, and our plywood minimalist sofa set.

Just do it, again and again until you find yourself in your design

Humbleness and curiosity

Like a tightrope walker

Most of our clients are private individual or entertainment and food businesses

We are expanding our production line to maximize our sales with the aim of increasing the strength of our company

Most of the time the initial concept comes from our individual creative effort, the concept is then refined though a collaborative process.

You can contact us directly by phone at +254704055762 though we prefer to be contacted by email at our company address seedlingkenya@gmail.com