27 Sep My 2019
This year is now coming to an end, 24 hours or something and we will say hello to 2020.
Like every year I try to put down what happened to see if I did enough and well.
To be a designer is something that requires a lot of effort, but it can give a lot of satisfaction.
Resiliency, costancy and creativity together are the receipe to survive in a creative field that needs to be tough and gentle at the same time.
I started the year with my first visit at Maison & Objet in Paris.
It was in January, a very cold period and with the Yellow Gilet movement at its climax, but Paris is always beautiful and cozy.
I visited a cool and friendly fair with a lot of emerging brands while making also some new friends, in fact, very soon, you will see a new product whose story started exactly in those days.
Those people who came in Montone during my exhibition already saw it, but I will show you some images in the next months.
Just back in Italy, it was in February, I attended one of the most important conference in my design career.
I was invited among the 10 best under 30 italian designers to speak at the Triennale Milano during Un Posto Dove Stare Bene by Design People Milano (Virginio Briatore, Giulio Iacchetti).
It was a good place to meet the best guys around, all of them were cool.
It was great because I explained my design method with a red pepper. You can see the whole thing at this link.
In March my studio launched a new product called Tongue, a modular bottle rack designed in collaboration with Hiro.
I really like that product, it helped me to better understand what to do with my future. Hiro is a platform for indipendent designers and it gave me the chance to enjoy some self-production.
I really liked it, maybe in the future you will see some product that can be bought directly from the studio.
April was the watershed of my life.
I got in my 30’s.
Nothing else to say, I am a man now.
Now a sober picture of my exclusive crazy 30yo party.
In May I got published by Interni once again (the first time was in December 2018).
It was with my beloved Steelo chair in a fancy orange on a basket parquet.
Love it.
You can see more publications in the PRESS section of my website.
Those who know me enough are aware that I go to China very often.
I teach Design Methods at Sichuan Normal University in Chengdu and in June I was there once again.
Sometimes I write about my trips in China and this one was really pleasent because I met a lot of nice people during those sunny days.
Yeah, I said sunny, because the sun is not something that you see very often there, but I appreciate the attempt of the country to reduce the CO2 emissions. The good weather is symptom that something is happening.
In July I challanged my self designing tech products.
Soul_Tech is my first design with electronic technology inside.
You can see a lot about this collection in blogs like Designboom and Designmilk, I also had a great interview about it with Elena Cattaneo. Also in my blog you can have a good focus on how I designed this collection.
This collection has been showcased in Guardiagrele during the whole 2019 summer.
This 2019 was important for me also because of my first indipendent exhibition.
I was given a space during the summer events in Montone and I decided to showcase “Tubular”.
It was a selection of products I created starting from a metal tube.
People who go in Montone during August are just people who want to spend a nice evening, so I tryed to give a design lesson on the role of the designer in the most easy and enjoyable way.
In September I tried to set up my online precence with a facebook/instagram calendar showcasing some of my products in enviroments designed by me, just to have fun and create engagement.
A total failure!
So I decided to quit and just show new products and relevant things on my social networks.
Do you agree with me or you want to see more of my designer life? Let me know sending an email at info@marioalessiani.com
In the meantime I was designing my new website helped by Renma, a friend of mine, who developed the invisible net of these web pages. In fact, in October, we launched this new website to renew a bit my communication and to be more connected with people who come to see my works.
We added a beautiful picture by Chiara Martini on the homepage, opened a blog and inserted a press page.
Hope you enjoy browsing here.
In November I was in China once again.
My school moved to a new campus, 75 minutes away from my usual hotel!
It was quite a pain to go out every morning very early, but it gave me time to read a lot of books.
I also understood that it is time for me to learn a bit of Chinese, almost no one in Chengdu knows English and I was not able to read most of menus at restaurants.
You have no idea of what I’ve eaten (neither do I). If you have suggestions of how to find the courage to star studing one of the most complicated language on Earth, please share.
Now it is December, and it is over.
This year was not bad at all and I am warming up my muscles for 2020 announcing that, in the next days, I will upload images of my nutcracker for Hiro, born from a collaboration for the Milan Design Week 2019 and now ready to be seen officially online.
Have a happy new year!