Fabrizio Chyrek Photographer pics and profile on Flickr.com.

The March issue of Casamica magazine contains a special insert entitled “Walls like pictures” dedicated to artistic ceramics for walls in which DesignTaleStudio’s Pareti d’Autore have been given a lot of editorial space.

Recently, we have been talking about interior designers who are still tied to a stereotypical vision of ceramics, a standardized material for floors, walls and every-day items such as vases, cups, small sculptures. In this sense, it is really pleasing to see that our innovative concept of “ceramic picture” is increasingly capturing the attention of journalists as well as that of the public.

Next 23 February, in Dusseldörf, we will see the opening of Euroshop, one of the most important European exhibition dedicated to retail architecture. Our stand will be in Hall 10, No. H34: those who are interested in visiting, can ask for an invitation by filling the form in the Join section.

Here are some photos of Costa Group stand at the recent SIGEP trade-fair in Rimini. The renowned interior design studio uses DesignTaleStudio ceramics both as wall covering and as decorative element, for innovative and trendy solutions in the field of restaurant and entertainment.

DesignTaleStudio will be present at SIGEP, the International trade-fair for ice-cream, confectionery and bakery industries opening today in Rimini.

DesignTaleStudio ceramics, in fact, cover the Costa Group stand (Pav. A3 – Stand 186), the renowned company leader in the planning of shops and venues dedicated to food and entertainment, a company that has already chosen our Pareti d’Autore for its most prestigious projects such as the Bar Gallery in Vicenza and Il Guscio in Genova.

We will post again in the next few days to tell you about the trade-fair and to show you some pictures of the stand.

Yesterday, we all awoke to some sad news: Ettore Sottsass, the dean and guru of Italian design, died as 2007 was coming to an end.

At the very time President Napolitano was giving his final year’s address to the Italian people, appealing to the Italian creativity, Sottsass passed away, and with him one of our greatest contemporary creative talents, an all round talent who was able to test himself constantly with modernity, to recreate himself and to be able to pit his wits against the greatest talents of the new generation. As were, at different times, Michele De Lucchi, Andrea Branzi, Matteo Thun and Aldo Cibic, to name but a few of the main “sons” of Sottsass.

We are pleased to remember that ceramic was one of the main materials Sottsass used to express himself: so, in this sense, it is worth remembering the longstanding partnership he had with Bitossi in the ‘50s and ‘60s, geared especially towards the creation of the vases and design pieces, that launched him towards the very summit of Italian design.

The links below may be of interest:

• Sottsass’s profile on Wikipedia and Design Addict
• A gallery of his work on Flickr
• Three interviews for Panorama, Rai Educational and Archimagazine
• The exhibition to celebrate his 90th birthday, Vorrei Sapere Perché, in Trieste, which runs until March 2008; and, less we forget, Ettore Sottsass – Work In Progress, held in London last Spring and which is the subject of the video at the start of the post, and the Design Museum at the Triennale in Milan
• The first reactions to the news of his death by some Italian bloggers: Designerblog, Designbuzz, Alfonso Fuggetta, Aurelio Valesi, Design Blog Sociale.

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In this video, Laura Villani, “director” of the Grand Design Tour event and Paolo Cesana, Refin’s marketing manager, present DesignTaleStudio ceramic slabs created by Karim Rashid. Works which perfectly fit the aesthetic tradition of the Egyptian designer and which can be used to clad and decorate both interiors and exteriors. The video was filmed at the art gallery “L’Ariete Artecontemporanea” in Bologna during the inaugural event of the Grand Design Tour.

Within the Catalogue section of Designtalestudio.com we have recently opened a brand-new section called Prototypes d’Autore, in which we have grouped all the ceramic slab projects that we developed in collaboration with famous artists and designers. We have called them “prototypes”, as they haven’t been produced yet although they have been available to show only during special events, such as Design On Stage at the Triennale exhibition in Milan in April 2007 or the forthcoming Grand Design Tour taking place in Bologna from October 3 to 6 2007.

Amongst the Prototypes d’Autore you will eventually see the complete series of drawings by Karim Rashid and Peter Halley; Elio Fiorucci’s “lips”; Michele De Lucchi’s totem; the crushed paper by Sandra Bermudez; Lucio Dalla’s fish and Romina Power’s Tao.

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The bathroom as a setting – as the mainstay of today’s modern homes: a space where to unwind, relax and give way to personal creativity. How to personalise a bathroom in a truly unique way? And be set free from the rationale of the everyday ceramic wall claddings? And… what has DesignTaleStudio got to do with this?
In a Milan tinged with Design, DesignTaleStudio and Ceramiche Flaminia launch their own provoking creation, their proposal for bathroom ambience. This new space comes to life with the cooperation of Flamina: a space where the Pareti d’Autore RMD create a prismatic almost “cocooning” effect thanks to a clever use of the lights. Even the bathroom flooring and fitting coverings are carried out in large sized porcelain stoneware.

You can see this creation at the Flaminia Showroom in Milan, 18, Via Solferino. For more in-depth details and photographs, click on the link to the Flaminia Showroom sheet in the “Projects” section.

We would like to take the opportunity of the new Project section activation in the DTS web-site to speak about the Gallery Bar, a venue in Vicenza designed by the Arredi Costa Group, using the RDM slabs by DesignTaleStudio.

This project has really enthralled me with its richness, the blending of shapes and materials, its light geometries… . The Gallery of 650 square meters with over 200 seats hosting up to 600 people, is a multipurpose area which can be used as a cafeteria, a restaurant, a cocktail bar or even a music bar.

The customers access the building through a majestic glass façade which veils the interiors increasing the customers’ expectations: when entering the bar they immediately feel enshrouded in lights sounds and videos as if in a parallel universe enclosed within this marvelous case. Many lounge zones, one after the other, are dressed with unusual and amusing sofas, up to the restaurant area where the tables are set out in a dynamic way and separated from the main area by a glass wall so that even the people enjoying dinner in the restaurant can interact with the bar-room atmosphere and be part of the events while tasting a sumptuous meal and sipping a glass of wine.

In such a context the RDM slabs by DesignTaleStudio stand out as the surface of the bar: a huge “monolith” with ethnic and brilliant traits cleverly emphasized and made almost surrealistic by lighting. This provides evidence of the super-versatility of DesignTaleStudio slabs also for “unconventional” uses such as volumes covering. This project is the very statement of the importance of large size tiles: the flooring, in fact, is covered with 60×120 size tiles perfectly matching the Pareti – an unimaginable opportunity until quite recently, bearing witness to the research and technological innovation of the ceramic industry over the past few years.

If you’d like to enjoy a drink in this evocative venue, plan a trip to Vicenza at the Gallery, dinner & dance. Meanwhile, if you are happy to settle for some photographs “only”, feel free to visit the sheet in the Project section.