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Known for her colourful designs, Serena Confalonieri explains what inspires her and the important role that color plays in creating community, safety and change in neighbourhoods. Serena loves to break taboos in the world of design as she talks about controversial topics in our society.
Milan-based designer and art director Serena Confalonieri works in the field of product, interior, graphic, and textile design, collaborating with companies and artisans of excellence both in Italy and abroad. Her strongly distinctive style is built around a graphic, colorful, and emotional vision, mixed with decorative hyperboles and geometric shapes. Unexpected subjects, chromatic and material combinations, together with anthropomorphic and zoomorphic inspirations, give life to projects where design is given an ironic twist and, vice versa, playfulness is at the root of the project.
Each project starts from an accurate research, which investigates the meaning and history of all elements involved while giving them a personal and fresh new interpretation. In particular, in-depth researches on surfaces are very crucial, in order to obtain impeccable results and a strong consistency with patterns, decorations and colors.
After graduating in Interior Design at Politecnico di Milano, Serena Confalonieri spent some time abroad, first in Barcelona and then in Berlin, where she collaborated with interior and graphic design studios. Over the first few years of her career, she also worked with several studios in Milan, plus with the Politecnico Faculty of Interior Design.
In 2013 she made her debut at Milan Design Week with a selection of products born from the collaboration with companies such as cc-tapis, Nodus, and Wall & Decò. Ever since then, she has been working for leading design and furniture companies including: Abate Zanetti, Altreforme, Archiproducts, Arzberg, Azimut Yachts, Carpet Edition, cc-tapis, Coin Casa Design, Comune di Milano, Crate & Barrel USA, .ex- novo, Fondazione Cologni, Gur, Holland & Sherry USA, Houtique, Karpeta, L'Opificio, Maliparmi, Mason Editions, Medulum, Mohebban, My Home Collection, Myyour, Nodus, Porro, Portego, Potocco, Saba Italia, Sambonet, Swatch, Texturae, Vetrofuso, Wall & Decò.
She has been the art director of design brand and realized many site specific set-ups and installations on behalf of the Municipality of Milan, Archiproducts, Marmomac Fair, and the San Siro Milan Hippodrome on the occasion of the "Leonardo Horse Project".
Alongside important institutions such as Triennale Milano, Fondazione Cologni, Michelangelo Foundation, Coin Casa and Elle Decor, Mexico Design Week, she took part in many projects characterized by the aim of guiding small and extraordinary artisanal realities towards more contemporary designs and products, in order to save and bring to light a know-how, otherwise at risk of extinction.
Serena has been selected for several design residencies and workshops both in Italy and abroad (USA, Mexico, Portugal). Her projects have been featured in many important publications and trade magazines (The New York Times, Corriere della Sera, Il Sole 24 ore, Wallpaper, Interni, Ottagono, L'Officiel, Elle Decor ...); also, she has received prestigious awards including two Honorable Mentions at the Young & Design Awards and the German Design Awards. Her works have been exhibited in well-respected design address
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Judith van Vliet: Welcome back, everyone, to the Color Authority podcasts. I'm going to be interviewing Serena Confalonieri. She's a Milan based designer and art director who works in the field of product interiors, graphics, textile design, and she works with companies and artisans of excellence both in Italy and abroad. She has a very distinctive style that is built around graphics, colors, and an emotional vision mixed with decorative, hyperboles and geometric shapes, unexpected subjects, chromatic and material combinations that are then morphed with anthropomorphic and zoomorphic inspiration. She gives life to projects where design is given a, let's say, ironic twist and vice versa. Playfulness is at the root of all her projects. Each project starts with her accurate research, which investigates the meaning and history of all elements involved, giving them a personal and fresh new interpretation. In particular, in depth research on the surfaces are very crucial to her. And of course, this is to obtain impeccable results with a strong consistency in pattern, decoration and color. I'm so happy to talk to you, Serena. How are you this morning?
Serena Confalonieri: I'm good with you, Judith?
Judith van Vliet: I'm great, actually. Oh, the sun is coming through right now in Milan. So we are both in Milan. Spring is starting. The colors are coming into our beautiful nature. So I guess it's a good day. Serena, I ask everybody the same question that I have on my podcast, and I think this is now the fourth season. It's been an important question. I know it's not the easiest question to be answering at all, but, Serena, obviously, I also want to know what color is to you.
Serena Confalonieri: I think color is the first thing that we see. We see it from a fire. We see the color before the shape. So I think that the color is something that sets an anticipation of the emotional tone of the interaction that we are going to have with this kind of object product space. It's a kind of anticipation of what experience we are going to have. Sometimes the experience is true to the color, and sometimes no, maybe it's tricky, but yeah, it kind of sets our expectations about the experience.
Judith van Vliet: And sometimes color is a surprise. Right. You never know. You have expectations about the color and about the product, about the environment. But sometimes the color is the surprise element.
Serena Confalonieri: Yeah. Because many times are used to supernatural spaces. And when we find color, when we are not expecting it, it's a big surprise. But I also think it comes to my mind that it's very tricky sometimes because I think about all these, I don't know, medical supplies for kids that are all painting bright colors just to tweak them in a good way. So, yes, it sets our expectation, but sometimes it's also quite tricky.
Judith van Vliet: Yeah. Color psychology, obviously, it has a certain meaning. So you react to colors in a certain way, and that's obviously what people want you to, but not always. Is color used in the correct way. I fully agree to that. Yeah. Sometimes you are tricked into especially with food. With food, obviously.
Serena Confalonieri: Yeah.
Judith van Vliet: You're tricked into eating things that possibly look healthy, but they're not always healthy. Color plays a very big in your role for everybody who's not known your work, I'm sure they're all going to be all over your Instagram right now. But people that know you, obviously they know that color is a big thing for you. How do you pick out color? So what relation does color have when you pick out you work a lot with patterns, you work with different textures and different materials. What relation does color have when you design in your projects?
Serena Confalonieri: Yeah, I have a strong identifying approach. Very graphic. My style is very recognisable and it's very colorful. My approach is based on an emotional approach. That means that I like like I said before, I like the color we said did they use the interaction that people will have with the kind of product or space and give a sensational feeling, something that will be remembered? Also, not just with color, but in general, with my design, I try to design something that sets an emotional feeling, an emotional connection with the people. And it's something I mean, that nowadays, good design is not only on a functional aspect. It is, of course, because it's the first thing that we have to keep in mind, but also since we are overwhelmed with a lot of products, a lot of things, I think that a good design is something that you want in one year, two years, just because you set the kind of emotional affection to it. And color, I mean, it's a big part of this.
Judith van Vliet: Yeah. How would you like people to feel when they look at a serena design? What's the emotion that you would like them to have?
Serena Confalonieri: Yeah, I want them to be happy and glad to see that kind of color and shape. Because, as I said, we are overwhelmed by functional, I mean, by objects that we feel like we need them, but at the end we don't. We have this kind of function and needs that somebody told us that we need to have, but it's not almost of the times. So, yeah, I want people to look at the objects that I design and feel something positive and happy and something that detach my object from all the other just functional ones.
Judith van Vliet: How can people recognise a true Serena? Like, what is your signature besides color? Or maybe it is color. Maybe you have one color that you always use, for example, or you have a set of colors.
Serena Confalonieri: It depends, because I think that with every client, with every project, even if my style is very strong and bold, I try to be always very respectful of what the client asks me, because there could be many levels of interaction between my style and the request of the clients. For example, I designed for Gebruder Thonet Vienna, which is a very historical, important brand, which has a very recognisable brand identity. So, yes, when I designed for them, I wasn't that bold with my reference colors and choices. I tried to follow what's the heritage, the image. And then from there, we work with different color options, but we started with the natural wood with black, with orange, which is the brand identifying colors. And then we work on many other palettes. But we started from there because I think that all the designers to make a good job to respect the client. And then in another level, I just finished interior design of a restaurant here in Milan. And also there, I like bold colors, but when you have to interact with something like food or the identity of a chef, which uses chilometer zero, very local food, he grows his own vegetables. I mean, I don't need to give my super to overwhelm the space and his approach, his philosophy, with my super bold approach, I have to make a step behind and listen to all of his requests. Then there are many levels. Until my production, the products that I design and I product, there, there's a different level. There I'm super free to do whatever I want to mix colors. I'm free to apply my own taste and my own stylistic code without any kind of compromises. But I think that even with color, yes, it's something that it's really recognisable in my work. But I have to compromise with clients. It's right to compromise with clients and companies and they need and what they like. Yeah.
Judith van Vliet: Was there ever a time where you think color was not appropriate? Like, that you would not use color generally? Do you think that there is actually designs that either you did or that there are certain type of clients that do not require color? And why is that?
Serena Confalonieri: Well, in general, if they ask me to work something, they know that I want to leave a black and white project. So, yes, as I said before, the client use less color with it was Kevin Eternal, because I started for a very neutral approach, and from the use of natural colors, black and brand colors, and then from there, we moved to more colors. I think that's the only company I work with that didn't require color for me.
Judith van Vliet: Yeah. Now, I would imagine that somebody connecting to you, obviously, they sort of know that you're going to come up with the color proposal. Well, when you work with color every day, and I think we are both this type of persons, it is a challenge sometimes to use color in a new way, to use color in an innovative way. What are new ways to use color, you think?
Serena Confalonieri: Well, I think that a new way, a different way to use color is not to use it in a commercial way. I mean, many times, color is just different options from the same object, from the same design, from the same furniture, according to, I don't know, the color of the year, the choices of the year, just options. I mean, one year could be pink and then green and whatever. Just a commercial approach. I think that the best way would be to find a way to find what's really the best color for that kind of project. Well, I understand that the commercial approach is something that we have to use, of course, to sell furniture, but sometimes there are some kind of products that I mean, they require a different kind of approach. And I completely understand I give an example now. I completely understand that it's something that you cannot apply on big productions, big companies, but it's something we can try to do. For example, in my Nebula collection, which is a self produced collection of blown glass, bong, water pipes, I think that the color is maybe it's the starting point of the collection. The characteristic is a mix of different colors because the inspiration is psychedelia from the so all these kind of psychedelic experiences with drugs, the connection with the universe. So when I designed this collection, for me, it was just the imaginary that I had in mind. It was related to that. And I started from that kind of technique, that kind of mixed colors. And from there, I designed the collection. And I don't think that with solid colors or neutral colors would look the same. You wouldn't have the same feeling, the same approach.
Judith van Vliet: Yeah, indeed. Because in this way, you obviously work with transparency because of the glass work. I think it's one of the projects that I like most of your collection. I think, in the same time, it is trendy, but it's also timeless because of the shapes that you've chosen and obviously the materials that you've chosen. Yes. I love your champagne cups.
Serena Confalonieri: Okay. Thank you.
Judith van Vliet: We just talked about glass. You work with a lot of different materials, but you often also mix them in a very unexpected way. Where do you find your inspiration for different materials or for mixing these creations? Like, is it on the streets? Is it traveling? How do you find these inspirations?
Serena Confalonieri: Mostly traveling. I'm really fond of ancient culture and civilisation, and they use the head of basic shapes and colors, which I think is the perception that we have right now is the same as the Asian people had. There are some basic feelings, basic thoughts, basic influences that didn't change in our mind. So I think that coming back to that kind of roots, that kind of simplified word, is the most direct way to approach with a wider range of people going back to the ancient science and simple shapes, and that's it. And yes, so travels. And I'm really fond of textile design, and I think that this comes from my mom, because when I was young, she was knitting and crocheting and cross stitching. She told me some of this because I had to admit I'm not very good with my hands, but I can cross stitch. Stitch and crochet and yeah, that's it. I always like this kind of handmade craft and is developing in their ears with my interest in the textile style field and maybe I think that's why my first important project with design, it was a rug. And for the first years I mostly work with rugs and wallpaper and all this world related to textile and graphic design, do you think?
Judith van Vliet: So how did you become actually who you are? How did you become a designer? Is it because of your mum?
Serena Confalonieri: I don't know. From the primary school, I was very fond of drawing, which now I'm really bad. I doubt I was really fond of passion. I didn't play with dolls as a family. Playing with dolls to pretend to have a family. Now I was teaching clothes for my dolls. I was into this. And then I don't know when I was a moment to choose my career. I started with architecture and then I moved into interior design. And that was okay, because in my mind there's always a mix I know the complete art person. There's always a mix of balance between art and rationality. So I think that design is the perfect mix. And to get where I am, it's just constancy and perseverance. That's it. Because you have to study a lot and be very serious about this, because you have to understand to make this job, it's not just something random. You have to build your culture basis and go on and go on. If you like it, if you're really passionate about it, you just go on. And you can be talented, of course, but it's not enough at all.
Judith van Vliet: You need to keep working, right? You need to keep persisting, moving.
Serena Confalonieri: Yeah, maybe if you are exceptional talent, that's it, it's done, it's perfect. I'm not I need to keep working. I had to build all of this and that's fine. I'm a nerd. I like to study. I like to go on this way.
Judith van Vliet: Well, in the meantime, you've become an internationally known designer from out of Italy. How do you think your designs are perceived internationally? Are they perceived as typical Italian or do you see yourself as an Italian designer?
Serena Confalonieri: I think that the approach is very Italian, what they teach us at the university here we are studying a lot about Monari and Edin Somali. It's a very serious approach based on research and a very strong process that leads to the final product. So I mean, for the process, yes. I hope they can see that there is this kind of process and I don't know, I think that mostly is what I told you before. Working with simple colors and shapes and emotional designs gets to the people because it's just emotions and simple shapes. Nothing complicated. Something that even kids or seniors can understand. It's universal. It's a universal language.
Judith van Vliet: So we've seen a lot of digital design, and now with salon and mobile coming up, I guess there's a lot of designers that obviously are also designing NFT's. They're going online. What is your personal opinion on digital design and how that relates to generally the world of design? How do you think the physical relates with the digital?
Serena Confalonieri: Well, I don't really understand what's the line, the point between one and the other, because sometimes I think, well, they are able to build this kind of imaginary landscapes that it's impossible to make in real life. So I think, well, it's fine. It's a way to unleash completely your creativity and create brand new world. Wow, it's perfect. But then I think about also projects that were born as NFP. I don't remember the name of the armchair that has been presented by Mui. The one with all these pink? Exactly, yes. And I think that it was designed as NFP and then became real. So I think also that it's interesting and very stimulating because something which is not meant to be real. So maybe you jump something that he didn't think about how exactly make it a real life and then became real out of a kind of imagination who wasn't linked to the technique most structured part. I think it's amazing. I think that it could be something that move us even more further with our creativity and imagination and break some links. The idea of the construction as something that hold us, is that something what.
Judith van Vliet: You are perhaps working on? Are you working on maybe?
Serena Confalonieri: No, everybody's telling me that I should because it's the future. Well, I would say. But what I think is interesting is something like this. I mean, something which is not connected to reality can be real or not, because many people told me you should try to sell your pieces, your Vedas, as like virtual pieces. But I don't find it interesting to have something that you already created in real life and you just sell it as virtual pieces. I think the key is to find something that works there and it's perfect. Maybe it could work there in real life, but it just works there and must be innovative for that kind of world. I have to think about it. It's not easy because it's another computer.
Judith van Vliet: Set of tools, I guess, also designing for the digital world. It requires different skill sets and you are very hands on, especially because you work with textiles, you did the crochet and everything like that. It's different to do something that's completely and only digital.
Serena Confalonieri: Yes, because many times when you are designing, you are already thinking about how to make it. So it's not easy to leave behind that kind of idea of mental structure.
Judith van Vliet: So lately you've been commissioned by the city of Milan to bring more color in neighbourhoods and to help these communities and hopefully bring along change. How important are those projects for you? And do you really think that color can perhaps change life in these communities?
Serena Confalonieri: Well, they have been very important to me because I mean, you are used to work with companies and on small scale, on small scale and then work on a bigger scale and listen really first hand to the needs and the necessities of people working in this kind of neighbourhood. Well, it's really important, it's not a different approach, but it's something more real. And in this case, just last week I was talking at a panel of polytechnic of Milan about gender in urban planning in the city of Milan and that was really interesting and they called me, they asked me to talk about this project and I never think about it. There was a gender approach in this design. But yeah, it's still because most of the times in the project I work with, in the field of tactical urbanism, they rise from necessities of caregivers, which are mainly women still. And in this project, mainly in the square in Quatrogiaro, the project Quatrogiaro I gave an answer to these questions of all these women, which are the caregivers and take care of the kids and who needed a safe. Place outside of a primary school where they can stay when they were they bring the kids in the morning when they take the kids in the afternoon and the kids can stay now can stay there and play or the afternoon in this piazza that before was a parking lot. And yes, it's something very important because completely change the behaviour of people in these kind of places and also not just for the parents, for the mothers and for the kids, but also for people just live in the neighbourhood that realize that they own these public spaces. They are not just something that municipality gives us, it's something that really we own and we have to take care of. So when there was a parking lot there, it was always full of garbage, neglected and now they have trees, they have benches, they have vegetable gardens, all of these colors and so they are more engaged in taking care of this and feel like these places are something that they really own.
Judith van Vliet: Can you explain a little bit about the design that you in the end applied the graphics and the colors so listening to what the needs were of this neighbourhood, how did you then translate that into what in the end is a beautiful moral we're talking about the.
Serena Confalonieri: Piazza or the morale?
Judith van Vliet: Both of them, yeah, because there's two different projects, right?
Serena Confalonieri: Yes, for the piazza outside this primary school I work with mostly primary colors, very basic colors. The design was tractor on a grid that was followed the different functions on the piazza so I had to leave space for the passage of ambulances and this kind of functional needs. I make a smaller grid for the functional parts with games and bicycle racks and green and vegetable gardens, and then a smaller grid for the social distancing just outside of the school doors. And as for the shapes and the colors, I like to resemble papers of the notebook with the square lines and the simple shapes that the kids learn to design, to draw when they are at primary school. It was something that I think it was suitable for, something for a space for kids, but also came from a necessity. Because I have to make a very simple design, a very simple graphic, because it was something that was going to be created not by professionals, but the same neighbours, students and parents and volunteers from other schools. So it's something that we made in one weekend, two days and a half. And I was the only professional doing this job. So it must be something that I was able to organise and make very well. Not quickly, but it has to be easy because the kids were painting and also the parents. But they are all people that are doing completely different job.
Judith van Vliet: But it's nice. So you actually did it with the people of the community, with the people of the neighbourhood and the children?
Serena Confalonieri: Yes, this is the important thing because once they work on it, they feel it like they own space. They own it and they want to go on taking care of this because they did it.
Judith van Vliet: Yeah, that's important. So they're part of it and then obviously they won't litter it again with garbage, graffiti and all of that. Of course. So you are actually the true example of some other designers and artists that actually are not only thinking about the commercial side of their work, of course, but also the social side and how your designs, your graphics can actually change life in these communities.
Serena Confalonieri: Yeah, and I'm really glad about it. I would like to go on with this kind of project because first of all, they're really satisfying for me because I really feel that I'm doing something that really matters. It's a small piece, but matters in some way. And also they bring joy. I mean, when I was doing the Moral, I was checking the works. There are all people scaffolding painting the Moral. I was there checking the works, that everything was going in the right way and I saw people passing by, looking up and smiling. That was the best that was the best moment. Yes. Because even today I live pretty close to this mural. When I'm there and I see people looking at it and smiling, it's really nice because it's a different way to live. That small part of the city changes something in people and gives them something.
Judith van Vliet: So when you're having a bad day, we know where we can find you. You're sitting on the bench in your own design.
Serena Confalonieri: While looking at other people looking at it, this is the most satisfying.
Judith van Vliet: Exactly. I can totally imagine that. So I guess this was a dream project of yours. But what would you really dream of designing? What would be your dream come true?
Serena Confalonieri: I would like to explore more on mostly interiors, but also products that hasn't been explored much by design. I mean, I designed a neighbourhood collection that were bombs so related to the theme of drugs, the legalisation of marijuana, et cetera. So another team, which is not well, not at all, but not so much exploit, is death. There is a lot to do and a lot to bring, at least not in Europe. Not in Europe, you're right, because in Europe, as much as drugs is still a big taboo. And I think that there is a lot to bring on products, I mean, words on spaces. I think that it's really possible to improve the perception and experience of these important moments with design. Another dim project will be the interior design of a car. Because that's another point, because many people spend hours in their cars every day and it's still super standard and gray and there's no way of personalisation there's nothing that you can bring. I mean, for many people, cars, interiors of the cars are like best with a work, actually, and they can't even bring a picture, a flower, something, or have the textiles of the car in a color that like because my interiors are great. This wasn't any kind of other option except for leather. This could be very nice. So I would like to work in this kind of feet, which are not designed for design, I mean design for furniture or design.
Judith van Vliet: So it's pushing the boundary. You want to push your own boundary as well. Also the boundaries of design, but also the boundary of taboo, the boundary of who you are as Serena.
Serena Confalonieri: Yeah, the boundaries of behaviours. Because design, I think that the purpose of design is also changing the behaviours. We can do it with small things, with product design, industrial design, with adding functions, but also we can change the behaviour and experience of many spaces and places and we are not doing it. I think also coming back to the theme of that yeah, I think that in us we can find some examples. But here in Europe, no. I don't know why.
Judith van Vliet: I think death generally is a difficult topic. So we actually just yesterday they made the urn for my father, for my father's ashes. And my mom designed the urn together with my father's sister, who's an artist. So we used the ginkgo Bilbao. So the tree, which was my dad's favourite tree, and we designed it and we actually made our own urn because the urn that we got was just.
Serena Confalonieri: The options are terrible. Yes. The idea came to me because when I was thinking about, okay, when I die, we need to have a place to put my ashes, and I don't want to be put in none of those terrible square marble black vases. Not at all. And I don't want my mom and or my dad to be there, not at all.
Judith van Vliet: So, yes, that's where inspiration comes from. When actually death happens or occurs or you start thinking about it, you're like, Wait a minute. No, not like this.
Serena Confalonieri: Yeah.
Judith van Vliet: What is next for your Siena? What's your next project? What are you doing for Milan design week?
Serena Confalonieri: Yes, in one month, we are again in that week of the year. And then well, I'm going to have some not so typical project because I don't have many products of furniture. I work with an Italian company in some concrete panels, the concrete panels, which is a new material for me. And then I'm going to have two set ups. One for an exclusive event for an Australian company, which is called Dulux. And then another one for this is an old project that is coming out now. I designed the new menus for Accanto restaurant, which is the restaurant of Principe di Savoia hotel. So we're going to have this presentation, and I'm going to design a setup all made with food. Another brand new thing for me. What else? Yeah, I started teaching this year at Polytechnic School of design. And we are designing a piazza with the students, and we're going to make it real during that week.
Judith van Vliet: So another social project with the community to redesign another square.
Serena Confalonieri: Yeah. That's exciting. To create a new connection between the school and this square and to create we want to represent all of the culture while living in that neighbourhood, which is Bovisa, which is a very mixed cultural neighbourhood. And, yeah, it's very interesting. Still a work in progress, but yeah, I'm very happy of it.
Judith van Vliet: Yeah, I think a lot of people were looking out for what you're going to be doing next. So people are definitely excited. And I think this is the beautiful, of course, of when you do these type of squares or murals, everybody can come and see them, so they can come and their own Serena design in the city of Milan.
Serena Confalonieri: Yeah. And also, it's something that it lasts, and it's not just one week or just one product that you're going to see online. And that's it. It's something that something that affects many people. And, yeah, I'm really happy with it.
Judith van Vliet: Well, congratulations on all of those projects, and best of luck for Milan Design Week. But we are going to see each other, of course, in some of the events. And thank you for being part on the color authority.
Serena Confalonieri: Thank you, Judith. Have a nice day.
Judith van Vliet: Bye. Hope you enjoyed this last episode. If you are a fan of the Color Authority podcast, please let us know by reviewing and rating our show on whichever platform you're listening on. The next episode is coming out next month, and in the. Meantime, I'm wishing you a wonderful, colourful day.