Brian Sironi

"What do you want to be when you grow up?" "A designer." On the Italian design and creativity scene, you are still young at 34. You are a "young designer", say the critics, with plenty of time to experiment and find your own direction. This no longer applies to Brian Sironi, born in 1977 and the youngest designer to win a prize at the 22nd Compasso d'Oro.

Sironi opened his design office in 2008 on his return to Italy after a degree from Milan Polytechnic, craft training in Brianza (where he was born), working with internationally famous architecture and design offices and experience gained in America. A long and intense upward climb that has won him major prizes and awards—from Germany's "IF Gold Award", recognising the 50 best designs worldwide, to the prestigious American "Good Design Award", the "Designpreis", sponsored by the German Ministry for Economics, the international "Red Dot Design Award" and the Compasso d'Oro. Sironi is already a successful "young designer" and a name to watch.

Confident and determined but also shy and reserved, he dislikes the limelight and never loses sight of the great masters of Italian design: "My models, those that most influence my work, are Vico Magistretti, the Castiglioni brothers and Munari. With regard to contemporaries, I follow the work of Yves Behar, Paolo Ullian and Lorenzo Damiani."

Just back from his holidays and not even unpacked, he is already at work for MACEF, the International Home Show (Milan, 8–11 September) and he lets Domus in on some secrets: "I'm presenting the S,M,L umbrella stand, produced by Diamatini & Domeniconi in the Creazioni Designer space. This is the final version after we presented the prototype at the Milan Furniture Fair. The umbrella stand has an additional function—a handy rack for those folding umbrellas that normally fall to the bottom of the stand or don't have a proper place. You'll also see prototypes of table objects, produced by Officinanove, including vases for dried flowers in painted metal based on the bent-metal production process. They will be called TUBASO." He is both tireless and determined. "I will use the MACEF showcase to give visibility to the Playkeys key rack I have now decided to self-produce starting from September."

After MACEF comes CERSAIE, the International Exhibition of Ceramic Tile and Bathroom Furnishings (Bologna, 20-24 September). "Bonomi and I will present the Virgo mixer tap, chronologically speaking the my latest design to go into production." Sironi has great faith in this design. "It is a 'female' mixer tap as the water flows straight out of the tap body, which does not have the protruding element that distinguishes all other mixer taps. Virgo is a pure, essential and simple object, where 'simple' doesn't mean easy but synthesis and reduction. Virgo was inspired by the form we give to the water entering our homes – that of the pipe. Conceptually, it is in fact a bent pipe, the perfect end piece for the pipes that bring water into houses; it retains the same shape without adding anything."

Sironi's creativity is hugely versatile—from home furnishings to tap-ware and even door handles. Produced by Frascio, we shall see these at the forthcoming MADE expo, the International Architecture and Building Show (Milan, 5–8 October). "I will present new handles and an innovative kit for sliding doors. It has taken the company years to develop this design and it will radically change the world of sliding-door handles. I became emotionally involved in this project. The brief given to me by the company was hugely ambitious and, after a brief initial sense of despair, I can now say I am really happy with the work done."

How do you work on a design? How do you get an idea? Three principles steer Sironi's work: "I try to add a new function to an existing object type, empathise with the user and, lastly, work on the production process." He sees the search for forms and empathy with the end user as musts. "Based on the assumption that today everything has already been designed and we need nothing more, I work to give meaning to my designs. To me, this means bringing radical or at least incremental innovation." Examples? "In the case of S,M,L, I added the function of the folding-umbrella rack. Empathising with users helped me pinpoint this 'lack' in umbrella stands and it also enabled me to conceive Playkeys. Understanding and being familiar with the production process of numerical control pipe-bending helped me create TUBASO—its construction process is clear and exploited in its purest simplicity."

The research and study of form were also the guiding principles behind Elica, a lamp designed for Martinelli Luce which won the Compasso d'Oro. "I wanted to design an LED table lamp. LEDs were to be the only light sources it could be made with. I didn't want to create a highly 'technical' lamp or a styled product. I wanted it to be long-lasting, so I was inspired by the pure forms of the great lamps of the past like Atollo, Eclisse and Cobra. My aim was to create a timeless lamp that could become iconic. The thickness of the arm was gauged for the LEDs: 8 mm is the minimum thickness that guarantees the LED housing and resistance to bending. The form of the arm was governed by its minimal thickness and its rounded end was dictated by the rotation. Then, how could I connect one circle to another larger circle and make the base stable? With a straight segment. The result is a cone. The height of the lamp and the length of the arm are based on the golden ratio, no technical details are visible and the arm of the lamp is the switch. You turn the arm to switch the lamp on and off, generating a surprise effect."

His latest designs have not been presented yet but Sironi is already thinking about his next projects. "I am working on upholstered furniture, in particular a sofa that I hope to have ready for the next Milan Furniture Fair." In the meanwhile, he has a new challenge—urban design. "I am developing urban furnishings, more specifically parking bollards. I am looking at the production process; the cost of raw materials keeps rising and I want to reduce the material without, of course, affecting function and efficacy."

He does not think the future lies in eco-design but he is extremely sensitive to materials and raw material costs. "I do not see one specific direction but numerous potential directions that do not claim to be the only way forward. Think of the phenomenon of self-production, which has developed hugely in recent years. I do, however, hope that industrial design does away with all those objects designed just for the magazines and provides a concrete and ethical response to product overcrowding and the exploitation of primary resources."
Greta La Rocca

Greta La Rocca is a web journalist focusing on architecture and design, with special interest in lighting. Among others, she edits Archilight.it, the first webzine on Light Culture.

Brian Sironi was born in Seregno in 1977. He graduated in Industrial Design from Milan Polytechnic. His academic studies were supplemented with craft training in his local area and he worked with the main names in Brianza furniture production (joiners, blacksmiths, carvers, upholsterers). After working with internationally famous designers and architectural offices, he moved to the United States where he completed his development process in cosmopolitan surroundings. He returned to Italy and opened his own design office in 2008. He focuses on product-user relationships and favours the search for form. In 2009, he won the Design dello Stupore award at the Young & Design competition. He received many more awards in 2010: the prestigious international iF Gold Award, an Honourable Mention at the Annual Design Review of the American I.D. magazine and inclusion in the ADI Design Index 2010, a pre-selection for participation in the 22nd ADI Compasso d'Oro. In the summer of 2011, he won the ADI Compasso d'Oro for the Elica lamp, designed for Martinelli Luce.