A new book investigates the characters behind design
Milan-based design curator and journalist Maria Cristina Didero shines a light on people behind the design, with a new limited edition book designed by Prague-based creative collective OKOLO
‘My mantra is that design is about people, not about chairs,’ says Milan-based design curator and journalist Maria Cristina Didero. A fitting credo, considering Didero’s new book, People of Maria Cristina Didero, shifts objects to the edge of the spotlight and instead focuses its gaze on the characters behind them — and the interviewer herself.
Conceived by the Prague-based creative collective OKOLO — made up of curator Adam Štěch and graphic designers Matěj Činčera and Jan Kloss — the book compiles interviews and exhibition texts written by Didero over an eventful 15 years as an independent curator and design journalist. Each section is dedicated to a different designer, artist or curator and features the likes of Oki Sato, Maurizio Cattelan, Philippe Malouin and Studio 65. Though the book was launched last month in Milan at graphic design festival Mostro, the project originated as a pop-up exhibition during Prague Design Week last year.
In researching the project, Didero and Štěch dug deep into her archive and extracted the snippets of conversation that best defined her oeuvre. OKOLO’s design wizards then interpreted each text into a playful line drawing, creating a unique visual response to the designer’s work and Didero’s words. ‘This was really something that enriched me so much,’ she says of the opportunity to reflect on a life of writing about design and the relationships that have sprung from or been cemented by those chats, ‘my approach has always been about the intersection and the reciprocity of design, people and communication.’
But how does she feel about finally being the subject of her own show? ‘I had never been on the other side of the fence before,’ Didero admits of the experience, which turned the tables on the prolific curator, who, alongside holding the position of co-editor of Italy’s Icon Design magazine, has been at the helm of projects like SuperDesign, a book, exhibition and film on the Italian radical design movement, Vegan Design by Erez Nevi Pana presented in Milan in 2018 and Snarkitecture’s blockbuster Fun House retrospective at the National Building Museum that same year. ‘So I thought, now I can be demanding, just like my designers!’ she laughs at the idea of taking on the persona of a design diva, ‘but in the end, I wasn’t — I was very well behaved.’
Wallpaper* Newsletter
Receive our daily digest of inspiration, escapism and design stories from around the world direct to your inbox
Laura May Todd, Wallpaper's Milan Editor, based in the city, is a Canadian-born journalist covering design, architecture and style. She regularly contributes to a range of international publications, including T: The New York Times Style Magazine, Architectural Digest, Elle Decor, Azure and Sight Unseen, and is about to publish a book on Italian interiors.
-
Meet the Turner Prize 2024 shortlisted artists
The Turner Prize 2024 shortlisted artists are Pio Abad, Claudette Johnson, Jasleen Kaur and Delaine Le Bas
By Hannah Silver Published
-
The Brazilian Forest House injects art into a modernist-inspired, contemporary design
The Brazilian Forest House, designed in upstate São Paulo by FGMF, brings together nature and art
By Ellie Stathaki Published
-
Waiting room inspo: Inside Studioutte’s cinematic Sala D’Attesa at Milan Design Week
Studioutte’s Sala D’Attesa, staged in Nolo during Milan Design Week 2024, was a scenographic interior merging different design sensibilities
By Laura May Todd Published
-
Sir Kenneth Grange’s influential industrial designs are chronicled in a new book
‘Kenneth Grange: Designing the Modern World’ explores the life and work of the pioneering British industrial designer
By Jonathan Bell Published
-
LA gallery Blackman Cruz celebrates 30 years of ‘beauty, oddity, and specialness’
‘Beauty & Mischief: The Design Alchemy of Blackman Cruz’ is a new book that charts three decades of the LA antique and modern furniture gallery, with a foreword by Ryan Murphy
By Rosa Bertoli Published
-
From the spoon to the city: the design of Gianfranco Frattini
‘Gianfranco Frattini. Design 1955/2003’ is a new book chronicling the architect and designer’s work as well as his concept of designing ‘from the spoon to the city’
By Cristina Kiran Piotti Published
-
Inside Salvador Dalí’s eccentric Portlligat home
Salvador Dalí's eccentric Portlligat home is the subject of ‘Casa Dalí’, a new book by Apartamento with photography by Coco Capitán
By Rosa Bertoli Published
-
A new book charts the history of Black design
'Now You See Me! An Introduction to 100 Years of Black Design' is a new book by Charlene Prempeh covering fashion, architecture and design
By Shawn Adams Published
-
Ronan Bouroullec book merges art, design and everyday life
‘Ronan Bouroullec: Day After Day’, from Phaidon, is a visual inventory of the French designer’s work, artistic output and daily inspiration
By Rosa Bertoli Published
-
Arnold Schwarzenegger book launch rests on a Radical Design icon reimagined
This stand for the new Arnold Schwarzenegger book by Taschen was originally designed as a seating object, ‘Capitello’, by Franco Audrito’s Studio 65
By Rosa Bertoli Published
-
Rome Colosseum bookshop design is based on a light, modular system
The bookshops at Rome’s Colosseum are part of Migliore+Servetto’s new concept for Italian publishing house Electa
By Rosa Bertoli Published