Designers Ilaria Corrieri and Federica Ghionoi are in branding business, i.e. by setting the stage for lasting experiences connected to a product, they ensure that consumers will unconsciously call their product to mind when shopping.
Their concept in a nut-shell: „We believe that you don’t need just a great image, you have to tell a great story“. Their current creations were commissioned by the Casone Group, one of the top ten in Italy’s natural stone market.
It turns out, customers are looking for something on the light side away from the grave and meaningful often passed on to items by their makers.
And voilà: „Ic(R)onic“, a pun embracing ironic and iconic.
A case in point: a coaster dubbed „Pencil“ (see photos above).
It speaks for itself, so clearly, in fact, that even we have nothing to add!
„Icelolly“, on the other hand is purely decorative. The designers point out that this popsicle won’t melt!
Or „Pill“: a scored pill not to be ingested but which might serve as a lid to pill boxes or for assembling building-block towers.
„Lego“ is yet another such example known to all but here waiting for new implementation.
Re-interpretation is the buzzword describing this type of bridging reference. The term appears in all press releases and with it, every artist hopes to give his work deeper meaning. This, too is part of the „great story“, to which we referred above.
Usually such re-interpretation is nothing but words, which the designers deliver: they concede that Ic(R)onic reverals the close relationship between plastic or ceramic, cousins of stone – a „visual-conceptual oxymoron“.
Wow! No-one has hitherto dressed up the fun of creativity so magniloquently while spoofing officials, journalists and intellectuals alike.
Lest we forget: the name of the studio is „Amen“ – tongue in cheek – but competitively chosen for branding. The word, is, after all, world famous and represents the moment of final convergence.
Only the church organ playing in fortissimo and heralding the blessing of the editor is missing.
Photos: Federica Ghinoi
(25.07.2015)