Patrick Norguet

I’m curious to hear your reflections comparing/contrasting two of your iconic designs: the Rainbow chair, which Capellini produced in 2000, and the DAN chair, which you recently launched in collaboration with Zanotta. One marks the beginning of your career and approach then, and the other reflects your thinking and approach today.

Yes indeed—Twenty years have elapsed between these two projects. The Rainbow chair was an artistic project, born from an unconstrained vision. I designed and produced five copies, which allowed me to start a dialogue with an industrialist. Meeting Giulio Cappellini led me from the art world to the world of industry. It is an object that communicates good energy, and it allowed me to start my career.

The DAN chair (which launched last June for Zanotta) summarizes my work and what I like to draw quite well. It is a form of radicalism that is both functional and timeless without forgetting a unique comfort. As with any project that seems simple, DAN required a lot of research to solve many equations. I love this chair.

What was it like working with Zanotta?

The project development was simple: it began with meeting a brand whose heritage represents for me the very essence of my work and my way of approaching design. Zanotta is one of the few brands that has known in its history to write a page of modernity at the time of Pop culture, like the Quaderna table designed by the Italian anti-design group, Superstudio, or the work of Castiglioni. 

The DAN chair is part of this story. The owner of Zanotta invited me to visit the factory two years ago. What I particularly liked was that he didn't give me a specific brief, but rather asked me to design a ZANOTTA product. 

What is the significance of the word “Dialogues” to you?

“Dialogues” essentially sums up my work. Throughout my career, I’ve noted that the success of projects has always been based on the quality of the dialogues I have with my clients. It’s easy to be creative or to have ideas—the difficult thing is to turn ideas into a project or product. For that, the quality of communication between those involved in a project is the key to the success of the product being developed. The quality of a project thus depends on the quality of the dialogue.

Further, the word “dialogue” has additional relevance to my work; the dialogues of ideas, shapes, materials, colors, bodies of emotions... I like this word because it has the strength to solve the equations of problems and sometimes find the solutions. 

You’ve mentioned that you strive to create designs that are timeless. How do you interpret the concept of “timeless design”?

To borrow a quote from Dieter Rams, "Good design is sustainable". I love cultures and their differences. I am a sponge who needs to understand and absorb the codes that make up cultural diversity. My job is to find the equation that gives an object an anchor in a culture, an anchor in time. I think good design is honest, discreet, and above all, durable. Hence the notion of timelessness. 

The objects are made for durability (the opposite being fashion). So I spend a lot of time assembling and disassembling my projects to find the best way to finalize them. It's like a writer who searches for the right words to convey ideas and emotions to the reader. An object becomes timeless when it communicates a vision, I like this approach to modernity.