Lampada Gamma A nera di Serena Confalonieri per Mason Editions

Nata nel 1980 a Vimercate, Lombardia, Serena Confalionieri studia design di interni al Politecnico di Milano, prendendo il Master nel 2006. Dopo gli studi, lavora in diversi studi di architettura e di design a Milano, Barcellona, e Berlino, e collabora come assistente universitaria con il dipartimento di design degli interni del Politecnico di Milano. Nel 2011 fonda il proprio studio a Milano, dedicato al design di prodotti, tessile, al graphic design, alla direzione artistica e al design di interni.

Dall’apertura del suo studio a Milano, Confalonieri viaggia a lungo per portare a termine i suoi progetti. Nel 2014, per esempio, vince una borsa di studio dalla Banca del Monte di Lombardia per studiare e lavorare nell’industria tessile per sei mesi a New York. Nel 2015 partecipa ad un workshop di design a Chiapas, Messico, promosso dalla Mexican Design Week. Nel 2016 compie un tirocinio di un mese nell’azienda di porcellane Vista Alegre ad Ílhavo, in Portogallo.

Il lavoro di Confalonieri è da sempre caratterizzato da uno stile forte e grafico, sottolineato da forme, colori e consistenze audaci. Ad oggi, progetti degni di nota includono la sua Masai Collection, una serie di vasi e specchi colorati ed ispirati dalla cultura tribale; la Kyma Collection per Sambonet, che consiste di accessori da tavola in acciaio con forme ondulate; Architypes, una facciata, e installazione di interni grafica per Archiproducts a Milano, dai motivi audaci e geometrici; e le sedie Ula e Baba, ispirate alla moda per My Home Collection (tutto nel 2017). I clienti di Confalonieri includono CC-Tapis, Crate&Barrel USA, Nodus, Swatch, Wall&Deco, Arzberg, Gur, e Azimut Yachts, tra gli altri.

La designer ha ricevuto molti premi, tra cui una menzione speciale al Young&Design Awards (2014) per i progetti Santissimi e Cattedrale e una menzione speciale al German Design Awards (2016) per la sua Serena Collection per Arzberg. Inoltre ha vinto il Donna Premium 2017, promosso da Grazia e Lierac. Il suo lavoro è anche apparso in diverse pubblicazioni, tra cui The New York Times, Corriere della Sera, Wallpaper, Interni, L’Officiel, e Elle Décor.

Smart, sleek, and versatile, Mason Editions produce objects in sophisticated color palettes to generate poetic fusions of form and function.

Having built up a wide range of experience in the interior lighting sector, Italian entrepreneur Fabio Mason of Lucerpa Srl was keen to collaborate with different practitioners to produce a variety of elegant household objects. In 2016, he joined forces with three independent designers: Matteo Fiorini, who has a background in yachting, furniture, and exhibition design; Serena Confalonieri, who had been working in design practices in Milan, Barcelona and Berlin, and had been awarded at the German Design Awards 2016; and Martina Bartoli, who, having trained at the Glasgow School of Art and at ENSCI Les Ateliers, Paris, had worked as a product designer at Palomba Serafini Associati studio. Based in Castelfranco Veneto in the Veneto region of Italy, the company works with high quality suppliers and artisans – including glass-blowers and metalworkers – to generate sleek, sophisticated pieces that adapt to many different living environments and situations. The resulting collection, art directed by Confalonieri and Fiorini, in collaboration with Bartoli, comprises of a range of lamps, objects, and accessories characterized by simple, essential lines. Produced in a thoughtful palette of matte pastels, grays, teals, ruby-reds, and metallics, each design attends to both beauty and versatility.

The studio’s series of Touché trays, designed by Bartoli, combine an organically-shaped wooden base–round or oval–with a light metal tube applied to its circumference. This rests obediently along its surface before lifting up, generating handles in a deft, symmetrically undulating motion. Featuring bases of different colors, the series, when positioned next to each other, resembles the varied tablets of a paint box, bright with possibility. In keeping with this artistic inclination is the series of Mia vases, designed by Confalonieri. The soft lines of a round, terracotta or metal base (produced in an array of colors), are contrasted with enclosing grids of perforated sheet metal, generating an elegant, architectural contrast, reminiscent of the decorative effects of the Viennese Secession. A similarly artistic approach to product design is evident in the Fugit series of vases by Fiorini. Constructed from a metal sheet, it seems to fold in on itself, generating a series of angular enclosures, elevations, and apertures and resembles the rigid, straight-edged structure of a building, rather than a vessel. This playful, sculptural approach to function is evident in the more elaborate pieces produced by Mason Editions. Confalonieri’s Lotus table lamp–perched on a conical base of aluminum or brass–presents an abstracted, geometrically simplified depiction of the flower. Its blossoms are constructed from three different elements in blown glass, leading to an intimate, delicate atmosphere when operational. Fiorini’s Alby table, meanwhile, fuses the simple form of a three-legged side-table with a small, spherical lamp of etched white blown glass. In a playful maneuver, the light source seems to have such a weight as to deform the table’s surface-plane on which it rests, in a downward dip. Named in tribute to Albert Einstein, the piece is inspired by the physicist’s space-time studies, his famous Theory of Relativity, and by observations surrounding the movements of a photon.

Mason Editions participated in Milan Design Week 2018 and in Light Blowing, as part of Venice Glass Week 2018. Their work has been featured in a variety of international design journals, including ELLE Décor and Marie-Claire.