Paola Navone

The free design of Paola Navone - creator of the DesignerBox #60

Milanese design icon and personality Paola Navona has been blowing a wind of freedom on contemporary creation for more than 30 years. On the occasion of the release of her Designerbox, we invite you to discover the generous and colourful universe of this «magician of the object».

Always where no one expects her, the creator will have never ceased to free herself from the limits that one could impose and the labels that one would like to stick to her.
From design to architecture or scenography, the designer affirms to work on instinct. A collection for MONOPRIX with MERCI concept Store, an armchair for POLIFORM, a series of kitchen accessories for SERAX, the design of the latest SWATCH, wallpapers for NLXL, a design hotel in Miami… From crafts to industry, Paola Navone is at home everywhere, totally FREE …

«Inspiration is above all an attitude »

«Paola Navone style»? Eclectic? … It would be very difficult to sum up Paola Navone’s universe in a simple word as the notion of limit seems to be banished from her creative language. We sometimes manage to recognize certain graphic «gimmicks» like sh (its fetish animal and its astrological sign) or the use of a dot pattern that we can nd from time to time in its collections. But it is probably to better surprise us next time with an installation or a furniture of immaculate sobriety like the Ivy outdoor furniture series for EMU.

 

Bisazza mosaic design by Paola Navone

 

If we try to look closer, we might find the keys to such a rich language in the creator’s own life.The Taste for freedom. Her undoubtedly innate creativity was surely developed with Alesandro Mendini, Ettore Sottsas & other mentors with whom she start her carrier at the Alchimia studio in 1979. Her versatility and her ability to be at ease on all subjects will no doubt also have been boosted by her stays in Asia. A continent where the Milanese woman spent half of her life, impregnating herself with a radically different way of life. She loves antiquiting and has a singular relationship with objects, ancient and modern, with a history. But is that enough to understand what makes Paola Navone run ?

 

Ghost Graphique sofa design by Paola Navone

 «I love cooking but I don’t have clients in the food business, so I have to design chairs to survive,» she confess with a smile. Paola Navone takes responsibility for devouring everything around her, often comparing design to cooking, it is perhaps precisely in the joyfully epicurean personality, that we will find some answers.

 

Menu kitchen design by Paola Navone

 

Decomplexed, working on instinct, with chance encounters, she is a master in the art of mixing materials, like mixing ingredients. The designer dares everything and even goes to recycle or divert products like the «imperfect» serie created for the porcelain maker Richard Ginori: Plates with defects that she will redecorate by hand, successfully exhibited and sold in the very select concept store Parisien MERCI.

« Recycling is often associated with something sad or past, when it can be positive and beautiful ».

From unique pieces to industrial production, Paola Navone also loves to provoke singular situations as for the collection of outdoor furniture for EMU, when she imagines the plants climbing into the white metal mesh to finish the shape of the armchair.With a strong respect for materials and a clear taste for durable objects, Paola Navone seeks above all to «create friendly objects, capable of being forgotten in an house». « I love furniture that sits in a space like it’s always been there ! » It is in this spirit that Paola Navone imagined Linus for Designerbox. A graphic and friendly object that we immediately adopt because it has the ability to accompany us through the differents moments of our daily lives.

See Paola Navone online shop, by clicking here

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