The concept of the beauty of objects linked to the communication it takes to make people grasp their essence.

In a country that has exported Made in Italy design all over the world, setting the standard, does the cult of beauty still exist? Or are characteristics such as functionality and simplicity more favored today?

Icone luce art director Giulio Cappellini discussed this with designer, architect and university professor Ilaria Marelli during the new episode of Icone Talks, our brand’s periodic Instagram feed.

“As designers, we kind of live in an elite of beauty. We carry this message of beauty, but it has remained, precisely, a bit elitist, it is not received by the people who furnish their homes,” Ilaria says.

“Then there are the social media, with which this concept of hyper-beauty was born,” Ilaria continued, “From the profiles and sites of the designers you can see somewhat imaginary constructions, extremely fascinating, of color, of emotion, but which are not real interiors. It’s a bit almost like a dream operation, a message of beauty that gets through to interested people but clashes with a reality that can hardly reach those heights.”

“From a communication point of view there is a lot to be done,” commented Giulio Cappellini, “We need to learn to better tell the public about the sweat and toil behind a project or product. Sometimes a consumer buys an object without having the culture to distinguish whether it is a fake or not, whether it can last or not, not only from the point of view of manufacture but precisely from the point of view of concept and design.”

“We in design take certain things for granted, which is why our message can get diluted and fragmented to the end consumer”-Julius added-“The role of the designer and the product is to make culture.”

“I would add, in addition to the cultural aspect, the social aspect. The product is important, but also how people socialize around it, how it becomes part of everyone’s life, of our daily life,” Ilaria Marelli concluded.

Click here to watch the full episode of Icone Talks with Giulio Cappellini and Ilaria Marelli.