Designer Camilla Bellini discusses light and lighting with Giulio Cappellini in the live Instagram of ‘Icone Talks’, a way of keeping the debate on interior design issues alive.

Talking about lighting with a young professional like Camilla Bellini is a way of discovering a fresh point of view on the subject, in comparison with the experience and expertise of a great designer like Giulio Cappellini.

A comparison that has brought interesting ideas, especially on the role that today, in the midst of the pandemic, light plays in our office-homes, in our spaces lived beyond the limits to which we were used to.

Giulio Cappellini. Let’s talk a little about light, what is your relationship with lighting?

Camilla Bellini. This is a point on which I am particularly sensitive. I’ve been a fan of lighting since middle school. Among the products of design there are icons, wonderful products, but the light has something exciting, something that touches in a particular way, something that other products cannot do. I admit I have a weakness for the light.

Giulio Cappellini. When you think of a lamp, do you favor the formal aspect or the kind of sensation of light that the lighting system gives?

Camilla Bellini. I like the mix, if I think of lighting applied to a context, I like a more emotional type of light, with lamps that maybe even from a design point of view add value to the interior.
But I also like that there is lighting that is a little more functional, perhaps more minimal and more structural, which serves to properly illuminate the rooms for how they are to be illuminated.
Functionality and aesthetics must not conflict but must find a way to coexist.

Giulio Cappellini. Thinking about the Icone Luce catalog, is there any product in particular, or some product line, some material or some finish that you particularly like?

Camilla Bellini. I liked the lamp with which I then met the Icone brand, that is Caveau, from the beginning. I think it is a timeless type of product, because it has such a simple shape, an extremely simple application, but it has this integrated movement, this possibility to choose the intensity of the light we want, the direction of the external body …

I also believe that it is very versatile because in its simplicity it is truly suitable for any type of room, environment, interior both private and public. A lamp that is comfortable where you put it and in addition it also adds the possibility of interacting, something you always like. The form is a pure form, but you can play with it, you can choose, you can move it. There is this interaction, this non-static relationship between the person and the light, which I really like.

Giulio Cappellini. You’re absolutely right, Caveau becomes an element of architecture, it’s not the lamp you hang on a wall; it becomes an integral part of the environment and above all it is an element that can almost disappear or, playing with contrasting materials and colors, give it its strength.

Then you talked about the game theme. All in all, when we have to live with furniture or lighting objects, this interaction is also beautiful. Today we want to live, touch, use design in the past maybe the design object was more a status to show to the public or friends. Today, however, it is something we want to live with and live with on a daily basis.

Follow Icone Talks on the IGTV of the Instagram channel @ icona.luce.