Icone light meets Horm furniture in a dialogue about innovation and new inspiration.

So many companies produce furniture, the concept, however, of contemporary furniture is to tell stories and create emotions. How does a company like Horm create and tell emotions?

“We try to collect the stories of the territory around us, first of all, but also those of the rest of the world. Some of our products, for example Leon furniture, tell the stories of Friulian farmers who were farmers before they became furniture makers,” replied Fabio Melcarne, CEO of Horm Italia, to the question asked by Giulio Cappellini, art director of Icone, during the event ‘It’s time for new light,’ at the Horm Hub in Lissone.

“Others, like the Rippless bench that won the Compasso d’Oro in 2015, tell a story built by Japanese designer Toyo Ito, who was thinking of Michelangelo when he said that ‘beauty is within matter.’ He built this piece of furniture in which beauty emerges by removing the superfluous,” Melcarne continued, “So we look at the territory and get inspired to tell our stories and try to create emotions for our customers.” It is precisely this latter aspect that is one of the points of contact between Horm and Icons.

“Icone on the one hand tries to create useful and beautiful objects because, as I always say, no one needs useful but ugly objects; on the other hand there is certainly a desire to tell a world, the use of materials through forms that must be expressions of contemporaneity,” Cappellini explained.

“I am convinced that today a company to be successful in the market must be contemporary, so always work on innovation. Probably today working on formal innovation is not easy, because probably the most beautiful forms in the design world have already been done in the past. However, there is an opportunity to work on new materials new finishes, new textures, etc.,” added Giulio Cappellini.

In Horm, this is also a very heartfelt and closely followed element, which is the reading of the material: whether it is metal, whether it is upholstered, whether it is natural wood, whether it is lacquered wood, there is always a motivation.

What does innovation in a company like Horm consist of today?

“It is difficult to innovate in a very old industry; we have been making furniture forever. It is not digital technology, where through code and software we innovate every minute. That of innovation is a problem we face every day. I personally have come up with role plays in my company to innovate, I try to involve all my employees, to simulate different and particular situations. We imagine ourselves on a day in the rain, or during a very cold day and closed at home, to get ideas on how to innovate forms,” replied Melcarne, who continued: “We think about how our customers might experience our furniture and try to find a way to do something new, whether it’s in the form or in the use of a different material for example.”

Find the entire Icone Talks video with Giulio Cappellini, Fabio Melcarne and Luigino Meroni (Horm’s Lombardy Area Manager) in our profile Instagram.