The Project
The sofa is the place of the house where we lie down, either by ourselves or with the people we love.
It’s the place where we talk and listen to each other.
The contest “Storie da Divano”, result of the collaboration between Nicoletti Home and IED, buds with the goal to give a voice to young guys and listen to their stories.
We have identified a theme – Symbols – around which IED students all over Italy told a Story, that then materialised in the upholstery of one of our sofas: it won’t be a piece of furniture anymore, but a significant driver of meaning and value.
Every generation has its own Symbols. We have asked students to identify whatever representative of our days that, in their opinion, may become a symbol for future generations. A positive message to convey with a Story and to make it tangible in the upholstery of our sofa, which will turn into the symbol of their tale.
The Winner
Alessio Caminiti, born in Ciriè (province of Turin) on 12/12/1997.
Final year student of Communication Design – which he attends at IED Torino – he’s passionate about technology, photography and cars.
The message he wants to give to the next generations is to cultivate differences.
His project was born from a Story that concerns his roots and the memories he has of his grandfather, including the Calabrian dialect. Dialect that becomes the origin of Alessio’s thought. Dialects: a multitude of different languages that we are losing, while we should cultivate them, also safeguarding the beauty of these diversities and of our origins.
“My sofa has therefore become an icon of the beauty of differences,” says Alessio. “As a symbol I have chosen diatoms, single-celled algae which, seen from outside, are all the same but that when are viewed under a microscope are all unique and different, just like human beings.”
Alessio’s sofa
The other projects
Consistency, change, courage
Edoardo Bartoli
Symbol: The sofa
Message for the next generations: to listen
Upholstery: color spots
“On the sofa, we listen and talk to each other, freeing our own emotions that remain engraved on the sofa like many different colors.”
Rarity, practicality, consistency
Leonardo Bergamo
Symbol: An emoticon
Message for the next generations: to remember.
Upholstery: emoticons texture
“The sofa becomes the way to make new generations remember our current world: it is covered with a texture showcasing emoticons, the symbol par excellence of today’s young people.”
Transversality, change, present
Beatrice Carosi
Symbol: Two wings
Message for the next generations: to dare
Upholstery: flying elements
“The sofa portrays the man’s attempts to go beyond his limits. Achieving to fly, he’s able to change his point of view on the world.”
Dynamism, empathy, words
Eleonora Dini
Symbol: The question mark
Message for the next generations: be curious
Upholstery: graffiti
“What was your first thought this morning? This is the question that Eleonora would like to ask people, letting them write their answer on the sofa which becomes the witness of today’s thoughts and emotions.”
Will, awareness, visibility
Paolo Eccher
Symbol: The hug
Message for the next generations: the beauty of uniqueness
Upholstery: a graphic design piece that represents the emotional path of today’s guys, bombarded by social media.
“Web and social media have many positive aspects but also some negative side effects. We are constantly looking for consent, finishing to homologate ourselves. Instead, we should hug each other, welcoming other people’s characteristics and appreciating their uniqueness.”
Light, peculiarity, lightheartedness
Giulia Masia
Symbol: The circle
Message for the next generations: to act
Upholstery: cave paintings
“Since their birth, in a circle around a fire, human beings cooperate to solve problems, as the oldest paintings testify. So, the sofa become the modern place of aggregation and, consequently, of action.”
Synecdoche, solvable e flooding
Maddalena Medri
Symbol: One open eye
Message for the next generations: to observe
Upholstery: geometric texture
“The sofa is the place where you learn to take your time to observe. The star drawn on the upholstery represents the many realities that surround us, the smooth and rounded geometric shape depicts instead the freedom of moving in the reality, observing it from different standpoints to seize its whole and not only a superficial impression of it.”
Diversity, balance, time
Maria Nagni
Symbol: The acrobat
Message for the next generations: to value others’ work
Upholstery: stylized movements
“The acrobat performs a deeply technical work: the singular imperceptibles movements make the final result perfect. We live in the era of the “everything at once” while we should learn to value the creation process more than the final result.“
Creativity, hygge, courage
Tiziano Torresani
Symbol: One closed eye
Message for the next generations: to slow down and listen to yourself
Upholstery: stylized closed eyes
“In a hectic and superficial world, the most difficult thing is slowing down to find ourselves. The sofa becomes the place where you can stop, close your eyes and listen to yourself to find out your real identity.“
Luca Bianchini.
The Ambassador
Luca Bianchini was born in Turin in 1970. Brilliant mind with straightforward and ironic personality, besides being a best-seller writer, he has a curriculum full of highlights: successful movies’ screenwriter, speaker, philatelic editor, copywriter. Luca Bianchini assisted the guys during the birth and development of their ideas: from the contest presentation to the evaluation phase, he will be part of the Jury.
The Jury
The Jury evaluated the 10 projects grading them 1 to 5 based on the following criteria:
- Theme relevance
- Narrative value of the text (value of the chosen symbol, passion in telling the story, exposition)
- Aesthetic taste of sofa’s upholstery
- Consistency between Story and Sofa’s Upholstery
- Research and planning ability
The Onlus Organizations
The winner sofa has been produced and a few prototypes will also be donated to some Italian Onlus Organizations.
