Primary colours and geometric forms in the furniture and accessories from the new Tuscan brand born of family knowledge refreshed and updated. Metal as a family calling, which combines with the desire to create something new, which speaks the language of design through sharp lines and geometric forms. We are talking about Formae, the young furniture brand born of Gennaro Tramonti’s four decades of metalworking experience and the idea of his sons Laura and Simone to add a new entrepreneurial and creative side to their father’s activities, featuring a shared, transverse knowledge.
The idea of creating a design-oriented project was that of Laura Tramonti who, alongside art director Leonardo Fortino, created the Formae universe: furnishings with a pop look which are at the same time lean and essential, focused on the practical things in life. The lessons of the Bauhaus thus become an intrinsic reference for the brand, both from a formal and design point of view: few rules, with everything oriented towards simplicity, but without overlooking function.
The legacy of the Weimar art school, founded by Walter Gropius exactly one hundred years ago, is thus also the inspiration for the Saturno hanging plant pot, the Ettore side-table and the Gemina lamp, all part of Estensioni, Formae’s first collection. In each of these products, the geometric element of the circle becomes, like in the lessons of the Bauhaus, the object of a study which allows it to adapt to different uses, generating collections designed to live together in the same environments in a complementary manner, and precisely for this reason able to establish an effective dialogue.
The Saturno plant pot, designed by Anna Mercurio, was born of the designer’s in-depth research into the topic of the circumference and diameter, in combination with the lessons of Bauhaus maestro Josef Albers on the study of planes. This gave rise to the idea of an apparently simple object, where a two-dimensional metal circle, laser cut and then bent, brings to life a three-dimensional structure containing a ceramic plant pot. The plant pot – available in three different sizes – is suspended by a solid nautical rope, allowing it to be attached with ease.
Ettore is the side table in ash, steel and brass, designed by art director Leonardo Fortino. A circular wooden tabletop, emphasised by the material contrast with its metal legs, has a smaller tabletop hovering above it. The height of this smaller element can be adjusted using a brass key, an element which is both decorative and functional at the same time, located on the outside edge of the larger tabletop. A component which appears out of place, the key – like one for winding up a clock – embellishes the table, turning it into an object which is entirely contemporary, and yet at the same time able to recall the echoes of a past world.
A lightweight suspended metallic circle forms the structure of Gemina, the ultra-sleek pendant lamp designed by Lucio Curcio and Luca Binaglia. The light bulb sits on a cylinder positioned along the circumference of the circle, at the same time a structural component and minimalist decoration which encircles the light source. Gemina is available in two different versions and sizes, allowing customers to play with the levity of light and its forms.
