Stefano Giovannoni reveals first product line for new Qeeboo brand
Milan 2016: lamps shaped like cherries and chairs modelled on rabbits are among the products that Italian designer Stefano Giovannoni is launching under his new online brand Qeeboo.
Giovannoni, who announced the launch of the company earlier last month, will debut the 25 plastic furniture designs in Milan next week.
The collection includes chairs, tables, lamps and accessories by designers Andrea Branzi, Marcel Wanders, Richard Hutten, Nika Zupanc and Front, as well as some of Giovannoni's own designs.
"I selected those designers whose languages I felt the closest to mine," said Giovannoni, "designers who have the ability to define the world of their objects through a narrative poetry based on iconic objects that could communicate all their emotional values."
Giovannoni – who has previously created products for Alessi, Herman Miller and Moooi – is kicking off his first collection with bunny-shaped seats: the Rabbit Chair and Rabbit Chair Baby.
"The idea of the rabbit comes from the connection between its silhouette and the silhouette of a chair, where the rabbit's ears become the seat back of the chair," Giovannoni said.
Wanders has designed a set of dining furniture and matching lamps called B.B, which follow similar curvaceous forms to the Dutch designer's New Antiques collection.
The chairs come with Jacquard loom-woven upholstery in white, black or colourful graphics to echo the lampshades, while the table has a medium-density fibreboard (MDF) top that can be ordered in various dimensions.
"The weight of the classic archetypal forms is contrasted by the lightness of the thin and transparent plastic," said Wanders.
Swedish studio Front's stackable Loop Chair has an asymmetrical spiral-like back and a padded seat that can be upholstered in textile or leather.
"Just as human bodies are not symmetrical, we wanted to create a chair that feels individual and allows different ways of sitting," said Front.
A set of lamps by Hutten includes a lattice-like domed pendant called Superform, while Zupanc has created a fixture that looks like a pair of cherries as one of her designs for Qeeboo.
"The products designed for Qeeboo have a figurative approach, [with] an expressive language far from the usual language of the industrial design products," he said.
Giovannoni is launching Qeeboo as an internet-based brand to overcome the "irreconcilable gap" between physical and online retail, which he thinks will kill most design brands over the next five years.
He is the latest designer to develop a new business model for selling products. Claesson Koivisto Rune's Smaller Objects brand allows designers to earn 70 per cent of the proceeds of their products, while Philippe Starck's TOG company offers a completely customisable range of furniture.