DI: What is the main principle, idea and inspiration behind your design?
: My design it’s emotional and instinctive. The inspiration for my works became from a desire, an emotion or a memory.
DI: What has been your main focus in designing this work? Especially what did you want to achieve?
: Create an object that looks real and alive.
Dog it’s a toy which become a piece of furniture, you can find everywhere, when the hosts arrive.. it doesn’t hidden itself in the toy box, because otherwise it’s a mess, it is not ashamed to be a toy, it is dignified in manners, in colors and materials, it can stay in the living-room, in the kitchen, in the bedroom.
DI: What are your future plans for this award winning design?
: I would like small dogs were produced in series, and distributed.
DI: How long did it take you to design this particular concept?
: from the first idea to the prototypes I spent 6 months.
DI: Why did you design this particular concept? Was this design commissioned or did you decide to pursuit an inspiration?
: The project was commissioned by my daughter Giorgia;
The desire and emotion of Giò were to have a small dog, like all children, I suppose
DI: Is your design being produced or used by another company, or do you plan to sell or lease the production rights or do you intent to produce your work yourself?
: I think these products have to be accessible so they have to be produced in series, this will bring me to plan to sell or lease the production rights.
DI: What made you design this particular type of work?
: Satisfy a child desire.
DI: Who is the target customer for his design?
: for this project, I think at young families, children and gathering places, like children garden, playground. people who wants to give a cheerful touch to their home.
DI: What sets this design apart from other similar or resembling concepts?
: Unique is the sentiment which inspired the object and urged my instinctive creativity, my daughter’s desire for a dog. Normally, I put attention to the little things, little daily needs, little emotions, in this way I create healthy, pure and simple objects, aimed at the satisfaction of children and pleasantly useful for adults.
DI: How did you come up with the name for this design? What does it mean?
: To draw the small dogs I was inspired by real dogs, Hector and Dudu Tobia
Small dogs are the most simple and direct way to group them into one project
DI: Which design tools did you use when you were working on this project?
: Starting from hand sketches, I refined them using CAD software.
DI: What is the most unique aspect of your design?
: the forms, which, although minimal, give the feeling of a dynamic, real objects.
DI: Who did you collaborate with for this design? Did you work with people with technical / specialized skills?
: on production phase, I had a support of numeric control machine technician, who help me to finalize the shapes, working on prototipes.
DI: What is the role of technology in this particular design?
: technology will be absolutely important to made this project a success, finding ways to produce them in series with quality and accessible price.
DI: Is your design influenced by data or analytical research in any way? What kind of research did you conduct for making this design?
: My design is istinctive, so not influenced by cold statistical needs. I tried to reach the most easy and recognizable shape, then, I played with layers to give three-dimensional aspect.
DI: What are some of the challenges you faced during the design/realization of your concept?
: Of course, the main problem it's still the budget, specially for the proto phase, the economical moment don't help young designers to express themselves with all the potentiality they had. So I spent a lot of efforts and time to finish the project with a low cost budget.
DI: How did you decide to submit your design to an international design competition?
: Pushed by all the people who appreciate my work and the desire to have one of my dogs at their home, I'm trying to made this project visible to a company which will bet on the possibility to produce and distribute them. I hope this award will give me this possibility.
DI: What did you learn or how did you improve yourself during the designing of this work?
: Following the different phases I discover that a real designer have to think at 360 degrees, looking at the aspect but in a realizable way.