Curated by Roberto Marcatti, with preface by Cristina Morozzi and cover illustrated by Alessandro Guerriero, this small volume is a collection of phrases, opinions and provocations about the concept of design. This “Young Designer Phrasebook” was published by Robin Edizioni in Italy in 2008. The original title in Italian is “Frasario per giovane designer”.
The author, aside from collecting aphorisms and anecdotes about historic characters, asked several contemporary designers (including Ron Arad, Aldo Cibic, Antonio Citterio, Toshiyuki Kita, Daniel Libeskind, Ross Lovegrove, Alessandro Mendini, Gaetano Pesce, Richard Sapper, Philippe Starck) to contribute their thoughts to the work.
Invited, Raffaele Iannello accepted the challenge by giving his definition: “Design is that added value which allows even a mass-produced object to become a status symbol”.
The fact that a “mass produced” product could become a status symbol seems almost an oxymoron, but this is the real challenge in design.