They learned to be designers in Venice and at the Cantonal School of Art in Lausanne. They looked at themselves in the mirrors of Tomás Alonso, Adrien Rovero or Bethan Laura Wood and have directed their style towards the investigation of materials, collaboration with artisans and a passion for color and details. They draw on the artistic, architectural, craft and human heritage of Veneto and like to define themselves as storytellers, often born from a photograph taken on a trip or a creative flash after a walk. They are the poetic designers Zanellato/Bortotto.

Giorgia Zanellato (Venice, 1987) and Daniele Bortotto (Pordenone, 1988) opened the studio that bears their names in 2015 in Treviso. His practice, governed by a careful relationship with place and time, combines functional rigor with formal poetics. That taste for craftsmanship and detail can be seen in their collaboration with the Louis Vuitton Nomadic Objects collection, for which this year they sign their third piece, the Basket tables, behind the Lanterne lamp and the Mandala screen.

“Louis Vuitton has given us a lot of freedom,” Daniele Bortotto explains to Magazine, “so we began to analyze the idea and history of nomadism. We are fascinated by people like the Mongols and the yurts in which they live. The folding and removable structures of these stores were the starting point of this project. We then exchanged our ideas with the Louis Vuitton team to develop the product with their savoir faire”.

They were excited to visit the firm’s atelier. “Seeing that heritage that combines fashion and accessories with designer pieces, which normally require other types of skills, is enriching. Fashion goes faster than design, even too fast but now we know that as product designers we can take advantage of some special fashion skills and techniques”.

For the first time they have combined materials such as metal and leather in a table that is also a stool and “an element that unites people as if they were around a fireplace drinking tea; it really is a perfect third piece for this collection. We like to imagine them together.”

Mongolia as inspiration, but still “on Zanellato and Bortotto’s to-do list”. Half of the tandem, who speaks to Magazine while Giorgia Zanellato, mother of a 2-year-old girl, recovers from the bustle of the Milan Furniture Fair, explains that it is interesting to see how many different visions there are around the concept of travel. “We talked about it with the other designers on the collection and we all had different opinions, but it was interesting to consider that it doesn’t matter if people move or not. We travel a lot and that is essential for our work, to keep our minds fresh, but you always return to the starting point, home. When you are a nomad you are in evolution, there are always changes along the way, because you follow the seasons of the year, it is another way of connecting with your roots”.

But what they like about this project, explains the designer, “is that it allows you to travel with your imagination. At the beginning, we were more interested in products that were transformable, as if they could be collected in a trunk or in a bag, and then, at some point, we saw that it is more about making you dream of traveling.”

For both it is very important to unite product design and craftsmanship, “but we do not take a traditional craft skill and use it as it is or as it has always been, we try to go further to find a way to evolve that tradition. When we work with small artisans, we try to build something for their future, because they often have children who would like to pass on their activity. So working with big luxury brands is fantastic because they are one of the few that today can help keep these artisan techniques alive”, explains the designer.

Bortotto is considered more thoughtful while Zanellato is more instinctive. They are not a sentimental couple, but they go together because they share “a vision of what we want and what we expect from our professional career and our life,” explains Bortotto. We are very similar, we don’t like to do too many projects to be able to get fully involved in them. We are not so interested in commercial or doing business either. We still feel the naivety of doing things because it’s worth it. We are friends and we want to keep laughing and having fun while we work. We are lucky to do this job, so we have to put passion into it.”

On how the creative roles are distributed, the designer explains that this division does not exist: “You throw out an idea and then the other adds to it, our projects arise from a continuous, constant exchange, in which it is difficult to say who contributed what. Perhaps one is more proficient in 3D and technical aspects and the other is more creative drawing, but we share everything and visit suppliers together. We love spending days with artisans making things, so it’s really a common and shared path.”

If asked about his meteoric career, Bortotto explains that it has been possible because “in the last ten years many things have changed in the world of design. On the one hand, technological changes allow designers to work in new ways and we have learned that Design is not only something that concerns industrial production, but it can also have a social component and really improve people’s lives.”

“On the other hand -continues Bortotto-, in Italy the weight of the great masters made it quite difficult for young people to make new proposals, but in the last decade everyone can find their own way to express themselves, there is self-production, art design, pure research , design linked to crafts… There are many more possibilities for expression and large companies are more open to new challenges”.

They, who design beautiful things, if they had to choose an essential piece, look to the master Achille Castiglioni. “I’m sure Georgia would choose one of the anonymous designs turned into something very popular that Castiglioni collected. In my case, she would choose his Parentesi lamp. Many people have that piece in their home, it’s part of our history. That’s the kind of design that I would like to do, the one that connects with people in general, not only with designers”, explains the young creator.