GIOVANNI TOMMASO GARATTONI
Giovanni Tommaso Garattoni is an Italian designer and entrepreneur.
He considers himself as “a craftsman of ideas” , a skilled craft worker who translate a design concept into an object. His passion for design was born at a very early age inspired by his love for cars and speed and he started designing objects with the idea of becoming an automobile designer.
Later in life he discovered a pure fascination for the 1930s architecture style and decided to enroll at the University of Architecture in Florence.
During his studies, his first approach to design was exclusively directed to the nightlife scene of Rimini, his birthplace and one of the most notable Italian seaside resorts destinations in Europe.
These were the years where he directed his creativity towards architectural design, stage settings design and advertising graphics. In 1980 he opened SLEGO, a punk/new wave nightclub, of which he personally curated every little detail, from the furniture to the music; he even enjoyed the DJ booth life as well. He often says “ rock ’n roll saved me from a boring architecture career ”.
Graphic Design
In 1982 he founded COMPLOTTO GRAFICO with his fellow artists. A group of ambitious architects, graphic designers, photographers and painters, dedicated to the exploration of graphic and multimedia arts.
They organized and promoted cultural events such as exhibitions, performances and happenings with the aim of recovering the past and celebrating the mixing of different worlds through new means of communication.
Their vision was in tune with what was happening at the time in other world capitals, where the disruptive force of punk culture was pouring on all the arts and replacing the new wave culture.
This experience will lead Garattoni to design projects and establish collaboration with the most innovative and acclaimed nightclubs of that time.
Movimento Bolidista
After graduating in architecture, he founded Movimento Bolidista with his fellow architects, a design renewal movement, in which elements taken from American Streamline style merged with Italian Futurism.
Garattoni stood out for the distinctive peculiarity of his projects, in particular with The Decline Of Western Civilization Collection.
A provocative and innovative collection of furniture inspired by evocative shapes that transcended styles.
The use of precious materials combined with forgotten craft techniques and new technologies contributed to the creation of furniture that challenged the standardisation of mass culture.
Product Design
In 1996, Garattoni established his design studio, and he soon started what turned out to be a long and successful collaboration with Tonelli Design, one of Italy’s finest makers of glass furniture.
He designed numerous glass furniture, that have become iconic pieces. The table “Space Invaders” has been awarded (both in 2000 and 2001), as the “Most Innovative Glass Furniture Of The Year” at Salone Internazionale del Mobile di Milano.
A few years later, in 2016, the “VU Vision Underground” mirror received the prize “Menzione d’Onore – XXIV Compasso d’Oro”, the most prestigious international award from the Industrial Design Association (ADI).
Throughout his career, Garattoni has given lectures at European Institute of Design in Milan, at Accademia delle Belle Arti in Ravenna and Rimini and at Istituto di Design Polo Michelangelo in Bologna, with the aim of inspiring the next generation of designers.
Currently
Garattoni is dedicating all his efforts to GTG Design Studio, a new venture specialised in design and manufacture of mirrors of extraordinary uniqueness.
Creativity and innovation are skilfully mixed with manual expertise as a tribute to the master cabinetmakers from the Art Deco period and to the great Italian tradition of medieval craftsmanship.
The mission is to create artefacts never seen before, objects with a strong symbolic presence, stunning mirrors with surprising dynamic reflections that give an extraordinary appeal to the environments that will host them.
