After five years of collaboration, in December 2023 my creative direction for ninefifty comes to an end.
Ninefifty is a project, now a brand, born in 2018 from an encounter with the master craftsmen Nicolò and Fausto Parrinello. Together, with the aim of giving life to contemporary ideas, we have included high quality production methods in the creative process, recovering ancient knowledge.
My artistic vision, with artisan material at its core, has defined the newly-established brand's aesthetic. My intervention includes the design of fourteen tile collections: Alfabeto, Segni, Tracce, Tessere, Tasselli, Livelli, Inversi, Frammenti, Scie, Cenni, Trame, Righe, Teorema and Vie. These are united by the inspiration of modernist culture and by the concepts of truth, imperfection and the unfinished. In this project I explored sign, color and their meanings, by reviving artisan savoir-faire and reinterpreting ancient techniques such as graffiti. I also researched, collection after collection, a new aesthetic of imperfection to enhance the beauty of every single artefact. Thanks to this work I had the opportunity to experiment firsthand, in a dimension far from that of industry, with the rhythms and quality dictated by manual craftsmanship.
For the project, together with the dogtrot team, I proposed and created the name and logo, developed the brand identity and subsequently defined all the online and offline communication tools. Since 2018 I have actively collaborated on the launch of the brand by precisely defining the strategic communication and positioning contents; I chose and suggested participation in events, managed relations with the press and architects, and lastly dedicated myself to training company staff members. I also defined a retail format that includes highly versatile display systems.
Ninefifty is a concentration of purity and corrosion, modern aesthetics and tactile warmth, light and color. Thanks to these distinctive aesthetic visions, the brand stands out within the design panorama of decorative surface coverings.
Having reached the end of this experience, I can say that the passion and energy invested in this project represent great value for me and, I believe, for the company too. I immediately became passionate about this adventure, dedicating the same commitment to it as I would to a personal project. I can only be proud of what we have done; I am sure that the foundations we have built together are the basis from which ninefifty can become enhanced and increasingly appreciated for its creativity and interpretation by important architects and clients, as it has been so far. The professional collaboration between me and ninefifty has been full of satisfactions and challenges, and I will continue to enhance the brand through the fourteen collections I designed.
