Stringimi is a bedside lamp with a wooden base: a refined ready-made, a tribute to the "clamp" as the quintessential object of connection, used across countless processes — a metaphor for the help given to a union. A work tool, with innate formal qualities, taken out of context to become a domestic object.
Self-produced design brings together at least three realities: the designer, the craftsperson, the distributor (and promoter). The result is the physical realisation, by the designer — largely in person, but also with the help of craftspeople — of an object of low technical complexity, using salvaged, standard or low-cost components, assembled with limited transformation.
These choices are almost forced by two factors: the low quantity of objects produced, and the minimal distribution capacity. Production costs mainly come from labour, materials and the size of the run: if too high, they would negatively affect the possibility of selling to the public, since a designer who self-produces generally lacks a strong brand, and therefore lacks the strength needed to establish a place in the market. A further element to consider is distribution: theoretically manageable through the web, where the potential reach is high and widespread, but which very often amounts to a drop in the ocean of the internet.
Although this approach may seem discouraging, self-production, understood this way, is a formidable training ground for genuinely developing one's own design language: it offers the chance to enter the world of production physically — even if not on an industrial scale — and to approach design, in its broadest sense, with greater awareness.
