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DESIGN
IS AN ADVENTURE by Marta Bernasconi
From fashion to sport and furniture. A meeting with a designer who’s always open to new possibilities
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ccepting the opportunities life offers and taking on the challenges, too, always managing to grow. When designers adopt this approach it leads them to explore every aspect of creativity. Take Marc Sadler, for example, a famous
designer with a history of countless collaborations and four-time Compasso d’Oro ADI prizewinner, the latest in 2014 for the Bellevue innovative ice-cream display system. After graduating in industrial aesthetics in Paris, he collaborated with French readyto-wear companies like Yves Saint Laurent and Pierre Cardin. A skiing accident paved the way for a relationship with the world of sport and a search of solution that could protect skiers from the type of situation that led to his broken ankle. He worked with an Italian ski boot producer then large American and Asian multinationals. The sudden passing of his partner led to the start of Marc Sadler’s Italian adventure. “I decided to come to Italy and enter the world of furniture design. Working in several sectors widened the scope of my design skills, and some techniques acquired in one field were also extremely valuable in other areas”. Lighting technology is an example - Sadler has worked with Foscarini using composite materials resulting from experience with golf clubs and tennis rackets. The designer cites the Twiggy lamp as one of the projects that gave him the most satisfaction, alongside the back protector by Dainese, designed to be both attractive and useful. But where does all this creativity come from? Marc Sadler is an inquisitive, extremely observant person. He draws inspiration from nature, an
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pict. Raoul Iacometti A versatile, dynamic designer, Marc Sadler’s work ranges from fashion to sports equipment, lighting units, furnishing complements, wellness projects and creating a gaming table and innovative roulette system. He now lives and works in Milan. To side, Rock chairs designed by Marc Sadler for Daa
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[ TREND SETTERS ] inexhaustible source of stimulus from him, as well as history and architecture, painting and design. Painting
Clockwise: the curved version of the Twiggy
and design are his real passions. “I love to paint, it’s
floor lamp designed
my favourite, but where design is concerned, as a
for Foscarini. Lafleur,
creative service linked to industry, there are two main
a table lamp with
players – myself and the company. Designers should
rechargeable battery
respect limitations and compromises, so I’m aware
by Slamp. The Ursus
that this role is vastly different from being an artist”.
carpet for Illulian. A
A versatile, cosmopolitan designer, Sadler returned to
minimal look for the
Italy after a sojourn in America, choosing Venice as a
chairs from the Palau
place to live and work, and then in 1997 he moved to
collection for Et Al.
Milan. “Domus Academy invited me to teach a course. I arrived in via Savona and was struck by this post-
Inspired by Japanese folding screens, the
industrial area. I bought a space in a former foundry.
Byobu aluminium
In the end I moved here definitively – this city is full of
radiator designed
secret places, there’s lots of things to do and it’s home to many interesting people”. His liking for Milan is
for Antrax. The Bank suitcase collection for
complemented by his recognition of the importance
Fabbripelletteriemilano
of Italian know-how, the value of its manufacturing
combines a high-tech
tradition. The designer also has clear ideas about luxury and style. “I regard luxury as the opportunity to fulfil a desire, to manage spaces and times without aggression or unplanned interference. I see style as the personal way each of us expresses his or her identity. The things we choose as expressions of our personality show who has it and who has none”. In the context of yachts, Sadler tells us what his style is. “When I lived in Venice, I had a sail yacht. I like all the craft that sail the lagoon, powered by sail, oars or motor – they have the kind of link with the past that enables them to fit into their setting. I don’t like hyperdesigned yachts with exaggerated stylistic elements or over-the-top colours. I don’t mean I only like a marine Stradivarius, it’s just that products like that don’t strike me as having the qualities that enable a yacht to remain a timeless object of desire (and here, perhaps, it would be good to include a reference to the “style” of the previous question)”. As always, the projects he’s involved with at the moment are many and various. “I’m working on lighting, chairs, furniture and complements, kitchens, bathrooms, a particularly intriguing type of wooden flooring, suitcases, hydromassage and wellness. Plus a new collaboration in the world of gambling and casinos, designing a gaming table and an innovative roulette system”. Place your bets on the next commission!
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personality with a retro appeal
Above, the the Safety Jacket (one of the back protector designed for Dainese in 1994 is now in the permanent collection at the MoMA in New York). Below, Fabrique, a wooden flooring resembling a fabric created for Listone Giordano
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