A journey through the reflective world of Formaminima

Change is inescapable. New trends, styles, and aesthetics are bound to creep up as time progresses and it is almost absurd to hold onto past examples of excellence with a stoic reluctance to adapt to evolved systems and senses. It is, however, also inane to give up age-old traditions and forget practices that have, over several years, garnered a status of prestige and reliance. Melding the old with the new in measured proportions, then, helps satisfy the demands of contemporary trends, while keeping alive the opulent heritage of yesteryear. Italy-based lighting and decor brand Formaminima aim to harness this synergy to align their practice with that of businesses that strive for excellence and make a mark in the Italian design industry. The company collaborates with Italian artisans, craftsmen, workshops, ateliers, and studios that exhibit the know-how of traditional modes of crafting and creating objects.

Tracing the brand’s inceptive inspiration, Caterina Vrabec, founder and creative director of the brand shares, “The inspiration, as well as the design journey behind the pieces crafted by Formaminima initially came from the compelling exploration of tradition, artisan mastery, and that ‘making’ full of charm, care, and perseverance that characterises the finest Italian artisan heritage.” Delineating the spots and spaces that inspire Vrabec’s practice, she adds, “Those places once known as ‘botteghe artigiane’, small workshops, ateliers and studios, turned out to be the inextinguishable source of inspiration, where the artisanal know-how, handed down and thoroughly kept for generations, merged with the locally sourced sought-after materials, re-visited manufacturing processes, and a contemporary design ethos.”

Vrabec, who has worked in the disciplines of product design, branding, and art direction, construct the pieces for her brand using well-ground crystal glass that softly diffuses light, satin brass that is sturdy yet fine and lightweight, solid marble sheets that are thin enough for light to pass through, wood surfaces finished with a layer of ebony, and porcelain shells as thin as an eggshell. Light is distributed in varying intensities and textures by the five materials, which have varying levels of transparency and translucency. “Thinness, lightness, transparency, and shade, just to mention a few, were the project boundaries, the main frame that helped define the context and turn those possibilities into suggested solutions, represented by the pieces developed by us,” shares Vrabec.

Formaminima operates with the aim of keeping each step in the local supply chain short. In an attempt to satisfy this attitude toward operating ethically, the brand carefully chooses materials and shipping facilities that not only preserve the slow design process but also deliver good-quality products to the collector.

In an attempt to better understand the workings of the brand, STIR traces the innovations undertaken for each of the three collections—Lamp/s Collection, Mirror/Zero Collection and Curiosité Collection—launched by Formaminima so far. “The three collections reveal the same common roots, being almost all three the natural disclosure and development of the same initial concept: materials as the heritage of a ‘territory’ and ‘culture’, on one hand, and the possibilities of endless design interventions aiming at challenging the material's technical properties and the transformative processes involved, on the other one,” Vrabec asserts.

Curiosité Collection

The Curiosité Collection comprises three table boxes, namely Sunrise, Dazzle, and Zenith, all of which are handmade. Each set comprises a plate and three boxes, each of which can be configured as desired. While the Sunrise decor box set is inspired by the sun rising above the horizon, Dazzle evokes images of shimmery sea waves on a sunny afternoon, and Zenith, with its dark grey mirror finish, projects a trompe-l’oeil effect. In all three décor table box sets, the minimally hued individual pieces, topped with a mirror shade finish and arranged atop a square tray, reflect light in varying capacities.

Mirror/Zero Collection

Comprising four pieces, namely Fading Marble Revamp 01, Fading Brass Revamp 01, Black Edition, and Fading Wood Revamp 02, the Mirror/Zero Collection is a series of indoor decorative wall mirrors. The pieces reflect the unique textures imprinted on them by using materials such as marble, brass, walnut, and briarwood. The gradient finish on the mirror surfaces provides an illusive effect, such that the marble, brass, steel, and wood surfaces appear to fade into the wall. Some of the materials used to build the different variations of the Mirror/Zero Collection include Palissandro Blu Nuvolato marble, Black Portoro marble, walnut briarwood veneer, folded satin burnished solid brass sheet, hand-ground crystal glass slabs, and flush mount metal brackets. Although each mirror weighs around 11 kilograms, its sheet-like construction persuades the viewer otherwise.

Lamp/s Collection

The Lamp/s Collection by Formaminima comes in several styles and material variations. For instance, the Lamp/One series, a single suspension lamp, comes in materials such as olive briarwood, Arabescato Orobico solid marble, Palissandro Blu Nuvolato solid marble, white Calacatta marble, Royal Pink Yellow marble, Red Collemandina Marble, Green Alpes marble, solid brass in different finishes, and Canaletto walnut wood. Other variations of Lamp/One include trio chandeliers and six-light chandelier made using materials such as black and gold marble, solid Calacatta marble, Red Collemandina marble, Green Alpi marble, Arabescato Orobico marble, Palissandro Blu Nuvolato marble, Royal Pink Yellow marble, satin brass, and Canaletto walnut wood. Lamp/Two, a table lamp, also comes in different textures and colour variations of brass, marble, and wood.

Delineating the experience of working on these projects, Vrabec shares, “The design process involved in the realisation of these three collections features a fil rouge of sleekness, as the action of subtraction to add meaning, leaving plain surfaces and minimal geometries as bulwarks to convey a cutting-edge aesthetic, free from useless mediations and captions,” Vrabec shares, delineating the experience of working on these projects. The brand intends to expand their practice with the inclusion of varied products, such as rugs, furnishings and textiles, all of which the brand hopes to infuse with the widely coveted Italian style and finesse.