Luciano Bertoncini – A Modern Day Designer

Luciano Bertoncini – A Modern Day Designer

 

Luciano Bertoncini was born in 1939 in Italy. He moved to Treviso and began working at the architect Vittorio's design studio; this brought him closer to building and design themes. It is during this period that he designed the bed, Zattera and living rooms that reflected Italian design in the modern day furniture. There he met a famous designer Joe Colombo, art director at Elco, who had included the coat-stand Gronda. Joe Colombo was the winner of the second prize at the Abet Print Contest in 1971. After the sudden death of Joe Colombo, Luciano Bertoncini realized that he should take the project, “Italy: the new domestic landscape” forward and so he displayed that at Moma in New York. He currently engages in design and architecture. His project of the motorcycle became a success as a result of his collaboration with Aprilia. This project Tuareg Wind got selected for the XIV Compasso d' Oro contest and was also lauded greatly proving to be one of the landmarks in his career.

The designer collaborates with several companies internationally in the world of furniture .And, his bed design; “Onda” was selected for the X Compasso d' Oro. The designer currently handles the images of the companies such as Technogym, Seventy, Aprilia, Diadora, Invicta and Belstaff, alongside taking care of their single brand shops. In 1999, the designer was allotted a personal exhibition exclusively for displaying his designs to commemorate his 30 year long contribution to the world of furniture. This was supported by a publication edited by Virginio Briatore.

Since his involvement with the furniture design, the designer has been contributing to promote artistic influence of Italy. A man who eschews spotlight himself hasn't been given due credit for his work and contribution to the European modern design. But, this has hardly dithered the designer or has kept him from his good humor. Virginio Briatore says, “That has neither envied him nor has made him bitter” in a 1999 retrospective of the designer. The designer studied technical drawing and in 1957 he started working with Vittorio Rossi in Treviso. Rossi was one of the most successful designers of the time without whose contribution to one could not have imagined about furniture design without his designs. He was associated with MobilIndia- one of the very few manufacturers that existed then. Luciano through this collaboration learnt not only about designing buildings but to a great deal about furniture too.

Currently in the present millennium, he has been serving many brands with his beautiful designs, the brands include, Kristalia, for which he created furniture design, and Bellato and Design Within Reach. He takes full advantage of his mechanical engineering background; he hardly gives any importance to materialistic or decorative appearance in his designs. His colleagues give credit to his personality and genius. Mino Bellato, one of his associates says,” In reality, Bertoncini’s primary virtue is his sociable character: He gets on with everybody and has no fight with the world.”