Fornasetti universe goes digital with global online store
Dezeen promotion: Italian design company Fornasetti has unveiled a new website that offers a renovated digital retail experience and insights into the brand's imaginative nature.
The Fornasetti website brings together nearly a thousand of the brand's products onto a single online shopping platform that can be accessed globally.
Created in collaboration with business and e-commerce strategist The Level Group and creative agency Frank Studio, the digital store and catalogue "transports the visitor into the world of Fornasetti" by presenting the breadth of the atelier's work and imagination.
"The common thread that binds every part of this digital universe is the constant call to the imagination," said the Fornasetti team. "This has always been the founding value of the atelier, the means by which its creations connect with those who buy them, magically drawing them into a dreamlike dimension."
The digital experience has been crafted to combine Fornasetti's cultural and creative values with its crafted products.
The site also includes stories about the history behind the designs and the company, which was founded by Piero Fornasetti in the 1950s and now follows the artistic direction of his son Barnaba.
To celebrate the website relaunch, the Fornasetti team has selected 11 items from its collection that are now available to purchase online. See the brand's picks and descriptions below:
The fruit of Fornasetti's collaboration with Gio Ponti in 1950, the trumeau represents the grandfather of all Fornasetti furniture. Precision and style in drawing are the artistic expression of the Fornasetti aesthetic: in this piece of furniture they meet surfaces and geometries that open up surprising images and perspectives.
This piece of furniture is a tribute to the tradition of animal-based decorations. The zebra emerges from a leafy bush to peep into the domestic realm. And thus the dreamlike world of Fornasetti makes the living room its ideal habitat.
Palladiana curved chest of drawers
The brilliant contrast between the rigour of the architectural design and the rounded shapes of this piece is a tribute to Palladio's neoclassical language. The reproduction of an Italian garden on the upper level of the item completes the work.
Architectural imagery occupies a central place in the Fornasetti world. A love of the classical, the rigour of the forms and the interplay between fiction and reality have always represented essential values for the Atelier.
A tray to Fornasetti is like a canvas to a painter: an empty space to fill with one's own creative flair. A snake seductively emerges, embodying the irresistible temptation contained within the apple.
Inviting virtuosity on a curved surface, the umbrella stand becomes a narrative stimulus on which to apply decorations and imagery. Fornasetti took cues from pop culture and optical illusion art when creating this piece. The monochrome pattern features a central sun that has been given a human face, surrounded by a circle of black and white beam-like lines or chequered squares projecting outwards.
The moment when Piero Fornasetti first noticed a photo of the opera singer Lina Cavalieri on the pages of a magazine marks a pivotal point in the artist's output. The infinite variety of subjects makes the Tema e Variazioni series an object of desire. The various creations are multiples of art in which the difference in the detail contributes to the pleasure of collecting them.
Fornasetti flair creates ironic and irreverent vases. Their mere presence catches the eye and adds a touch of magic to any space. The decoration Pensee comes from a mixed technique work produced by Piero Fornasetti in the mid-1940s.
The decorative possibilities for porcelain ashtrays are endless. Every detail of this object makes it a true collector's item.
Fornasetti's creativity manages to bring art to the most unlikely everyday situations. And thus even a table setting becomes an artistic gesture, a personal declaration of intent.
The Solitario decoration emerged from a collection of unpublished drawings by Piero Fornasetti: on each page was a sun with humanised features, accompanied by a clever play on words.
Photography is by Pietro Cocco.
Partnership content
This article was written by Dezeen for Fornasetti as part of a partnership. Find out more about Dezeen partnership content here.