Fringe Interior

Nature Mood Tundra

florim > Floor tile-stone

Marble and wood blend in a refined creative mood board. In line with the latest trends in housing evolution, Nature Mood conceives of Nature not only as a model, but also as a true mentor and gauge of human endeavor, something from which to acquire knowledge and with which to give life to increasingly environmentally friendly designs. In this collection, Nature becomes an active component of design, mixing a palette of surfaces with warm hues that take their inspiration from the world of marbles and the material of wood, with clean, minimalist veining and an array of colors. The upshot is the attainment of elegant spaces that flow between interior and exterior, enhancing the presence of light so as to bestow a sensation of immersion in the natural environment at all times. The marble surfaces in the collection bring a new perspective to some of the most enchanting landscapes and natural binomials to be found on earth. COLORS AND DECORS The verdant backdrop of Rainforest is redolent of the vegetation of tropical woods, with thin brown veins that evoke the bark of a tree. Glacier conjures up the whiteness of glaciers with delicate crests of light and dark gray. Mountain Peak is inspired by the varied appearance and warm colors of mountain ranges in the summertime. Tundra recalls the alternation of earth, shrubbery and snowfall that characterizes the homonymous Arctic polar environmental system. And lastly, Riverbed is reminiscent of a gravelly river bottom with its multiplicity of stones smoothed by the flowing water. The Planks 01, 02, 03, 04, 05 and 06 surfaces are the most combinable elements in the collection. Conceived as a color palette of woods with a clean, minimalist style, the Planks can generate different mood boards depending on the marble-effect surfaces with which they are juxtaposed, taking up the nuances of the veneers and affording the designer the option of personalizing both the interior spaces and the exterior shells of the buildings in accordance with his or her own creative taste. The range of backgrounds is enriched by five 6 mm thick fine porcelain stoneware decors that combine the colors of different wood-inspired surfaces. Hexagon offers a combination of 3 six-sided polygons, each of which in turn is divided into two different shades of wood. The composition is designed in two versions, the first combining the warm hues of Planks 01, 02 and 03, the second blending the cooler colors of Planks 04, 05 and 06. French Herringbone immediately recalls the classic laying pattern for parquet flooring, in this case reformulated as an embellishment that alternates small slats in two colorings. The composition is available in two versions, one of which combines the amber shades of Planks 01 and 02, the other of which unites the gray tones of Planks 05 and 06. Stripes offers an alternation of small strips in two colors. In this case, too, the range grants the designer the option of choosing between two variants, one that juxtaposes Planks 01 and 02, and one that combines Planks 05 and 06. Strip consists of a plank with thin and elongated lines available in all the colors in the collection. Finally, Chevron recalls the homonymous pattern of timeless charm. Here again the decor is offered in all 6 wood-effect colors of the collection.

Plimatech Plimabeige/02

florim > Floor tile-stone

The inspiration for Florim's Plimatech Architectural design comes from high up in the Martell Valley of the Alto Adige region. The aesthetic heterogeneity characteristic of natural stone is captured in the collection through three graphic variants. 01, the most minimalist is softly veined and, especially in the large format, is particularly appropriate to confer character on architecture of more essential taste. 02 has a more variegated appearance, with slight shading tending towards white, designed to add a rough, textural touch to spaces. Finally, 03 is characterized by a high number of crystalline formations that give it a wavier line, ideal for design contexts that, between interior and exterior spaces, pursue a dialogue with the surrounding natural environment. In addition to this, the range of decorations is completed with the 30x60 wall module and 30x60 3D wall module, both proposed for the graphic variant 02 in all colors.

Cromatica Cenere

florim > Synthetic Floor

A lexicon of colour shades for mixing. A large size and its submultiples. «This work represents a reflection on colour, and above all a proposal on how to transfer the multiplicity of shades typical of a hand-crafted piece into a project produced on a large scale.» Andrea Trimarchi & Simone Farresin Studio Formafantasma base their work in the design world on a strong vocation for research. Simone Farresin and Andrea Trimarchi view every project as an opportunity for study and the acquisition of new knowledge, and their love of speculation establishes a dialectic rapport with the situations offered by each new client. Whether it involves a material, a type or a production method, the first phase of their design process is the mapping of what the specific case places at their disposal. With Cedit, an analysis of the company's past and present was central to the inputs. Inevitably, since "Looking back to look forward" has been the design duo's mission statement for years. In this case, in particular, the company's history was a real treasure trove, a fine blend of memory and technology: on the one hand, the excellence of production technologies now extended with the added potential arising from the engineering of large-sized ceramic tiles, and on the other a wealth of experience build up with great designers of the past, from Zanuso to Noorda, through to Ettore Sottsass. Andrea and Simone decided to focus on Sottsass - who started designing for Cedit back in the late Seventies - and made an in-depth study of one of the colour charts he developed towards the end of the Nineties. A spread of colours which gave its name to the "41 Colors" collection, included in the catalogue of the period as a real alphabet for what has proved to be a lasting design language. Colour was much more than just a compulsory step in the dialogue between designer and producer, since Sottsass had already discovered the power of the mystery intrinsic to this universe of invention. With Cedit the master-designer, a long-established lover of ceramics and their crafted unpredictability, found a way of transferring his personal feeling for colour to a wide audience, through industrial mass production. And this assumption is another factor Formafantasma have inherited, interpreting it today with new, even more efficient technical resources just as capable of expressing the secrets of colour. «The concept of colour "in isolation" - Sottsass explained in a 1992 text - classified colour, Pantone, as they call it now, "scientific" colour, is something I still refuse to accept. (...) Colours, the idea of colour, are always intangible, they slip slowly away like words, that run through your fingers, like poetry, which you can never keep hold of, like a good story.» And Formafantasma seem to have chosen that distinction between colour "in isolation" and "intangible" yet ever-present colour as the basis of their work. However, their approach draws on their unique vocation for research and the technical resources of the third millennium. «This work - they explain to us - is a reflection on colour, and above all on how to bring the multiplicity of shades typical of a hand-crafted piece into a large-scale project.» The designers look at large, monochrome slabs and turn to the engineers for details of their secrets, their processing stages, the phases in their production. They appreciate that the colour of ceramic material, its ineffable secret, can still be present in the series and large tile sizes in which Cedit leads the way. They understand that this is, in itself, an expressive power which does not need channelling into forms, motifs and signs. But above all, they treat the surface as a large canvas on which they spread pure colour, which tends to be uniform but in fact is never really a "scientific", totally monochrome hue: it is not a Pantone. And this is the source of the fundamental insight, which only children of the transition from the analogue to the digital era could achieve, the reward for those who draw on the past to look to the future. The designers cut the slab into lots of regular pieces, not necessarily of the same size. They restore its identity as a "tile", a familiar name with something ancient about it, but which stands for a module, a unit of measurement, a building block. There is nothing nostalgic about this - on the contrary, the vision is completely new, and the portions of slab created can be reassembled with no restrictions, breaking down the unity of the whole and reviving its essence starting from its structure. As the cards in the pack are shuffled, what emerges is not a figure or motif but the representation of colour itself and its physical nature. It is live matter, born from the meeting of vibrating forces, the mixing of ever-varying percentages of the basic ingredients. And Formafantasma present us with the corpuscular, fragmented essence of these small frames of space and crystallised time, which reveal the code and formula of their composition. So Cromatica is a collection made up of six colours which actually have an infinite number of declinations and compositional possibilities. It is a "discrete" combination in the mathematical sense of the term, capable of generating multiple, variable subsets. At the same time, each slab can be used in its entirety, leaving the impression of analogue continuity unchanged. But what really amazes is the comparison and dialogue between the two approaches: a stroke of genius, laying clear the mysterious appeal the artificial reproduction of colour has always held for mankind. Because, as Sottsass said, «colours are language, a powerful, magical, intangible, flexible, continuous material, in which existence is made manifest, the existence that lives in time and space».

La Roche la roche Ecru

florim > Wall tile-stone-brick

A new style, an informal and immediate luxury interpret the space La Roche is a product with the charm of a protagonist but without excesses with a surface characterized by chromatic variations and decisive traits that connote the passing of time. The culture of the past rereads the present: all in a connection, a fine and authentic line that takes you back to living in a place permeated with timeless charm.

Buildtech/2.0 Build White CE

florim > Wallcovering

Buildtech/2.0 assures the realization of ever-current projects To the four colors, White, Bone, Mud and Coal in Tinta Unita, Granigliata and Cemento, 10 solid bold colors are being added, only intensifying the "brutality".

Buildtech/2.0 Build Mud GG

florim > Wallcovering

Buildtech/2.0 assures the realization of ever-current projects To the four colors, White, Bone, Mud and Coal in Tinta Unita, Granigliata and Cemento, 10 solid bold colors are being added, only intensifying the "brutality".

I Filati Op Art Tè Verde

florim > Carpet

From the art of fabric, to enveloping spaces From lampas and jacquard, all the way to the simplest silk fabrics, from rich, baroque motifs to more optical, geometric patterns, all of these fabrics share an extremely natural look. The collection's nine surfaces are inspired by Rubelli's signature precious fabrics that, in turn, are born from the contemporary reworking of several decorative motifs coming from the noble Venetian heritage of weaving.

Pietre/3 limestone coal

florim > Wall tile-stone-brick

A cultured and refined style distinguishes the choice of the natural shades The interpreter of a family and essential style, Pietre/3 is the fine porcelain stoneware collection that expresses itself through a wide range of decorative solutions for interior architecture, where a sophisticated combination of surfaces takes on new expressiveness. There is a wide range of sizes and finishes that continue an innovative journey aimed at highlighting the continuity between the interior and exterior environment, providing a simple and immediate class to the environment. All the surfaces are available in the sizes indicated in the catalog and are suitable for interior and exterior floor and wall application. Multiple shapes of mosaics and decorative strips allow the construction of the project to be varied without changing its inspiring essence.

Airtech Stockholm_Greige

florim > Wall tile-stone-brick

Airtech/ is a collection designed to create spaces that interact with each other in a uniform and discreet manner. The collection offers six stones available in shades of gray, the quintessential metropolitan color. The 60x120 cm size with a high-gloss finish gives a bright and appealing nuance to this very austere project. There are two available thicknesses, 9 mm and 20 mm.

Atmosphères Aurore

florim > Wall tile-stone-brick

A collection of profound and mesmerising energy which conveys all the informal elegance of luxurious contemporary spaces Lightness and solidity, combined with a sophisticated colour scheme, evoke the sense of craftsmanship associated with this wonderful stone whose stratified fossils, trapped in the slender sediments formed over the centuries, embody its time-honoured yet contemporary beauty. Tradition and innovation therefore come together in a unique project, creating an attractive surface that respects the culture of places and the history of time.

Studios Sand

R

florim > Synthetic Floor

Studios, with its sophisticated but discrete personality, defines the evolutionary path of modern cement-inspired surfaces for interior architecture. The structure of the surfaces, delicately textured, suggests the effect of the manual skill and plasticity of the hand crafted finish. Essential but intense, it is highlighted by meeting natural or artificial light.

I Filati Bestegui Granata

florim > Carpet

From the art of fabric, to enveloping spaces From lampas and jacquard, all the way to the simplest silk fabrics, from rich, baroque motifs to more optical, geometric patterns, all of these fabrics share an extremely natural look. The collection's nine surfaces are inspired by Rubelli's signature precious fabrics that, in turn, are born from the contemporary reworking of several decorative motifs coming from the noble Venetian heritage of weaving.

Les Bijoux Les Quatre Saisons

florim > Wall tile-stone-brick

The artistic allure of jewel surfaces The collection's true inspiration is found in different sources of artistic outlook, interpreted according to a wider meaning: noble minerals such as onyx, red jasper and sodalite skillfully worked to create refined, artisanal jewels, magnificent marbles used in the creation of important architecture and sculptures, even paintings by renowned artists.

Stones & More 2.0 Amani Bronze

florim > Wall tile-stone-brick

A refined selection of stone and marble breathes life into a new container A harmonious sobriety accompanies the gaze on the discrete and perfect architecture to breathe life into environments permeated with the balanced synthesis of crafting skill and industrial capacity. The play on the contrasts between tradition and modernism creates an atmosphere suspended between memory and future. The structure and full body of the finishes enhance the space with popular details. The eclectic and refined spirit of Stones&More 2.0 is expressed through the harmony of elegant material suggestions, smooth and reflective surfaces, to meet both the visual and tactile needs. Stones&More 2.0 also narrates its refined naturalness in the Florim Magnum Oversize project, where the large size surfaces are an invitation to enter and share the emotion of an even more enchanting dimension. Stones&More 2.0 is recommended for floor and wall applications in residential settings, but also for medium-high traffic applications. Thanks to the available innovative technologies, the development of the available sizes and finishes is offered for each surface available in the catalog, favouring a wide range of solutions.

Wooden Tile wooden Almond

florim > Floor tile-stone

Neutral colors with a delicate, Nordic inspired design, but also reclaimed wood with strong chromatic contrasts Each location transforms into a refined space capable of recounting stories and emotions. The lightest shades favor timeless styles, providing soft light, whereas the darker shade finishes come out to impress a bold style, playing between combinations of simple geometric lines and new color schemes.

Storie Palazzo

florim > Wall Paint

The faded wall fresco, damp stains in plaster. «Technological innovation enables us to reproduce on large-sized ceramic materials all the effects of wear and stratification that normally only time is able to create.» Giorgia Zanellato & Daniele Bortotto Children stare at the walls of a farmhouse, wondering what the cracks are, and whether every mark is a path and every path is a story. They think that miniature beings live in the air pockets that have formed, and the detaching plaster is like an avalanche cascading from a glacier. They don't ask why the colours are as they are, because they just had to be like that. And every square centimetre becomes the first page of an adventure that restarts at every break in the pattern. Could this be why we say that both textures and plots have twists, and stories are woven? As even children know, walls are tales. Not only do they contain adventures, emotions, moments, loves and hates and record them on their surfaces; their uneven, active surfaces generate new imaginary worlds, in which one can literally get lost. The "Storie" collection by Giorgia Zanellato and Daniele Bortotto brings this metaphor to three-dimensional life by expressing the moods, loves and hates and moments that the walls and floors of old Italian homes conserve, and capturing them in a frozen instant. The theme of time and the changes wrought in matter by the passing seasons, weather and human action have always been a strong source of inspiration for architects: some have tried to freeze it, while others have used sleight of hand to embrace it while resisting its effects, and yet others have accelerated, anticipated, directed and re-created it. Zanellato and Bortotto do all these things at once, engaging in a duel with History with a capital H, in which it is never clear who is winning: design or object, man or nature, culture or time. And it is probably this unresolved tension which makes the "Storie" designs so universal and meaningful, so intimate and yet familiar. The floor is the only thing we can be certain that everyone entering our home will touch, and at the same time it is the most intimate part, the most steeped in private happenings. They talk about having your "feet firmly on the ground". This image stands for common sense, but also a recognition of how things are, how things work. The wall is a synecdoche, too: it is the part of the home that expresses an idea of solidity, the layering of time, the passage of lives. "Storie" gives form to this metaphor by drawing a line that links the most classical of taste to a sophisticated modernity of taste and style. The two designers did a great deal of background work for this project: old Italian homes, country villas, noble palazzos, farmhouses and old factors, which become an unlimited source of motifs, colours, textures and materials. But, perhaps unconsciously, literature also re-emerges from this survey of locations, with its blend of aestheticism and decadence, with echoes of Wilde and D'Annunzio, Ruskin and Huysmans. "Storie" would be the ideal backdrop for Des Esseintes, the dandy in "A Rebours". And in fact the collection clearly has strong theatrical connections, arising partly from its storytelling connotations but also from its scene-setting potential. It represents life, which we are, have been and wish to continue to be. And it is thrilling to realise that this vision comes from the youngest designers in CEDIT's new era, who have successfully taken a confident, cultured, astute, sidelong approach to the most ancient of topics, with a persuasive effect which appears, at least, to be not at all intimidated by the many stories, the type of product they are dealing with, the catalogue in which they are included, the designers who have gone before them or, naturally, the adventures that lie concealed in the historic dwellings they reproduce. The reference to Italy, on the other hand, is in perfect harmony with the work of the brand and its past and present designers: it is intrinsic to the perfection of the production process that underlies the collection, the relationship with the brand's tradition and its local roots, and the intelligent, strategic use of its innovations in the treatment of this complex material.Child's play? Yes, but with the integrity and ability to enchant unique to specific designs, capable of an immediacy of vision and feeling that makes them little novels written in cement.

Nature Mood MOUNTAIN PEAK

florim > Floor tile-stone

Marble and wood blend in a refined creative mood board. In line with the latest trends in housing evolution, Nature Mood conceives of Nature not only as a model, but also as a true mentor and gauge of human endeavor, something from which to acquire knowledge and with which to give life to increasingly environmentally friendly designs. In this collection, Nature becomes an active component of design, mixing a palette of surfaces with warm hues that take their inspiration from the world of marbles and the material of wood, with clean, minimalist veining and an array of colors. The upshot is the attainment of elegant spaces that flow between interior and exterior, enhancing the presence of light so as to bestow a sensation of immersion in the natural environment at all times. The marble surfaces in the collection bring a new perspective to some of the most enchanting landscapes and natural binomials to be found on earth. COLORS AND DECORS The verdant backdrop of Rainforest is redolent of the vegetation of tropical woods, with thin brown veins that evoke the bark of a tree. Glacier conjures up the whiteness of glaciers with delicate crests of light and dark gray. Mountain Peak is inspired by the varied appearance and warm colors of mountain ranges in the summertime. Tundra recalls the alternation of earth, shrubbery and snowfall that characterizes the homonymous Arctic polar environmental system. And lastly, Riverbed is reminiscent of a gravelly river bottom with its multiplicity of stones smoothed by the flowing water. The Planks 01, 02, 03, 04, 05 and 06 surfaces are the most combinable elements in the collection. Conceived as a color palette of woods with a clean, minimalist style, the Planks can generate different mood boards depending on the marble-effect surfaces with which they are juxtaposed, taking up the nuances of the veneers and affording the designer the option of personalizing both the interior spaces and the exterior shells of the buildings in accordance with his or her own creative taste. The range of backgrounds is enriched by five 6 mm thick fine porcelain stoneware decors that combine the colors of different wood-inspired surfaces. Hexagon offers a combination of 3 six-sided polygons, each of which in turn is divided into two different shades of wood. The composition is designed in two versions, the first combining the warm hues of Planks 01, 02 and 03, the second blending the cooler colors of Planks 04, 05 and 06. French Herringbone immediately recalls the classic laying pattern for parquet flooring, in this case reformulated as an embellishment that alternates small slats in two colorings. The composition is available in two versions, one of which combines the amber shades of Planks 01 and 02, the other of which unites the gray tones of Planks 05 and 06. Stripes offers an alternation of small strips in two colors. In this case, too, the range grants the designer the option of choosing between two variants, one that juxtaposes Planks 01 and 02, and one that combines Planks 05 and 06. Strip consists of a plank with thin and elongated lines available in all the colors in the collection. Finally, Chevron recalls the homonymous pattern of timeless charm. Here again the decor is offered in all 6 wood-effect colors of the collection.

I Filati Funny Girl Vaniglia

florim > Carpet

From the art of fabric, to enveloping spaces From lampas and jacquard, all the way to the simplest silk fabrics, from rich, baroque motifs to more optical, geometric patterns, all of these fabrics share an extremely natural look. The collection's nine surfaces are inspired by Rubelli's signature precious fabrics that, in turn, are born from the contemporary reworking of several decorative motifs coming from the noble Venetian heritage of weaving.

Extra Light Oyster

florim > Floor tile-stone

All around décor between light play and color. The Extra Light pallet is made up of a range of colors in 4.3 millimeter thickness that, thanks to the vast range of available colors, constitutes a transversal decorative element for all the brand's collections. Extra Light is therefore synonymous with surfaces that communicate, stimulate the senses and nourish the gaze, for boundless pleasure.

Chimera Ritmo Azzurro

florim > Wallcovering

In Chimera, Elena Salmistraro merges rigour with self-expression, in a graphic grammar laden with symbolic meaning. Empatia speaks to the emotions with graphics that interpret, through a highly individual abstract code, the stage make-up of a clown, with the aid of superimposed geometric forms and images. Radici is a tribal statement, a tribute to primitive ritual custom, evoked by the interplay between a sequence of triangles and rectangles and a set of figurative fragments. Ritmo is inspired by fabrics, suggesting the rhythmic alternation of woven yarns through a largely linear pattern. In Colore, the upheaval of a background of small isolated spots generated by a parametric digital program is combined with densely packed repeated forms. "The Chimera collection is rather like a book with four different chapters: I set out to differentiate these graphic motifs to create four totally different stories." Elena Salmistraro It all starts with drawing. A passion for drawing. An obsession with drawing. Drawings like spider-webs, obsessively filling spaces, in a kind of manual choreography or gymnastics, a continuous flow. Elena Salmistraro draws all the time. She draws everywhere. Mostly on loose sheets or random surfaces. First and foremost with pen and pencil. Her drawings only acquire colour at a later stage. Often - just like Alessandro Mendini used to do - she draws "monsters": fascinating yet disturbing, subversive forms. The denser, more contorted the shape, the more obvious its underlying truth. For Elena, drawing is an intimate act. It is relaxing. And therapeutic. With an unrivalled communicative strength. Because drawing gives shape to ideas: you both give form to the world and reveal yourself. This passion, combined with natural graphic talent, has guided Elena Salmistraro in her project for Cedit: an experimental series of ceramic slabs produced using a high-definition 3D decorative technique. The explicit aim is to transform surfaces beyond their original flatness so that a new, visual and tactile, three-dimensional personality emerges, sweeping aside the coldness and uniformity that ceramic objects often inevitably convey.Elena Salmistraro has always viewed ceramics as a democratic material, in view of their accessibility, and the infinite potentials for shaping matter that they provide. She began working and experimenting with ceramics very early in her career, just after she graduated from the Milan Politecnico in 2008. She came into contact with small artistic craft firms specialising in smallproduction lots, and cut her teeth on projects that demanded the hand-processing of every detail, and finishes of high artistic value, for the high end of the market. The large corporations and galleries came later, but here again Elena kept faith with her desire to make mass-produced pieces unique, and to combine artistic value with specifically industrial characteristics. The monkey-shaped Primates vases reflect this method and intention, aiming to excite, surprise and charm. Antiminimalist and hyper-figurative, playful, ironic and a rich image-maker, often drawing on anthropology and magic, over the years Salmistraro has built up her own fantastic universe, inhabited by ceramic bestiaries, painted jungles and a cabinet like a one-eyed cyclops , always finding inspiration and inputs in nature and always aiming to reveal the extraordinary in the everyday. Given this background, it was almost inevitable she would work with Cedit: constantly seeking new talents and new approaches, as well as designs that break down the boundaries of ceramics and release them into the realm of art and innovation, the Modena company has recognised Elena Salmistraro as a leading contemporary creative spirit and involved her in a project intended to experiment with fresh ideas in materials and synaesthetics.Salmistraro's collection for Cedit is entitled Chimera and consists of large ceramic slabs, which can be enjoyed not only visually, through their patterns and colours, but also on a tactile level. Like the chimera in the "grotesque" tradition, monstrous in the etymological sense of the word with its merging of hybrid animal and vegetable shapes, the Cedit project attempts to originate a synaesthetic form of ceramics, through a three-dimensional development that exactly reproduces the texture of leathers and fabrics, creating an absolutely new kind of layered effect, with a tactile awareness that recalls the passion of grand master Ettore Sottsass for "surfaces that talk". And the surfaces of the slabs Salmistraro has created really seem to talk: in Empatia clown faces add theatricality to the cold gleam of marbles, interspersed with references to Art Déco graphics; Radici uses the textures of leathers and hide as if to re-establish a link between ceramics and other materials at the origins of human activity and creativity; in Ritmo the texture of cloth dialogues with pottery, almost in homage to the tactile rationalism of warp and weft, of which Bauhaus pioneer Anni Albers was one of the most expressive past interpreters ; finally, Colore has a spotted base generated by computer to underline the contrast between analogue and digital, the graphic sign and the matter into which it is impressed. It is an aesthetic of superimposition and mixing, and especially of synaesthesia: as in her drawings, in the Chimera slabs Elena Salmistraro's art is one of movement and acceleration. A process not of representation but of exploration. Of the world and of oneself. Almost a kind of Zen, for distancing oneself from the world to understand it more fully. In every sense.

Policroma Valtoce

florim > Wall tile-stone-brick

Recurring geometries, combinations of figures. Marble and marmorino plaster: comparison and dialogue. The collection is completed by a linear listello tile with the motif of a sequence of vertical rectangular blocks, which can be combined with the slabs to further enrich compositions involving continuous ceramic surfaces cladding. "Another reference is the use of Italian marbles on the verge of extinction, rare marbles such as Rosa Valtoce, the marble used in Milan Cathedral." Cristina Celestino Cristina Celestino's smartphone contains a folder of images entitled "Milan". Photographs that are more like notes. Photographs of architectural features, materials or details of shapes encountered by chance during a walk, but they cannot be described as merely a vague "source of inspiration". This filing system, created in response to a fleeting instinct, is an integral part of the method of work adopted by the architect and designer, who starts off without preconceptions "“ or "free", as she puts it before drawing inputs from a vast world of references, from Hermès scarves to the works of the great Masters (in the specific case of Policroma). This accumulation, partly spontaneous and party the outcome of in-depth historical knowledge and study, naturally activates a process of synthesis and personal interpretation common to all Cristina Celestino's output. The wall covering collection designed for Cedit was no exception, although in this case the designer was dealing with a project with variable dimensions, reaching up even to the architectural scale. In her own distinctive way, she combined a variety of references. Adolf Loos's passion for coloured types of marble, and Cipollino in particular. Carlo Scarpa's angular metal frames and Marmorino plaster in Venice. The French fashion house's square silk scarves. The entrance halls of Milan palazzos, Gio Ponti, the city's Cathedral. All expressed in the designer's own language: well balanced geometrical forms, subtle colours (shades similar to those of Scarpa himself), an effortless, almost restrained, playful elegance. The mood is that of the homes of the enlightened bourgeoisie who shaped the history of Milan, Celestino's adoptive city and an endless source of inputs. She has worked its interiors, including some of the least expected a 1928 tram, the historic Cucchi confectionery store hybridising her own style with the existing context. An imitative effect which is also the key to the meaning of the new Policroma collection: the marble varieties replicated using the Cedit technology are all from Italian quarries that are virtually "worked out". This revives an increasingly rare material as a "living" presence, in a different form which makes no claim to replace the natural original. Quite the contrary, Celestino immediately states her intention to imitate, by combining marble and Marmorino plaster in some variants with a contrasting frame (a typical feature for her, just as it was for Scarpa), and evoking the centuries-old marble-imitating scagliola plasterwork with a contemporary formula. The types of marble chosen are central to the project's character. Verde Alpi, a favourite with Gio Ponti and often found in Milan entrance halls, features tightly packed patterning. Breccia Capraia, still found in a very few places in Tuscany, has a white background with just a few veins. Cipollino, in the special Ondulato variety in green and red, is patterned with spirals. Rosa Valtoce, on the other hand, was used by the "Veneranda Fabbrica" guild to build Milan Cathedral. It is an iconic stone with dramatic stripes, popular in the past; it is now sourced from one very small quarry in Piedmont which has been virtually abandoned. The many different elements that make up the Policroma collection all reflect the importance of craftsmanship to Cristina Celestino's design style: the modules can be freely mixed and combined, for example to create a concave or convex semicircle, or for the large-scale replication of small features initially conceived as trims, functional details transformed into a dominant motif.There is a return to the theme of the interior, a large or small protected space, conceived as suspended in space and time yet also reassuring and protective. It is designed through its coverings in a stark yet not minimalist way, with intelligence and with no overreaching artistic ambitions. An understated space and an extremely stylish declaration. In Milan style, of course.

Rêves Rêve Rose

florim > Wall tile-stone-brick

A contemporary, luxurious but balanced lifestyle Soft vein patterns and gentle colour contrasts characterise a collection that exudes taste and authenticity, the bright and showy shades of yesterday consigned to memory. Surfaces with luminous, deep and delicate shades restore a sense of preciousness to the space without overpowering the architecture. The collection lends itself to various stylistic interpretations: the warm colours with matte finishes create natural and relaxing atmospheres, the pearl and blue tones emit light and uniqueness, revealing an infinite potential that is waiting to be explored.

Rilievi Nebbia

florim > Wall Paint

The alternation and symbiosis between concave and convex, recessed and raised. Rilievi is a work of design balanced between different historic periods: while the volumetric relief tile modules are inspired by artistic experiments conducted in Italy during the Sixties and Seventies, the large slabs are the outcome of research into materials and technology that has only come to fruition in very recent times. The shadow effects generated on the surfaces of the slabs by the light striking the projecting parts of the modules create an unusual impression of architectural depth found virtually nowhere else in ceramic coverings, laying the bases for a new decoration interior design language. This project simply embodies perfection - a term which certainly sets the bar high in a description of a new product for launch on the market. But when an enlightened manufacturer is capable of encapsulating a designer's personal research in a product to be added to its range, the outcome is a perfect synthesis. A perfect synthesis between untrammelled creativity and market trends. CEDIT had the insight needed to perceive, identify and rework the immense potential of Practice Practice Practice "“ a self-produced project by Zaven (Enrica Cavarzan and Marco Zavagno "“ and realised that its sophisticated design, originated by pure, pristine input (unadulterated by external factors except the noblest of them all, research) could provide the basis for an innovative, successful collection. I might add, a collection unique of its kind. Zaven is also a name that comes with guarantees; the two partners are good at what they do. Their work always starts from personal curiosity and investigations, the study of other stories (as in this case inspiration was drawn from the output of artist and activist Nino Caruso) and individual interests, which are broken down, developed, optimised and prepared for transformation into something fresh.Enrica Cavarzan and Marco Zavagno have a masterly ability to transform their own wishes and passions into design work of the greatest breadth and, as we see here, the widest, richest application. Their use of ceramics as a material is clearly outstanding and reflects a method precisely founded on the desire to look at things from an unusual viewpoint, under a different light. And to be daring. Zaven have an unconventional approach to convention. In the specific case of the Rilievi collection, the "modules" created for CEDIT seem to explode off the walls; in fact, they are constructed by combining the two-dimensional slab with its three-dimensional decor.Rilievi seems to be seeking space. More space. Even though these modules have actually established a dialogue with the wall from which they are born. At the same time, they hypnotise us with their tight sequence of lines, the pattern that is always different although its root is the same, and the intriguing, unusual colours that add another vital factor to the finished product. Their firm grounding in graphic design (and here we have come back to two-dimensional effects, of the kind most often associated with a wall covering) easily evolves into a facade which seems to have been carved with a chisel - although this is not the case. These modules are conceived to convey an impression of movement, and the three models, in seven colour combinations, create a powerful effect on a surface, which is never passive but rather an organic contributor to the forms and colours involved in the fascinating combinations. The slab is very much present and has the same worth and status as the relief pattern associated to it. In the light of this dichotomy between the linear and the sculpted, expressed through the skilfully balanced visual expedients, the use of repetition adds vigour to the module's intrinsic meaning. As we have seen, a rejection of facile, superficial creative dynamics in favour of an investigation reaching above and beyond has always been a central, clearly recognisable feature of this Venice-based duo, who already have impressive international partnerships to their credit, including the London Design Festival, the Kalmar Konstmuseum, the Paris Designer Days, Ca' Foscari University, the Venice Biennale, the Sandretto Re Rebaudengo Foundation, the Sindika Dokolo Foundation and the V-A-C Foundation, and also won the 2018 Wallpaper Design Award. Graphics, advertising and product design: the pair have always opted for a type of design closely linked to the observation of everyday items, followed by their reinterpretation in a version applied to experimentation with materials. This duality, combined with their energetic yet elegant visual language, forms Enrica and Marco's primary code, experienced in this specific context through serial carvings. On walls.

Matrice Essenza

florim > Wallcovering

An atlas of modular signs to be combined in a wide variety of layouts. «We love concrete as a material, its versatility and its plain, austere look. We have completed our carefully designed surfaces with graphic patterning inspired by the human actions of weaving and embroidering.» Barbara Brondi & Marco Rainò To appreciate the profundity of the design project undertaken by Barbara Brondi and Marco Rainò for Cedit, it is both necessary and explanatory to start from the title the collection bears. In modern usage the term Matrice, in Italian, refers to a die or mould used to reproduce an object, but its origins are much more remote, with a meaning closer to the English “matrix”, meaning the underlying basis of something. The root of the word is related to Mater or mother: the name Matrice thus relates to the origin or cause of something. This dichotomy is expressed in several levels within the work of these architects, who study the world from a sophisticated conceptual approach and then transform it into a design. Starting from the idea of ceramic coverings, which have always been a tool not so much of architecture as of interior design, the artists work back to the origin of the surface and its decoration within their own discipline: they look at what we used to call the modern age, where modernity has also brought an uncompromising brutality, and where the use of bare concrete became the statement of an attitude to life with no time to spare for manners. Concrete is originally a liquid material, intended for shaping, which can therefore absorb and retain any type of mark created by the material and mould used to form it. Architects midway between rationalism and brutalism have used the rough-and-ready language of concrete combined with a last, elegant, anthropic decorative motif impressed on the material, that makes the concept of covering superfluous, because its place, in its older meaning of decoration rather than functional cladding, is taken by the regular patterning created in the material itself. There are therefore various grounds for believing that, in this collection, the artists are once again working in architectural terms. Firstly, with a simplicity typical of BRH+, they reduce the initial concepts to their minimal terms. So although this is a collection of coverings for walls, indoor floors, outdoor pavings and curtain walls, a great deal of time was spent on destructuring the idea of the ceramic covering itself. Unfortunately, nowadays there is no space in the contemporary construction sector for the radical approach of the past, so the cladding designed for the building actually lays bare the interior, using the choice of material – accurately interpreted (with shade variation) on the basis of an assortment of various types – to restore visual elegance and a fundamental severity. Attention to scale is another architectural feature: Matrice offers modules with architectural dimensions and different sizes through the development of “large slabs”, eliminating the visual regular grid effect. Thanks to this visual reset, geographic forms are perceived to emerge from dense, grey concrete surfaces decorated as in bygone days by special processes and by weathering during drying. The various types of slab, each an atlas of subtle, vibrant signs on the surfaces, comprise finishes that reproduce the visual effect of reinforced concrete – with the aggregates in the cement more clearly visible, of formwork – with the signs impressed on the concrete by the timber used, of a structured surface resembling bare cement plaster, of ridged and streaked surfaces – with patterning resembling some kinds of linear surface finishing processes – and finally a smooth, or basic version, over which Matrice exercises the dichotomy referred to earlier. It is on these surfaces that Brondi and Rainò have imagined additional design reverberations, a figurative code that rejects the concept of the grid, previously inseparable from that of the module: by means of a vocabulary of graphic marks cut into the slabs with a depth of 3 mm (the width of the gap left between modules during installation), they provide a framework for infinite combinations of possible dialogues. Just as in embroidery, which is based on grids of stitches and geometric repetitions, and where every stitch is at right-angles to another one to construct forms and decorations. Also taken from embroidery is the idea of introducing a degree of “softness” to reduce the stiffness of intentionally deaf surfaces. There is the impression of patterns that can continue for infinity, as in textile weaving, and a scale that, unlike the surface being worked on, is imagined as suspended and lightweight. They may not admit it, but BRH+ know a lot about music, including electronic music, and it appears to me that this organised tangle of infinite signs – unidentifiable without an overview – is rather like the representations of synthesized sounds. Sounds that are produced by machines, and thus “woven” by sampling and overlapping sounds of the most unlikely origins, combined to form jingles which, once heard, are imprinted indelibly on the brain. This may be why I am so interested in the space between this “melodic film” and its deaf, damp substrate. The eyes can navigate this suspended reality without fear of disturbance. So we are faced with different surfaces, different sizes and different graphic signs. But only one colour (surprise!) to prevent a cacophony not just of signs but also of possible interpretations: the artists retain their radical principles (and their generosity), and as curators, a role in which they are skilled, they leave the players (architects and installers) to add their own interpretations. In their hands this colour, expressed in Matrice, will produce motifs on surfaces in living spaces for someone else. This stylish covering and its workmanship will be left to the hands of someone who will probably never read this, but will be on a building site, with the radio playing on a stereo system, concentrating on installing the very pieces we describe. So a radical, apparently silent, design project like this has repercussions for the real world we live in. Matrice has no form of its own but merely acquires the ornamentation drawn on its surfaces by a second group of artists. And here this routine action, standardised by the form approved for production and workmanlike efficiency, is the origin and cause of change, generating a variability of choices and interpretations, on that dusty building site where music plays and mortar flows.

Crayons Buttercream

florim > Synthetic Floor

Color and design through Contemporary Design's characteristic fresh and functional approach. Eight pastel shades, designed to create both lively and balanced compositions, harmonize with each other and with the context. It moves from the dusty 1950s-inspired hues of dove-gray, hazelnut, pink, faded yellow and sky blue to the more decisive shades of dusty gray and moss green, all perfect for creating spaces with both retro style and contemporary character.

Atmosphères Mystère

florim > Wall tile-stone-brick

A collection of profound and mesmerising energy which conveys all the informal elegance of luxurious contemporary spaces Lightness and solidity, combined with a sophisticated colour scheme, evoke the sense of craftsmanship associated with this wonderful stone whose stratified fossils, trapped in the slender sediments formed over the centuries, embody its time-honoured yet contemporary beauty. Tradition and innovation therefore come together in a unique project, creating an attractive surface that respects the culture of places and the history of time.

Rilievi Terra

florim > Wall Paint

The alternation and symbiosis between concave and convex, recessed and raised. Rilievi is a work of design balanced between different historic periods: while the volumetric relief tile modules are inspired by artistic experiments conducted in Italy during the Sixties and Seventies, the large slabs are the outcome of research into materials and technology that has only come to fruition in very recent times. The shadow effects generated on the surfaces of the slabs by the light striking the projecting parts of the modules create an unusual impression of architectural depth found virtually nowhere else in ceramic coverings, laying the bases for a new decoration interior design language. This project simply embodies perfection - a term which certainly sets the bar high in a description of a new product for launch on the market. But when an enlightened manufacturer is capable of encapsulating a designer's personal research in a product to be added to its range, the outcome is a perfect synthesis. A perfect synthesis between untrammelled creativity and market trends. CEDIT had the insight needed to perceive, identify and rework the immense potential of Practice Practice Practice "“ a self-produced project by Zaven (Enrica Cavarzan and Marco Zavagno "“ and realised that its sophisticated design, originated by pure, pristine input (unadulterated by external factors except the noblest of them all, research) could provide the basis for an innovative, successful collection. I might add, a collection unique of its kind. Zaven is also a name that comes with guarantees; the two partners are good at what they do. Their work always starts from personal curiosity and investigations, the study of other stories (as in this case inspiration was drawn from the output of artist and activist Nino Caruso) and individual interests, which are broken down, developed, optimised and prepared for transformation into something fresh.Enrica Cavarzan and Marco Zavagno have a masterly ability to transform their own wishes and passions into design work of the greatest breadth and, as we see here, the widest, richest application. Their use of ceramics as a material is clearly outstanding and reflects a method precisely founded on the desire to look at things from an unusual viewpoint, under a different light. And to be daring. Zaven have an unconventional approach to convention. In the specific case of the Rilievi collection, the "modules" created for CEDIT seem to explode off the walls; in fact, they are constructed by combining the two-dimensional slab with its three-dimensional decor.Rilievi seems to be seeking space. More space. Even though these modules have actually established a dialogue with the wall from which they are born. At the same time, they hypnotise us with their tight sequence of lines, the pattern that is always different although its root is the same, and the intriguing, unusual colours that add another vital factor to the finished product. Their firm grounding in graphic design (and here we have come back to two-dimensional effects, of the kind most often associated with a wall covering) easily evolves into a facade which seems to have been carved with a chisel - although this is not the case. These modules are conceived to convey an impression of movement, and the three models, in seven colour combinations, create a powerful effect on a surface, which is never passive but rather an organic contributor to the forms and colours involved in the fascinating combinations. The slab is very much present and has the same worth and status as the relief pattern associated to it. In the light of this dichotomy between the linear and the sculpted, expressed through the skilfully balanced visual expedients, the use of repetition adds vigour to the module's intrinsic meaning. As we have seen, a rejection of facile, superficial creative dynamics in favour of an investigation reaching above and beyond has always been a central, clearly recognisable feature of this Venice-based duo, who already have impressive international partnerships to their credit, including the London Design Festival, the Kalmar Konstmuseum, the Paris Designer Days, Ca' Foscari University, the Venice Biennale, the Sandretto Re Rebaudengo Foundation, the Sindika Dokolo Foundation and the V-A-C Foundation, and also won the 2018 Wallpaper Design Award. Graphics, advertising and product design: the pair have always opted for a type of design closely linked to the observation of everyday items, followed by their reinterpretation in a version applied to experimentation with materials. This duality, combined with their energetic yet elegant visual language, forms Enrica and Marco's primary code, experienced in this specific context through serial carvings. On walls.

Airtech Basel_Grey

florim > Wall tile-stone-brick

Airtech/ is a collection designed to create spaces that interact with each other in a uniform and discreet manner. The collection offers six stones available in shades of gray, the quintessential metropolitan color. The 60x120 cm size with a high-gloss finish gives a bright and appealing nuance to this very austere project. There are two available thicknesses, 9 mm and 20 mm.

I Filati San Marco Blu di Prussia

florim > Carpet

From the art of fabric, to enveloping spaces From lampas and jacquard, all the way to the simplest silk fabrics, from rich, baroque motifs to more optical, geometric patterns, all of these fabrics share an extremely natural look. The collection's nine surfaces are inspired by Rubelli's signature precious fabrics that, in turn, are born from the contemporary reworking of several decorative motifs coming from the noble Venetian heritage of weaving.

Biotech Crema Stone

florim > Wall tile-stone-brick

The Biotech collection by Florim embraces the principles of sustainable architecture. The collection is born from a sustainable and virtuous approach and is part of <a href="https://www.florim.com/en/company/sustainability/carbonzero-florim/">CarbonZero</a>, Florim's range of Carbon Neutral surfaces. Florim provides the scope to contribute to sustainable architecture projects with green design methods, proposing materials that are made with a particular focus on the energy efficiency of processes, removing pollutants, and selecting suppliers and stakeholders that can comply with the established quality parameters. Sustainable architecture could be described as contemporary organic architecture. It means designing and constructing green, eco-friendly buildings, with the aim of protecting the environment and human well-being by taking an ethical stance towards ecosystems. A systematic approach, the broadest possible interdisciplinarity and parsimonious use of resources all play a key part in the design process. Sustainable architecture seeks to establish a balanced relationship between the natural environment and the built environment, satisfying the needs of the people of today without compromising future generations through indiscriminate use of resources.

Cromatica Verde

florim > Wall Paint

A lexicon of colour shades for mixing. A large size and its submultiples. «This work represents a reflection on colour, and above all a proposal on how to transfer the multiplicity of shades typical of a hand-crafted piece into a project produced on a large scale.» Andrea Trimarchi & Simone Farresin Studio Formafantasma base their work in the design world on a strong vocation for research. Simone Farresin and Andrea Trimarchi view every project as an opportunity for study and the acquisition of new knowledge, and their love of speculation establishes a dialectic rapport with the situations offered by each new client. Whether it involves a material, a type or a production method, the first phase of their design process is the mapping of what the specific case places at their disposal. With Cedit, an analysis of the company's past and present was central to the inputs. Inevitably, since "Looking back to look forward" has been the design duo's mission statement for years. In this case, in particular, the company's history was a real treasure trove, a fine blend of memory and technology: on the one hand, the excellence of production technologies now extended with the added potential arising from the engineering of large-sized ceramic tiles, and on the other a wealth of experience build up with great designers of the past, from Zanuso to Noorda, through to Ettore Sottsass. Andrea and Simone decided to focus on Sottsass - who started designing for Cedit back in the late Seventies - and made an in-depth study of one of the colour charts he developed towards the end of the Nineties. A spread of colours which gave its name to the "41 Colors" collection, included in the catalogue of the period as a real alphabet for what has proved to be a lasting design language. Colour was much more than just a compulsory step in the dialogue between designer and producer, since Sottsass had already discovered the power of the mystery intrinsic to this universe of invention. With Cedit the master-designer, a long-established lover of ceramics and their crafted unpredictability, found a way of transferring his personal feeling for colour to a wide audience, through industrial mass production. And this assumption is another factor Formafantasma have inherited, interpreting it today with new, even more efficient technical resources just as capable of expressing the secrets of colour. «The concept of colour "in isolation" - Sottsass explained in a 1992 text - classified colour, Pantone, as they call it now, "scientific" colour, is something I still refuse to accept. (...) Colours, the idea of colour, are always intangible, they slip slowly away like words, that run through your fingers, like poetry, which you can never keep hold of, like a good story.» And Formafantasma seem to have chosen that distinction between colour "in isolation" and "intangible" yet ever-present colour as the basis of their work. However, their approach draws on their unique vocation for research and the technical resources of the third millennium. «This work - they explain to us - is a reflection on colour, and above all on how to bring the multiplicity of shades typical of a hand-crafted piece into a large-scale project.» The designers look at large, monochrome slabs and turn to the engineers for details of their secrets, their processing stages, the phases in their production. They appreciate that the colour of ceramic material, its ineffable secret, can still be present in the series and large tile sizes in which Cedit leads the way. They understand that this is, in itself, an expressive power which does not need channelling into forms, motifs and signs. But above all, they treat the surface as a large canvas on which they spread pure colour, which tends to be uniform but in fact is never really a "scientific", totally monochrome hue: it is not a Pantone. And this is the source of the fundamental insight, which only children of the transition from the analogue to the digital era could achieve, the reward for those who draw on the past to look to the future. The designers cut the slab into lots of regular pieces, not necessarily of the same size. They restore its identity as a "tile", a familiar name with something ancient about it, but which stands for a module, a unit of measurement, a building block. There is nothing nostalgic about this - on the contrary, the vision is completely new, and the portions of slab created can be reassembled with no restrictions, breaking down the unity of the whole and reviving its essence starting from its structure. As the cards in the pack are shuffled, what emerges is not a figure or motif but the representation of colour itself and its physical nature. It is live matter, born from the meeting of vibrating forces, the mixing of ever-varying percentages of the basic ingredients. And Formafantasma present us with the corpuscular, fragmented essence of these small frames of space and crystallised time, which reveal the code and formula of their composition. So Cromatica is a collection made up of six colours which actually have an infinite number of declinations and compositional possibilities. It is a "discrete" combination in the mathematical sense of the term, capable of generating multiple, variable subsets. At the same time, each slab can be used in its entirety, leaving the impression of analogue continuity unchanged. But what really amazes is the comparison and dialogue between the two approaches: a stroke of genius, laying clear the mysterious appeal the artificial reproduction of colour has always held for mankind. Because, as Sottsass said, «colours are language, a powerful, magical, intangible, flexible, continuous material, in which existence is made manifest, the existence that lives in time and space».

Buildtech/2.0 Teal

florim > Synthetic Floor

Buildtech/2.0 assures the realization of ever-current projects To the four colors, White, Bone, Mud and Coal in Tinta Unita, Granigliata and Cemento, 10 solid bold colors are being added, only intensifying the "brutality".

Floortech FLOOR 1.0

florim > Wall tile-stone-brick

A modern evolution of space The stone effects for floor and wall applications proposed within this collection are intended to continue the research path of Architectural Design in a dynamic of constant challenge and experimentation, returning a strong and personal design that gives life to forms of dwelling.

Chimera Empatia Nero

florim > Wall tile-stone-brick

In Chimera, Elena Salmistraro merges rigour with self-expression, in a graphic grammar laden with symbolic meaning. Empatia speaks to the emotions with graphics that interpret, through a highly individual abstract code, the stage make-up of a clown, with the aid of superimposed geometric forms and images. Radici is a tribal statement, a tribute to primitive ritual custom, evoked by the interplay between a sequence of triangles and rectangles and a set of figurative fragments. Ritmo is inspired by fabrics, suggesting the rhythmic alternation of woven yarns through a largely linear pattern. In Colore, the upheaval of a background of small isolated spots generated by a parametric digital program is combined with densely packed repeated forms. "The Chimera collection is rather like a book with four different chapters: I set out to differentiate these graphic motifs to create four totally different stories." Elena Salmistraro It all starts with drawing. A passion for drawing. An obsession with drawing. Drawings like spider-webs, obsessively filling spaces, in a kind of manual choreography or gymnastics, a continuous flow. Elena Salmistraro draws all the time. She draws everywhere. Mostly on loose sheets or random surfaces. First and foremost with pen and pencil. Her drawings only acquire colour at a later stage. Often - just like Alessandro Mendini used to do - she draws "monsters": fascinating yet disturbing, subversive forms. The denser, more contorted the shape, the more obvious its underlying truth. For Elena, drawing is an intimate act. It is relaxing. And therapeutic. With an unrivalled communicative strength. Because drawing gives shape to ideas: you both give form to the world and reveal yourself. This passion, combined with natural graphic talent, has guided Elena Salmistraro in her project for Cedit: an experimental series of ceramic slabs produced using a high-definition 3D decorative technique. The explicit aim is to transform surfaces beyond their original flatness so that a new, visual and tactile, three-dimensional personality emerges, sweeping aside the coldness and uniformity that ceramic objects often inevitably convey.Elena Salmistraro has always viewed ceramics as a democratic material, in view of their accessibility, and the infinite potentials for shaping matter that they provide. She began working and experimenting with ceramics very early in her career, just after she graduated from the Milan Politecnico in 2008. She came into contact with small artistic craft firms specialising in smallproduction lots, and cut her teeth on projects that demanded the hand-processing of every detail, and finishes of high artistic value, for the high end of the market. The large corporations and galleries came later, but here again Elena kept faith with her desire to make mass-produced pieces unique, and to combine artistic value with specifically industrial characteristics. The monkey-shaped Primates vases reflect this method and intention, aiming to excite, surprise and charm. Antiminimalist and hyper-figurative, playful, ironic and a rich image-maker, often drawing on anthropology and magic, over the years Salmistraro has built up her own fantastic universe, inhabited by ceramic bestiaries, painted jungles and a cabinet like a one-eyed cyclops , always finding inspiration and inputs in nature and always aiming to reveal the extraordinary in the everyday. Given this background, it was almost inevitable she would work with Cedit: constantly seeking new talents and new approaches, as well as designs that break down the boundaries of ceramics and release them into the realm of art and innovation, the Modena company has recognised Elena Salmistraro as a leading contemporary creative spirit and involved her in a project intended to experiment with fresh ideas in materials and synaesthetics.Salmistraro's collection for Cedit is entitled Chimera and consists of large ceramic slabs, which can be enjoyed not only visually, through their patterns and colours, but also on a tactile level. Like the chimera in the "grotesque" tradition, monstrous in the etymological sense of the word with its merging of hybrid animal and vegetable shapes, the Cedit project attempts to originate a synaesthetic form of ceramics, through a three-dimensional development that exactly reproduces the texture of leathers and fabrics, creating an absolutely new kind of layered effect, with a tactile awareness that recalls the passion of grand master Ettore Sottsass for "surfaces that talk". And the surfaces of the slabs Salmistraro has created really seem to talk: in Empatia clown faces add theatricality to the cold gleam of marbles, interspersed with references to Art Déco graphics; Radici uses the textures of leathers and hide as if to re-establish a link between ceramics and other materials at the origins of human activity and creativity; in Ritmo the texture of cloth dialogues with pottery, almost in homage to the tactile rationalism of warp and weft, of which Bauhaus pioneer Anni Albers was one of the most expressive past interpreters ; finally, Colore has a spotted base generated by computer to underline the contrast between analogue and digital, the graphic sign and the matter into which it is impressed. It is an aesthetic of superimposition and mixing, and especially of synaesthesia: as in her drawings, in the Chimera slabs Elena Salmistraro's art is one of movement and acceleration. A process not of representation but of exploration. Of the world and of oneself. Almost a kind of Zen, for distancing oneself from the world to understand it more fully. In every sense.

Matrice Struttura

florim > Wallcovering

An atlas of modular signs to be combined in a wide variety of layouts. «We love concrete as a material, its versatility and its plain, austere look. We have completed our carefully designed surfaces with graphic patterning inspired by the human actions of weaving and embroidering.» Barbara Brondi & Marco Rainò To appreciate the profundity of the design project undertaken by Barbara Brondi and Marco Rainò for Cedit, it is both necessary and explanatory to start from the title the collection bears. In modern usage the term Matrice, in Italian, refers to a die or mould used to reproduce an object, but its origins are much more remote, with a meaning closer to the English “matrix”, meaning the underlying basis of something. The root of the word is related to Mater or mother: the name Matrice thus relates to the origin or cause of something. This dichotomy is expressed in several levels within the work of these architects, who study the world from a sophisticated conceptual approach and then transform it into a design. Starting from the idea of ceramic coverings, which have always been a tool not so much of architecture as of interior design, the artists work back to the origin of the surface and its decoration within their own discipline: they look at what we used to call the modern age, where modernity has also brought an uncompromising brutality, and where the use of bare concrete became the statement of an attitude to life with no time to spare for manners. Concrete is originally a liquid material, intended for shaping, which can therefore absorb and retain any type of mark created by the material and mould used to form it. Architects midway between rationalism and brutalism have used the rough-and-ready language of concrete combined with a last, elegant, anthropic decorative motif impressed on the material, that makes the concept of covering superfluous, because its place, in its older meaning of decoration rather than functional cladding, is taken by the regular patterning created in the material itself. There are therefore various grounds for believing that, in this collection, the artists are once again working in architectural terms. Firstly, with a simplicity typical of BRH+, they reduce the initial concepts to their minimal terms. So although this is a collection of coverings for walls, indoor floors, outdoor pavings and curtain walls, a great deal of time was spent on destructuring the idea of the ceramic covering itself. Unfortunately, nowadays there is no space in the contemporary construction sector for the radical approach of the past, so the cladding designed for the building actually lays bare the interior, using the choice of material – accurately interpreted (with shade variation) on the basis of an assortment of various types – to restore visual elegance and a fundamental severity. Attention to scale is another architectural feature: Matrice offers modules with architectural dimensions and different sizes through the development of “large slabs”, eliminating the visual regular grid effect. Thanks to this visual reset, geographic forms are perceived to emerge from dense, grey concrete surfaces decorated as in bygone days by special processes and by weathering during drying. The various types of slab, each an atlas of subtle, vibrant signs on the surfaces, comprise finishes that reproduce the visual effect of reinforced concrete – with the aggregates in the cement more clearly visible, of formwork – with the signs impressed on the concrete by the timber used, of a structured surface resembling bare cement plaster, of ridged and streaked surfaces – with patterning resembling some kinds of linear surface finishing processes – and finally a smooth, or basic version, over which Matrice exercises the dichotomy referred to earlier. It is on these surfaces that Brondi and Rainò have imagined additional design reverberations, a figurative code that rejects the concept of the grid, previously inseparable from that of the module: by means of a vocabulary of graphic marks cut into the slabs with a depth of 3 mm (the width of the gap left between modules during installation), they provide a framework for infinite combinations of possible dialogues. Just as in embroidery, which is based on grids of stitches and geometric repetitions, and where every stitch is at right-angles to another one to construct forms and decorations. Also taken from embroidery is the idea of introducing a degree of “softness” to reduce the stiffness of intentionally deaf surfaces. There is the impression of patterns that can continue for infinity, as in textile weaving, and a scale that, unlike the surface being worked on, is imagined as suspended and lightweight. They may not admit it, but BRH+ know a lot about music, including electronic music, and it appears to me that this organised tangle of infinite signs – unidentifiable without an overview – is rather like the representations of synthesized sounds. Sounds that are produced by machines, and thus “woven” by sampling and overlapping sounds of the most unlikely origins, combined to form jingles which, once heard, are imprinted indelibly on the brain. This may be why I am so interested in the space between this “melodic film” and its deaf, damp substrate. The eyes can navigate this suspended reality without fear of disturbance. So we are faced with different surfaces, different sizes and different graphic signs. But only one colour (surprise!) to prevent a cacophony not just of signs but also of possible interpretations: the artists retain their radical principles (and their generosity), and as curators, a role in which they are skilled, they leave the players (architects and installers) to add their own interpretations. In their hands this colour, expressed in Matrice, will produce motifs on surfaces in living spaces for someone else. This stylish covering and its workmanship will be left to the hands of someone who will probably never read this, but will be on a building site, with the radio playing on a stereo system, concentrating on installing the very pieces we describe. So a radical, apparently silent, design project like this has repercussions for the real world we live in. Matrice has no form of its own but merely acquires the ornamentation drawn on its surfaces by a second group of artists. And here this routine action, standardised by the form approved for production and workmanlike efficiency, is the origin and cause of change, generating a variability of choices and interpretations, on that dusty building site where music plays and mortar flows.

Compatta Pisé Limo

florim > Wall tile-stone-brick

A passion for earth as a natural material and for rammed earth, an ancient construction technique. The combination of these patterns evolves into the concept of Pisé Inserti, more slabs of immense decorative impact, generated by the two-dimensional criss-crossing of exquisite, rounded geometrical forms: the designer combines the natural earthen shades with apparently random curved lines that evoke the uneven trapezia with rounded corners used by Gio Ponti. These are also available in the large 120x280 cm size and 6 mm thickness in three variants: Pisé Inserti A, Pisé Inserti B and Pisé Inserti C. COMPATTA’s potential is further enhanced by three-dimensional subjects of varying shapes, which can be built up into mesh-backed mosaics to create sculptural forms on walls. These extensions to the collection are called Inserti Melange, Inserti Sabbia-Argilla and Inserti Limo-Ghiaia and are produced in 9 mm thickness and 30x30 cm size. The collection is born from a sustainable and virtuous approach and is part of <a href="https://www.florim.com/en/company/sustainability/carbonzero-florim/">CarbonZero</a>, Florim's range of Carbon Neutral surfaces. The COMPATTA collection, designed by Federico Peri, combines a passion for earth as a natural material and an interest in a very ancient construction technique. The primary inspiration derives from close observation of the many strata within the ground and the mixtures of elementary particles of which it consists. The design concept is completed by reference to the age-old rammed earth construction technique, used in northern Jordan since the eighth millennium BCE and widely applied in Yemen in many other desert or rural settings until the mid 19thC. In this method, the raw earth is compacted inside wooden formwork to construct continuous structural walls, bearing walls or partitions inside homes, with a natural decorative effect due to the layering of the different shades of clay used. When creating his project for CEDIT, Peri was also influenced by several design inputs: from rural African homes to the clear, simple geometric forms and curved lines typical of the work of Gio Ponti, the curves central to the modernist gardens of Brazilian landscape artist Roberto Burle Marx, and the three-dimensional mosaics of English sculptor William Mitchell. In his murals in concrete, glass and recycled materials, Mitchell seems to combine some of the typical features of a variety of artistic movements, from Modernism to Brutalism, and also shows awareness of the issues concerning the structure of the landscape and the relationship with nature at the heart of Land Art. COMPATTA thus embodies strong links to the world of art and architecture, while bringing natural impressions with a remote, primitive flavour into modern living-spaces.

Essential Mood Color Powder 02

florim > Wall Paint

A sense of essentiality emerges from the visual and tactile sensations fused in this Creative Design collection. The distinguishing features of the Essential Mood design are fluid surfaces, material qualities and full bodies that extend without boundaries, promoting a harmonious flow between spaces and constant interplay between environments and the people in them. It makes places into cosy, reassuring refuges where they can take centre stage. Produced for interior design schemes, housing and commercial premises, the collection espouses warm, timeless atmospheres where people can recharge their batteries and get onto the same wavelength as the world around them. Spaces with neutral, comforting colours and natural features come together in a design that underlines the need for everyone to look after themselves and seek revitalizing experiences, now and in the future. The collection is born from a sustainable and virtuous approach and is part of <a href="https://www.florim.com/en/company/sustainability/carbonzero-florim/">CarbonZero</a>, Florim's range of Carbon Neutral surfaces.

Studios Cloud

florim > Synthetic Floor

Studios, with its sophisticated but discrete personality, defines the evolutionary path of modern cement-inspired surfaces for interior architecture. The structure of the surfaces, delicately textured, suggests the effect of the manual skill and plasticity of the hand crafted finish. Essential but intense, it is highlighted by meeting natural or artificial light.

Biotech Soap Stone

florim > Wall tile-stone-brick

The Biotech collection by Florim embraces the principles of sustainable architecture. The collection is born from a sustainable and virtuous approach and is part of <a href="https://www.florim.com/en/company/sustainability/carbonzero-florim/">CarbonZero</a>, Florim's range of Carbon Neutral surfaces. Florim provides the scope to contribute to sustainable architecture projects with green design methods, proposing materials that are made with a particular focus on the energy efficiency of processes, removing pollutants, and selecting suppliers and stakeholders that can comply with the established quality parameters. Sustainable architecture could be described as contemporary organic architecture. It means designing and constructing green, eco-friendly buildings, with the aim of protecting the environment and human well-being by taking an ethical stance towards ecosystems. A systematic approach, the broadest possible interdisciplinarity and parsimonious use of resources all play a key part in the design process. Sustainable architecture seeks to establish a balanced relationship between the natural environment and the built environment, satisfying the needs of the people of today without compromising future generations through indiscriminate use of resources.

Plimatech Plimawhite/01

florim > Floor tile-stone

The inspiration for Florim's Plimatech Architectural design comes from high up in the Martell Valley of the Alto Adige region. The aesthetic heterogeneity characteristic of natural stone is captured in the collection through three graphic variants. 01, the most minimalist is softly veined and, especially in the large format, is particularly appropriate to confer character on architecture of more essential taste. 02 has a more variegated appearance, with slight shading tending towards white, designed to add a rough, textural touch to spaces. Finally, 03 is characterized by a high number of crystalline formations that give it a wavier line, ideal for design contexts that, between interior and exterior spaces, pursue a dialogue with the surrounding natural environment. In addition to this, the range of decorations is completed with the 30x60 wall module and 30x60 3D wall module, both proposed for the graphic variant 02 in all colors.

Hi-Wood Almond

florim > Floor tile-stone

A new luster fills the home with the natural elegance of a timeless material. From almond to gray and warm hues of walnut, Hi-Wood offers a deliberately limited range - two sizes and a single thickness - to emphasize the clean lines of the collection, perfectly suited to simple and minimal rooms. The range, which is extremely functional, will be available in five colors, two finishes (natural and glossy), two sizes and only one thickness of 9 mm.Hi-Wood is an understated, essential series whose uniqueness lies in the presence of a unique light variant, to date the only polished wood in the range.

Crayons Old Lace

florim > Synthetic Floor

Color and design through Contemporary Design's characteristic fresh and functional approach. Eight pastel shades, designed to create both lively and balanced compositions, harmonize with each other and with the context. It moves from the dusty 1950s-inspired hues of dove-gray, hazelnut, pink, faded yellow and sky blue to the more decisive shades of dusty gray and moss green, all perfect for creating spaces with both retro style and contemporary character.

Policroma Breccia

florim > Wall tile-stone-brick

Recurring geometries, combinations of figures. Marble and marmorino plaster: comparison and dialogue. The collection is completed by a linear listello tile with the motif of a sequence of vertical rectangular blocks, which can be combined with the slabs to further enrich compositions involving continuous ceramic surfaces cladding. "Another reference is the use of Italian marbles on the verge of extinction, rare marbles such as Rosa Valtoce, the marble used in Milan Cathedral." Cristina Celestino Cristina Celestino's smartphone contains a folder of images entitled "Milan". Photographs that are more like notes. Photographs of architectural features, materials or details of shapes encountered by chance during a walk, but they cannot be described as merely a vague "source of inspiration". This filing system, created in response to a fleeting instinct, is an integral part of the method of work adopted by the architect and designer, who starts off without preconceptions "“ or "free", as she puts it before drawing inputs from a vast world of references, from Hermès scarves to the works of the great Masters (in the specific case of Policroma). This accumulation, partly spontaneous and party the outcome of in-depth historical knowledge and study, naturally activates a process of synthesis and personal interpretation common to all Cristina Celestino's output. The wall covering collection designed for Cedit was no exception, although in this case the designer was dealing with a project with variable dimensions, reaching up even to the architectural scale. In her own distinctive way, she combined a variety of references. Adolf Loos's passion for coloured types of marble, and Cipollino in particular. Carlo Scarpa's angular metal frames and Marmorino plaster in Venice. The French fashion house's square silk scarves. The entrance halls of Milan palazzos, Gio Ponti, the city's Cathedral. All expressed in the designer's own language: well balanced geometrical forms, subtle colours (shades similar to those of Scarpa himself), an effortless, almost restrained, playful elegance. The mood is that of the homes of the enlightened bourgeoisie who shaped the history of Milan, Celestino's adoptive city and an endless source of inputs. She has worked its interiors, including some of the least expected a 1928 tram, the historic Cucchi confectionery store hybridising her own style with the existing context. An imitative effect which is also the key to the meaning of the new Policroma collection: the marble varieties replicated using the Cedit technology are all from Italian quarries that are virtually "worked out". This revives an increasingly rare material as a "living" presence, in a different form which makes no claim to replace the natural original. Quite the contrary, Celestino immediately states her intention to imitate, by combining marble and Marmorino plaster in some variants with a contrasting frame (a typical feature for her, just as it was for Scarpa), and evoking the centuries-old marble-imitating scagliola plasterwork with a contemporary formula. The types of marble chosen are central to the project's character. Verde Alpi, a favourite with Gio Ponti and often found in Milan entrance halls, features tightly packed patterning. Breccia Capraia, still found in a very few places in Tuscany, has a white background with just a few veins. Cipollino, in the special Ondulato variety in green and red, is patterned with spirals. Rosa Valtoce, on the other hand, was used by the "Veneranda Fabbrica" guild to build Milan Cathedral. It is an iconic stone with dramatic stripes, popular in the past; it is now sourced from one very small quarry in Piedmont which has been virtually abandoned. The many different elements that make up the Policroma collection all reflect the importance of craftsmanship to Cristina Celestino's design style: the modules can be freely mixed and combined, for example to create a concave or convex semicircle, or for the large-scale replication of small features initially conceived as trims, functional details transformed into a dominant motif.There is a return to the theme of the interior, a large or small protected space, conceived as suspended in space and time yet also reassuring and protective. It is designed through its coverings in a stark yet not minimalist way, with intelligence and with no overreaching artistic ambitions. An understated space and an extremely stylish declaration. In Milan style, of course.

I Classici Decò Wood Black

florim > Floor tile-stone

"I Classici" is born as a developing container, ready to welcome new inspirations. A bold proposal comes from the ever attentive observance of those who watch the latest trends. I Classici provides great personalization to the space, a play of strong contrasts to create an uncompromising design. The rigid purity of the marble blends with the varnished effect of a modern wood.

Sensi White Lithos

florim > Floor tile-stone

Lightness, Earth, Sensoriality The Sensi collection also features a decorative mosaic made from recycled glass made from disused TV and PC screens. This mosaic, manufactured by a process in which human hands play a role, has a distinctive surface structure. Due to the nature of the recycled glass and the production cycle, every tiny chip is different from the others, creating a dynamic surface. Soft, velvety or structured to the touch, it dialogues with the light and may become shiny or matte. This product also derives its uniqueness from its colour. Every chip is unique and has its own shades of the same tone. Developed with close attention to environmental impact, "Sensi" is the perfect synthesis of innovation and sustainability and also a virtuous example of circular economy. The collection is made over 90% natural raw materials and up to 41% of recycled materials. "Sensi" is the result of up to 100% sustainable production process, both in terms of water consumption and self-generated electricity.

Woodslate Life WOODCHUNK

florim > Floor tile-stone

A rustic look combined with a clean, modern sensibility. The collection toys with the native materials of slate and oak wood, interpreted on a versatile and appealing color scale, from gray to hazelnut, allowing different natural inspirations to be combined with ease. The clean simplicity of wood-effect planks can thus become the perfect backdrop against which to enhance the material texture of slate-effect surfaces, or become a distinctive element of the space thanks to the herringbone decorations. The delicate grain of the slate and the gentle knots of the wood then fit easily into the interior, blending with different furniture styles, from the most modern and minimalist lacquered surfaces to elements with a rough, industrial feel in painted metal or stainless steel. Whether used in a cozy retail space or in a modern domestic context, the surfaces of the Woodslate Life collection will add an authentic and, at the same time, contemporary touch to any environment, without disregarding the functionality of Made in Florim porcelain stoneware products.

Prexious White Fantasy

florim > Wall tile-stone-brick

Six stone essences, rare, precious and extraordinarily elegant make their substance available to become icons of exclusivity. The harmonious development of the design that is unveiled by placing the large surface sheets alongside one another is another distinguishing factor, as are the precious surface finishes, glossy and bright or delicately satin-finished.

Stones & More 2.0 Stone Marfil

florim > Floor tile-stone

A refined selection of stone and marble breathes life into a new container A harmonious sobriety accompanies the gaze on the discrete and perfect architecture to breathe life into environments permeated with the balanced synthesis of crafting skill and industrial capacity. The play on the contrasts between tradition and modernism creates an atmosphere suspended between memory and future. The structure and full body of the finishes enhance the space with popular details. The eclectic and refined spirit of Stones&More 2.0 is expressed through the harmony of elegant material suggestions, smooth and reflective surfaces, to meet both the visual and tactile needs. Stones&More 2.0 also narrates its refined naturalness in the Florim Magnum Oversize project, where the large size surfaces are an invitation to enter and share the emotion of an even more enchanting dimension. Stones&More 2.0 is recommended for floor and wall applications in residential settings, but also for medium-high traffic applications. Thanks to the available innovative technologies, the development of the available sizes and finishes is offered for each surface available in the catalog, favouring a wide range of solutions.

Flowtech Russet

florim > Floor plank

Out of the study of metal and its evolutionary transformation, FLOWTECH is born The attention to detail and the perfect colour balance of the three available versions, combined with the vast selection of sizes in 9 mm and 6 mm thickness options (large Magnum Oversize sheets) boldly express the architectural versatility of Florim brand that meets the needs of professionals with design solutions suitable for any application.

Cromatica Opale

florim > Wall Paint

A lexicon of colour shades for mixing. A large size and its submultiples. «This work represents a reflection on colour, and above all a proposal on how to transfer the multiplicity of shades typical of a hand-crafted piece into a project produced on a large scale.» Andrea Trimarchi & Simone Farresin Studio Formafantasma base their work in the design world on a strong vocation for research. Simone Farresin and Andrea Trimarchi view every project as an opportunity for study and the acquisition of new knowledge, and their love of speculation establishes a dialectic rapport with the situations offered by each new client. Whether it involves a material, a type or a production method, the first phase of their design process is the mapping of what the specific case places at their disposal. With Cedit, an analysis of the company's past and present was central to the inputs. Inevitably, since "Looking back to look forward" has been the design duo's mission statement for years. In this case, in particular, the company's history was a real treasure trove, a fine blend of memory and technology: on the one hand, the excellence of production technologies now extended with the added potential arising from the engineering of large-sized ceramic tiles, and on the other a wealth of experience build up with great designers of the past, from Zanuso to Noorda, through to Ettore Sottsass. Andrea and Simone decided to focus on Sottsass - who started designing for Cedit back in the late Seventies - and made an in-depth study of one of the colour charts he developed towards the end of the Nineties. A spread of colours which gave its name to the "41 Colors" collection, included in the catalogue of the period as a real alphabet for what has proved to be a lasting design language. Colour was much more than just a compulsory step in the dialogue between designer and producer, since Sottsass had already discovered the power of the mystery intrinsic to this universe of invention. With Cedit the master-designer, a long-established lover of ceramics and their crafted unpredictability, found a way of transferring his personal feeling for colour to a wide audience, through industrial mass production. And this assumption is another factor Formafantasma have inherited, interpreting it today with new, even more efficient technical resources just as capable of expressing the secrets of colour. «The concept of colour "in isolation" - Sottsass explained in a 1992 text - classified colour, Pantone, as they call it now, "scientific" colour, is something I still refuse to accept. (...) Colours, the idea of colour, are always intangible, they slip slowly away like words, that run through your fingers, like poetry, which you can never keep hold of, like a good story.» And Formafantasma seem to have chosen that distinction between colour "in isolation" and "intangible" yet ever-present colour as the basis of their work. However, their approach draws on their unique vocation for research and the technical resources of the third millennium. «This work - they explain to us - is a reflection on colour, and above all on how to bring the multiplicity of shades typical of a hand-crafted piece into a large-scale project.» The designers look at large, monochrome slabs and turn to the engineers for details of their secrets, their processing stages, the phases in their production. They appreciate that the colour of ceramic material, its ineffable secret, can still be present in the series and large tile sizes in which Cedit leads the way. They understand that this is, in itself, an expressive power which does not need channelling into forms, motifs and signs. But above all, they treat the surface as a large canvas on which they spread pure colour, which tends to be uniform but in fact is never really a "scientific", totally monochrome hue: it is not a Pantone. And this is the source of the fundamental insight, which only children of the transition from the analogue to the digital era could achieve, the reward for those who draw on the past to look to the future. The designers cut the slab into lots of regular pieces, not necessarily of the same size. They restore its identity as a "tile", a familiar name with something ancient about it, but which stands for a module, a unit of measurement, a building block. There is nothing nostalgic about this - on the contrary, the vision is completely new, and the portions of slab created can be reassembled with no restrictions, breaking down the unity of the whole and reviving its essence starting from its structure. As the cards in the pack are shuffled, what emerges is not a figure or motif but the representation of colour itself and its physical nature. It is live matter, born from the meeting of vibrating forces, the mixing of ever-varying percentages of the basic ingredients. And Formafantasma present us with the corpuscular, fragmented essence of these small frames of space and crystallised time, which reveal the code and formula of their composition. So Cromatica is a collection made up of six colours which actually have an infinite number of declinations and compositional possibilities. It is a "discrete" combination in the mathematical sense of the term, capable of generating multiple, variable subsets. At the same time, each slab can be used in its entirety, leaving the impression of analogue continuity unchanged. But what really amazes is the comparison and dialogue between the two approaches: a stroke of genius, laying clear the mysterious appeal the artificial reproduction of colour has always held for mankind. Because, as Sottsass said, «colours are language, a powerful, magical, intangible, flexible, continuous material, in which existence is made manifest, the existence that lives in time and space».