Giulio Ceppi interviewed by Cristina Morozzi

A process explorer.
Giulio Ceppi, born on the Como lake, choose to live in Milan. He graduated from the Milan Polytechnic; he is professor of industrial design, founder and director of Total Tool, an integrated consulting company in the design field. He defines himself as a curious person.

"The lesson of masters, such as Achille Castiglioni and Bruno Munari", he declares, "taught me the value of questioning".
I am a designer", he continues, "who works on processes, intended as exploration operations, which can take a long time, based on asking questions".

He is an eclectic person who works between architecture, design and art. He did a lot, starting from materials and working on transfers, as in the case of silicone in collaboration with Essevigomma, for the development of products for Alessi and Guzzini. Currently, he has started a partnership with Arkimia of Mauro Gaspari, a mother-of-pearl manufacturer, for applications of this precious material as a surface finish and with a Swiss company, Kindof, specialized in steel rod to create a collection of outdoor furniture. Among his major projects, the Villoresi Autogrill, an intricate work of about eight years, including architecture, design and communication.

In October 2019 in Milan, at the Design Film Festival, a movie "Scollamenti Temporali" was shown, also on display at the Milan Triennale (07/06- 08/08), which presented some of his collages created by contaminating reproductions of classical paintings with advertising images. An experiment also endowed with social value, since the prisoners of Palermo and San Vittore in Milan collaborated in its realization.

In the field of communication, he conceived an exhibition, "Existing objects advertising makes Design" (Milan Triennale, 25/11/2005), based on the "existable" neologism, invented by the philosopher Fulvio Carmagnola, which proposed objects that could exist. Among his latest publications "Biogenic people into design tales" (List lab Laboratory, Trento, 2014) tells the characters he met in his professional career that are important for his education. "As a teacher," he says, "I have always encouraged my students to get to know. I believe in physical contact and relationships with people. We do things, as Achille Castiglioni argued, to transform people's behaviour".

He is working on an Ocean Explorer project, commissioned by a patron, designed to house 120 scientists who will tell what they are doing to save the oceans.