«LOVE IS MORE»
Luciana Di Virgilio and Gianni Veneziano
Welcome to our virtual home. We are Luciana and Gianni, in art Di Virgilio Veneziano and this is our story in which imagination is the tool, innovation is the engine and love is our sap. A story told through chapters, where our works, chosen from the many made over the years, will guide you to discover our poetics.
We work together with a desire to span the imagination 360 degrees and embrace the entire design world, our studio Di Virgilio Veneziano - established in 2007 as Veneziano+Team - has a long history that before us together, starts with Gianni - the in-house "master" - with a great deal of international experience, whose virtual archive will soon have a new look. We call ourselves "conceptual thinkers" with specific and complementary skills capable of interacting in multiple design situations, with a soul deeply devoted to art, which is our first source of poetic livelihood.
We give new shapes to pasta, we interpret places by getting in tune with their memory and designing new stories, we design products that come from the idea of preserving emotional archaeology, we collaborate with Museums and Institutions - we have been appointed, by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ambassadors of Italian Design - with the desire to create connections between disciplines, countries, cultures and states of mind. We want to be designers of bridges. It is from this idea that was born La Casa dei Disegni a house-gallery - with one office in Milan and one in Salento - in which shapes, surfaces and objects become signs and drawings of a story between life and work, nature and artifice, local and global. A concrete and tangible testimony to a possible new mo(n)do in which to live, design and create relationships.
«Who they are, what they do, and what they believe in, Gianni and Luciana, together in life and work since 2007, have always communicated this with the consistency of pencil in hand and color palette nearby.»
LUCIANA DI VIRGILIO
"A true Pugliese, she has been living in Milan for (a few years). An eclectic designer (her experiences range from radio to TV) she founded with Gianni Veneziano, her partner also in life, Veneziano+Team, a studio that ranges from interior to product design, from exhibition to management design with a constant focus on multidisciplinary contaminations..."
[Tutto Milano - Repubblica, 2015]
short bio
Irrepressible and volcanic, Luciana is a curious explorer of worlds who never stops, always in constant search of new forms of art and knowledge. Her spirit is similar to that of a curious cat, always on the move and with eyes attentive to every detail. While she is working on one project, her mind is already projected toward other ideas, because each work she completes is just one piece in an infinite puzzle. Born in Apulia - our origins and common course of study, who knows maybe they were a sign of destiny - she knows her roots well, but her gaze goes far beyond regional borders, embracing the world with a cosmopolitan vision that extends to the lunar horizon. His creativity seems limitless, with a spirit constantly expanding to new horizons. His commitment to the future is infectious and engaging. He not only devotes his heart and soul to each project, but also thinks beyond it, envisioning the future evolution of everything, including my own path. Her ability to launch ideas is almost unstoppable, and it often seems impossible to keep up with her: not only in the design field, as in 2012 she took her passion for design to the airwaves by hosting a column for Radio Capital and simultaneously became a blogger for HuffPost to share her vision and innovative ideas with a wider audience. However, in this creative chaos, there is a beauty that defies normalcy. Luciana's degree in Industrial Design from Florence marked the beginning of a career path steeped in creativity and innovation. Her thesis, which fused interior design with an innovative product, was the springboard for a promising career in the design world, and in fact she immediately received an honorable mention from the prestigious Raymond Loewy Foundation, which paved the way for her career in the design world. Right from the start she demonstrated her versatility by working in product design and graphic design for various industries, contributing to the development of innovative designs and distinctive corporate identities. But that's not all since she has also always been involved in interior design for private clients and fittings for important fairs such as Abitare il Tempo in Verona and institutions such as the Milan Triennale. With numerous recognitions, since the very house of architecture in Milan officially recognized Luciana's contribution to Italian design and included her among the women in the field at the XXI International Exhibition, named W. Women in Italian Design and Mondadori's Interni magazine selected her among the most promising young designers globally. In 2008, our careers developed in parallel-although she is a sprinter more than me-first with Veneziano+Team and now simply as Di Virgilio Veneziano and starting collaborations of various kinds together, as you will read later in our story. With so many projects about to come out of the drawer - of course Luciana never stops - and ready to debut: first of all La Casa dei Disegni, which will soon include an online shopping space to tell our creativity in a different way once again.
Gianni Veneziano
GIANNI VENEZIANO
"...Engaged in patient and rigorous research, and dosing his interventions sparingly, Gianni Veneziano has built his design methodology on an essentially dynamic basis, in which every aspect of objects simultaneously expresses identity and otherness..."
[Gianni Veneziano - Edizioni l'Archivolto, 2000, Maurizio Vitta]
short bio
An open terrain of exploration, able to grasp, with his view of the world, even the invisible to the eyes, in the words of Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, the author of The Little Prince. Gianni is a master in the soul, an artist lent to design, capable of transforming even the everyday into art, as he demonstrated with Daysign, a diary in the form of sketches that turned into an exhibition at the Milan Triennale in 2013 and that even gave its name to a prime-time television program on RAI 5. He has ridden the Milanese and international scene over the years, between exhibitions and installations, with appointments that have crossed the ocean to Chicago, Paris, London and New York. But not only that, his collection, Il Segno dei Designer, donated to the Milan Triennale, after being on display, is practically a piece of history in the field of design. With many accolades, as he is a Visiting Professor at many national and international universities and as of 2017 he was appointed by the Farnesina as an Ambassador of Italian design as part of the Italian Design Day project. His path was born in the land of Apulia, with a respectable Florentine stop since he graduated in Florence with Adolfo Natalini (interestingly, as you will later discover, we have the same initial path) with a thesis, all experimental on the Drawing of Architecture and Drawn Architecture, which became the starting point for his path always hovering between art, design and architecture. But who knows, perhaps fate had a different path in store: Gianni had been invited to exhibit at the Venice Art Biennale, curated by Luigi Carlucci. However, the celebrated art critic and historian died suddenly in São Paulo, Brazil, changing the course of the event. Gianni's works remain locked in packing boxes, an unexpected "sliding door" that prompts him to take a different path. With his degree in his pocket, he moved to Chicago, where he worked with such prestigious architectural firms as Stanley Tigerman and Skidmore, Owings and Merrill. In the 1980s, he returned to Italy, and all of a sudden he too began to breathe the creative energy of the moment and challenge conventions. It is a time of fervent innovation and Gianni comes into contact with Prospero Rasulo, Nanda Vigo, Ugo la Pietra, among many others. These were the years of Abitare il Tempo in Verona, where the best expressions of living, high decoration and design were recounted in an exhibition context that was always on the cutting edge. And the Fuorisalone epic also began between events and vernissages, and performances, and with a lot of creativity in his pocket, with Prospero Rasulo Gianni created OXIDO a multidisciplinary studio, as we would call it today, that engaged in truly heterogeneous projects, from designing nightclubs to flower stores to exhibitions and temporary displays. It was an experimental gallery studio where an entire floor was devoted to temporary exhibitions and events involving the most avant-garde figures of the time. Later, this initiative was transformed into the OXIDOZOO brand of editions, which confirms the two's ever-breaking outlook, as evidenced by one of the pieces of furniture they designed-the one with holes in it, as the director of Casa Vogue jokingly called it-so avant-garde that it earned Gianni and Prospero the covers of prestigious international magazines. All showpieces one might say, which when seen today in a range of garish colors from orange to purple, and with their shapes still demonstrate their strong presence. In 2008, with me by his side, he founded Veneziano+Team. Today we are Di Virgilio Veneziano, and as you will discover by reading through these pages we have collaborated with various companies, restored houses, designed pasta. But on this I don't want to tell you everything right away beyond that, the narrative has just begun and it starts from our future dream: La Casa dei Disegni.
Luciana Di Virgilio
A new way to experience art
LA CASA DEI DISEGNI
A constantly evolving project focused on our life commitment. Two different places - one in the heart of Salento and the other in Milan - but born from a single intent. Two residences, two modern "place-to-stay" that, through a unique combination of activities - art gallery, guest house and event venue - constantly transforms, adapting to different functions. Two living spaces, places of exchange and work, cultural and artistic centers where the lines between private and public blur and intertwine in a harmony of fluidity that architecture, design and art make possible.
ARCHITECTURE - INTERIOR DESIGN - ART
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They are much more than just two residences, they are spaces that we have shaped in our own image, because, like us-nomads by nature-they know how to transform themselves to become temporary galleries, places to meet and pause where art, history and everyday life come together. The first one we want to tell you about is located in Spongano, in the province of Lecce, a place that has become a popular destination for many intellectuals in recent years. The "Capalbio of the South," as the newspapers call it, where you might happen to cross paths with Paolo Sorrentino or see Helen Mirren wandering among little stores. The other, the latest, is located in Milan in an elegant period building from the 1910s, located on Via Donatello, a short walk from the Lima-Loreto metro. Both live and breathe the same air, which is an emotional mixture of different eras and styles, where memories of the past return to the present through our work. These spaces are not just for us, but open to human relationships and are shared with friends, family and neighbors to foster bonding between people. They are a manifesto promoting a conscious approach intended to expand over the years with exhibitions, performances between design art, film and literature. La Casa dei Disegni for us really represents a lot, it is our life project, our look into the future. And that is why soon, it will expand to embrace a shopping space where local products will find a showcase to promote the area. From oil to lace, from handcrafted items such as plates to tableware, the world of things of yesteryear will become a new way to tell genuine stories and to speak consciously about passion, handmade and territory. This new vision is not just about exalting craftsmanship and individuality; it is a new way forward that, in the age of artificial intelligence and the virtual, invites us to reconsider our relationship with mass production and challenge the hegemony of the standard. Thus, in a world where speed of execution reigns supreme, production takes back its time, and reminds us of the importance of looking to the past, preserving traditions, and embracing the humanity behind every creation.
photo Filippo Bamberghi
photo Filippo Bamberghi
«La Casa dei Disegni is characterized by an authentic soul resulting from a personal passion for the land, architecture, design and art.»
[Luciana Di Virgilio and Gianni Veneziano]
A format of love
Rigacuore
client LA MOLISANA
Created in collaboration with La Molisana, our project goes beyond pasta: it is an emotional connector that unites hundreds, thousands, millions of people in the most democratic and sustainable way possible. At the table. The archetype of the heart, recurring in Gianni's work, here becomes an object of experimentation, an archeology of feelings that ranges from the "fork to the city."
Food design - ADV and Graphic design
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There is the passion, inspiration and pride of those who produce it, the desire of those who choose it, the affection with which it is cooked and offered. Rigacuore, a project born in 2021 from our meeting with La Molisana, is much more than a pasta format. It is a "stripe" that connects the hearts of millions of Italians, a symbol that starts in the South and crosses all of Italy, opening up to the world through design and creativity. It is a pasta shape that combines gastronomic tradition with a commitment to sustainability, and it represented for the Campobasso-based company, the first step in the brand's new direction, which, just in 2021, published its first Sustainability report. But the symbolic and ancestral form of the maccheroncino, a close relative of the Rigatone whose base is precisely a heart shape, starts from much further back, it is a recurring archetype in the works-between art and design-of Gianni who has thus made it an object of experimentation over the years. This work, which is not our first time with the world of food, fully represents our design vision that spans 360 degrees. from the fork to the city, to paraphrase the famous phrase, revised and corrected, by Ernesto Nathan Rogers. An 'archeology of feelings, on which we have experimented, following the company also in the graphic design and for the advertising campaign, to bring innovation to a traditionally conservative sector.
«With our projects we want to tell stories of love, stories of our homeland, stories made of passion, beauty and authenticity.»
[Luciana Di Virgilio and Gianni Veneziano]
«Words, a temporary gallery where the private settles on the surface of objects through colors and words. With the purpose of creating a kind of silent Renaissance, opposed to the frenetic march of the contemporary.»
[Luciana Di Virgilio and Gianni Veneziano]
A collection of colors, signs and words for people
WORDS
The idea of storytelling is a constant for us. And we always do it in the first person, opening the door of our home. We tell you about Words, a collection of colors, signs and words for people, presented at Design Week. Between deep emotions, hidden meanings and "love messages."
Special edition - Exhibition - Furniture - Home accessories
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An atmosphere of grace and poetry to capture the imagination from the first moment, beginning with the setting that speaks the familiar and intimate language of our home. Words presented during Fuorisalone 2019, was for us a kind of domestic autobiography that came to life among plates and glasses, transforming the table into a stage where we offered our lives virtually to the audience. It was a banquet of emotions and inspirations, an act of sharing that allowed everyone to dive into our inner world, exploring the stories and experiences that shaped our creativity. It was an intentional game of revelation and introspection, in which everyone was invited to take part, to savor the past and replicate the creative process. A container of stories, discussions, work, and intimacy, it played on the intangible memory through two distinct elements: watercolor brushstrokes and literature blending harmoniously with material through industrial processes on ceramic and laminate. These objects transformed communication into tangible art, becoming not just decorations, but real vehicles for messages of love. Gestural design has created a direct link between the artist's inner world and the object, resulting in creations that tell stories and convey emotions through the beauty of materials. These seemingly ordinary objects are so much more. They are accessories with which to drink, eat and work, but first and foremost they are "love messengers," functioning like the letters exchanged in Joseph Losey's 1971 film of the same name. They are carriers of deep emotions and hidden meanings, which make the beauty of their connection shine through. Within Words, many of the objects translated biographical episodes, fond memories. Like the phrase «Slowly she is getting used to me and I to her» that has lingered in our memory since we contended with a book by Haruki Murakami one evening.
photo Filippo Bamberghi, Federico Floriani
«This project was born with the need to preserve emotional archaeology. In fact, it is important for us to passionately cultivate the genetic and aesthetic heritage of the companies we work with and to solicit the perception that everyone has or can have of their own existence.»
[Luciana Di Virgilio and Gianni Veneziano]
a new idea of hospitality
PALAZZO ANGELICA
private client
A bridge between the past and the future, a harmonious synergy between tradition and innovation to create the ideal backdrop for a theater of the contemporary in which to immerse and isolate oneself. This is our restoration of a historic palace in Salento that we transformed into a guest house.
Architecture - Interior Design
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photo Maria Galiova
«A theater of the contemporary in which to immerse oneself and isolate oneself by having an authentic experience.»
[Luciana Di Virgilio and Gianni Veneziano]
A true work of haute couturier, Chiari di Lunae of the StarNet collection is a jewel lamp, where we have challenged the purity of Murano glass as balancers of matter to modulate the luminosity that runs through each element.
Product Design - Special Edition
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"Light is the first thing that exists, before anything else," said the great American architect Louis Kahn. It is like a starry sky that becomes a geographical map for poets, dreamers and navigators, and it is also an opportunity for us designers who have always tried to tame the dark with the pencil and who use beauty to win. Chiari di Lunae Of the StarNet collection we designed best represents how we explore the art of lighting. We wanted to create a constantly evolving light system, like a celestial vault, and that, it turned out, was a canvas on which to paint our ideas in innovative and surprising ways. We challenged the purity of Murano glass, as balancers of matter, to modulate the luminosity that runs through each element. Chiari di Lunae of the StarNet collection embodied for us elegance and preciousness, a rare pearl, like those in Morellato's jewelry collection. A true couturier's work from haute couture, it was born as a tribute to the skill of Vetreria Vistosi, a historic Venetian company specializing in decorative lighting, and Morellato, a renowned Italian brand of "easy to wear" jewelry. An embrace of the creativity that unites the Italian companies we have always loved to work for. This stellar journey, too, contains that idea of nomadism that has always distinguished us and embraces our creativity without fixed roots in a cosmic choreography that looks toward the future and reaches out to the stars to meet a "nova." To compete with a touch of poetry even with the stars. After all, as Franco Battiato sang, we like to "follow the trails of comets, like vanguards of another solar system."
photo Vistosi, sketch Gianni Veneziano
PRESS
«Chiari di Lunae is not simply the meeting of two brands but the birth of an extraordinary product that lives by its own light, a light object, beautiful to look at and to experience every day where the interweaving of light, glass, jewelry chains and pendants create a luminous and precious combination.»
[Matteo Moretti, CEO of Vetreria Vistosi].
Art, ceramics, this is Gianni's subject, and he has always handled it with great skill. This is one of the examples dearest to us, partly because it is dedicated to Gio Ponti, but mostly because this vase was donated to support Analids at Convivio.
Special edition - Exhibition - Artwork - CHARITY
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Unique pieces, devoted to art, those who have read Gianni's biography know how much this dimension of the imaginary matters to him. And perhaps he also knows how much passion he has for ceramics. A love that binds him strongly to the master to whom in 1998 he had dedicated Gio Ponti quanto mi piaci a vase made by Edizioni Fatto ad Arte, and then reproposed in 2014 as a unique piece with the aim of raising funds for ANLAIDS, the National Association for the Fight against AIDS. A vase, hand-painted by Gianni, whose soft, round lines are inspired by the 1950s and 1960s. Imbued with his deep connection to the natural world, the work offers a glimpse in which 'living nature' is transformed into an artistic and symbolic language that embraces both fauna and flora. This representation evokes a vision of life that transcends earthly limitations, embracing a boundless dimension.
«A kind of identity card of life, tattooed on the surface of things.»
[Gianni Veneziano]
A spiral to symbolize life, the Human Circle: Inferno rug (there is also a Paradise version) that we imagined for Nodus Rug is a cosmic design inspired by Dante and his Comedy. The idea was to once again create an exciting combination of energy and understanding, art and symbolism. A universal harmony, with the human essence as the fulcrum open to the elaboration of consciousness.
Product design - Textile design
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Dante and his imagery made of circles and souls: one cannot help but be thunderstruck by the beauty of his tercets. No one is immune, and neither are we, who love to look at the world always with different eyes. And that is how we embarked on our "mad flight"-to use the words of the Supreme Poet in Canto XXVI dedicated to Ulysses-and one day, "in the midst of the journey of our life," we plunged into his whirlpool chasing the mutant human being among bodies enveloped in a passionate whirlwind. A figurative idea, which is released through the spiral placed inside a circle, a symbol of harmony, which in our drawing becomes a reminder of the universe and the Earth. A geometric shape of extraordinary beauty, full of meanings that refer to perfection and that-in our Human Circle: Inferno rug that we created for Nodus Rug (there is also a Paradise version)-merges with the human essence. This unstoppable energetic force acts as an open portal, allowing the entry and vibrant processing of the entire human consciousness, intertwining with a flow of emotion and understanding that envelops and surprises. Man is at the center, for our project is deeply rooted in the essence of life, which here assumes a crucial and fundamental role. A visual synthesis in perfect harmony at the center of the earthly world and also the (domestic) universe.
PRESS
«Once upon a time there was a piece of wood that, thanks to the skilled hands of a creative team, became a heart. A heart that is solid and strong, but able to beat out of passion.»
[Luciana Di Virgilio and Gianni Veneziano]
A fund for the Museum of Italian Design
IL SEGNO DEI DESIGNER
The traces left on the paper also have a smell, a sound, a soul.
Slow and fast flowing, sweet and strong, determined and scratchy is powerfully exciting.
«It is the merging of ideas and emotions, thoughts and intuitions. Imprinted signs indicate meaning and presuppose mental scenarios, projects that tend to take shape.»
[Gianni Veneziano]
A line of jewelry and more
WALKING MAN
82 projects by artists and designers to support Il Nodo international cooperation projects in Cambodia.
«Drawing is an irreplaceable practice: it is the transformation of thought.»
[Luciana Di Virgilio and Gianni Veneziano]
«A characterized and distinctive space , regenerated and recovered in listening to its original history related to the industrial city.»
«The mosaic for me is a kind of dense, infinite liquid, where it is not possible to understand the beginning or the end in a numerical, cerebral, emotional representation that designs a new world to be defined.»
With Digital Mosaic a kind of pop revolution takes place with a mobile language and freedom to transpose any form dictated by thought.
[Luciana Di Virgilio and Gianni Veneziano]
a diary of the soul on paper
DAYSIGN
Gianni began keeping a diary in 2011 in the form of sketches, which became a daily online report for an entire year. His experience is transformed into an exhibition and debuted at the Milan Triennale in 2013. Later, the project evolves into a television series on Rai5, exploring the world of design from conception to realization.
