YEET Interview: Francesco Brunetti, The Young Danish Product Designer Turned Instagram Sensation

By Paola W. Bapelle | YEET MAGAZINE Updated 0200 GMT (1000 HKT) August 25, 2021

Last Thursday, we sat down with the talented Francesco Brunetti, an industrial designer based in Odense, Denmark.

The 29 years old born and originally from Italy was raised in Pescara, before moving to Denmark around seven years ago.

Since then, he has been studying Product Development and Innovation Engineering at SDU and turning a lot of his Instagram followers into loyal fans.

( University Of Southern Denmark), where Francesco seems to have found his path as one of the most prolific industrial designers Denmark could ever hope for.

Read full interview on yeet magazine.com

Can you tell us about your childhood and how your passion for design developed?

As a kid I’ve always loved to draw and play with LEGO, I spent a lot of time drawing my own comics based on some famous cartoons of that time.

Growing up I excelled in drawing classes at school, but never really thought about the possibility to do it as a job or actually that a job like that existed.

I ended up following my dad’s footsteps, and studied economy for 3 years, in between Milano and Pescara.

I remember I always felt incomplete at that time and decided to travel for a while.

I spent one year in Australia backpacking, and when I was back in my own city I met the girl I felt in love with who was living in Denmark and decided to move there.

As I mentioned before I kind of stumbled across industrial design while studying engineering at my bachelor.

It was during my second semester that I had a class on the subject, and I absolutely loved it.

From that point I knew it was something, it was the thing that I wanted to do as a job in my life.

It was the perfect mix of creativity and rationality, something that satisfy both parts of my personality.

What inspires you and your work?

I believe that inspiration can be find everywhere. I know it is such a common phrase but I do think it is true.

In a way I come to understand that being inspired to me means being curios.

Curiosity leads me most of the time to make connections between unrelated things, consequently inspiring me and my work.

That said, my work is often inspired and influenced by trends, and market demand; being an industrial designer often means to be updated and able to establish new directions.

What’s the one thing that sets a talented designer apart?

I have a very own and personal definition of the word talent, I believe talent is a mix of perseverance, determination and knowledge.

It is a matter of understanding and developing skills. It is hard and endless work.

The one thing that sets a talented designer apart is the combination of hard work and determination.

What is your workspace like?

My workspace is a battlefield where you will find a laptop, an iPad Pro, paper, pencils and markers.

I do have many books around most of the time, and yes an ambient light to create the right atmosphere.

Tell us about the Disconnect series, what was the main principle, idea and inspiration behind your design?

The Disconnect series was created as a part of an Instagram challenge; It was a 2 days personal project, where I asked myself how to deconstruct these items while keeping the main attributes which characterise each one of them.

It started as a challenge where I tried to think outside the box.

What especially did you want to achieve?

By separating the two elements of cutlery, the top part which interacts with food and the bottom part you grip, with the Disconnect series I wanted to create something new yet familiar.

The twofold form breaks down the product into its separate main elements.

Have you submitted your design to an international design competition?

Nope not yet, but I’m strongly considering it in the near future.

Who’s your favourite design icon?

To be honest, I have many people I look up to, and generally each one of them have a particular design field which they work in.

But if I have to name my favourite design icon, it would be Oki Sato from the design studio Nendo.

Not just for his immaculate ability to design beautiful and clean products, but also because of the way he goes around solving the problem, evoking human feelings by using humour, irony, nostalgia and surprise.

One big characteristic of the home of the future?

That’s a big question. In a way I’m expecting that the products interdependence will increase as technologies become more and more affordable, while at the same time I believe modularity will be one of the main characteristic.

Modular product enhances the user act of reparing and maintaining, while also providing the possibility of modifying single components to achieve a “new” product.

Last but not least, we have already seen that home technologies are breeching the gap between furniture and tech, assuming a more casual and warm appearance.

Where does the focus need to be, for aspiring designers?

I personally believe that new aspiring designers should really focus on the end life of their creations, we all need to improve over sustainability aspects.