Lara Vidotto - A new communicative language

We are about to formally cut the ribbon of a new path! 

In a wide maturing and consolidating process, at LoveTheSign we have started a rebranding process, entrusting its artistic direction to Lara Vidotto.

We have launched a structural redesign of the e-commerce platform and social channels with a new visual and communicative language, a targeted selection of brands and products. We want to develop in height as well as in width, and also in time, an even more luxuriant flowering of our design square.

We asked Lara Vidotto a few questions, as we do with designers when we want to get to know them a little better. 

Lara Vidotto

What does an artistic director do?

This question always gets me a bit confused, because there are so many actions: the production of a catalogue, the advertising campaign, the dialogue and continuous interaction with the team, the editorial plan, an installation, the styling of a photo shoot or of a render, the cover of a book, the contents of a site and its stylistic dress, the logo of a company and its tone of voice, the pattern of an upholstery ... all these are possible answers, picked more or less randomly among the hundreds available. The question could be answered substantially with "he/she defines, declares and enhances the identity of a brand and its products". All in all, I observe what is there, I collect the ingredients, I take care of weaving a careful and authentic storyline, I tell the story of others. A story that I must like a lot, too.

What is your relationship with design?

It is a vibrant interest, and I would say very natural, which obviously extends and intertwines also with architecture. LoveTheSign allows me to share a passion, to observe and select many objects to remind them to those who already know them, or to make them known to those who ignore their existence or contents. I also really enjoy the idea of ??learning many new things every day, not just about objects ... which are always the result of ideas, characters, lives.

How do you imagine the new aspect of LoveTheSign?

An Italian square with open horizons. Cosy and so rich in artistic heritage that it contaminates those who pass through it. I imagine that whoever lands on LoveTheSign is stimulated to make their home and life fresher, more interesting and more beautiful.

It is a platform frequented by very different people and by professionals, architects, interior designers, contractors, who need performing and effective tools to develop their projects.

LtS has an Italian DNA and we are proud of this because we live in a special country, this is where the phenomenon of product design was born. We know we belong to a historical and cultural context which has unmistakable contents, our creative experience and our communicative actions thrive on them. This inclination is able to expand itself, with identical passion and selection skills, to international design.

What processes are you interested in when dealing with LoveTheSign?

We walk within time and space, a design square so widely distributed as LtS is challenging. In this platform, countries, cultures, lifestyles, relationship logics, ways of living change. I always try to stay tuned on how people change, how they interact with each other and with the environment. Personally, I try to bring a content of authenticity in what I do, I always try to add that something that leads back to the human component.

To tell and to reach you have to understand and it all takes time and care.

What does maximum luxury means to you, in a broad sense?

I avoid the most universal answer -time- and I go on a highly improbable desire, one that’s worth the ardour of an oversized dream: I would like a picture by Giorgio Morandi.

Brush stroke after brush stroke, he extracted an elixir of sacredness by repeatedly portraying, until sublimation, humble objects. He transported them to an absolute style dimension, which no longer has any relationship with time or with the artistic influences of the cultural landscape in which he was immersed, he went further, with the measure, with the grace and with a talent that I lack: methodical perseverance.

On the other hand, since I love the plurality of meanings, a no less exciting luxury is to collect beautiful memories, an accessible luxury that no money can buy.

What inspires your work?

You have to find time to repopulate your inner landscape, otherwise creativity runs aground, it does not flow.

I believe in "diverge to converge". You have to wander, to do things that seem misleading: even from unnecessary elements or distractions, the mother lode of an idea can arise.

Teamwork really stimulates me, in LtS there’s a shared process and even remotely we manage to be cohesive and effective. A virtuous combination starting from the client, I work with capable and creative professionals who contribute fundamentally with their care, attention and availability to refine every piece of the great project.

So how do you wander?

An example ... among many interests, I have that of children's publishing. In these books, necessarily very synthetic, there are entire philosophical links that open the horizon with the snap of a finger. In the book "Tamo the hippo" by Daniela Iride Murgia I find expressed in a complete and articulated way an interesting concept that concerns me: what can be home today, in the complex world of present relationships. In addition to the citations of twentieth century art and design included in the illustrations and which certainly wink at me.

Tamo is a somewhat inept being, but finds himself taking care of the eggs of another species. With the offspring he will create a colorful and varied family. He needs a home because they all need it. It brings us face to face with the intuition that we can be family, without taking on specific roles and that beauty reaches its maximum splendour when it is used to create bonds.