Italian designer Fabio Guaricci met industrial design after a diploma in Humanities in 1999. The Master Degree in Industrial Design with honors in 2005 at Politecnico di Milano formed him technically, allowing him to melt these two different visions in what he now calls the human side of design. During these studies he spent one year at NTNU in Trondheim, Norway, as exchange student, took part at several international design competitions and worked as Intern meeting the world of toy design.
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During and after studies he has fostered the passion for innovation taking part to International Design Competitions (1st prize @ AD Young Designer’s Award, 2nd and 3rd prize @ Progetto Millennio, Finalist @ SCIC kitchens Compact Kitchen Station, Finalist @ 2×1 by Osram), has been speaker at National and International Conferences (Belgrade Design Week, Civica Project by MART Rovereto, NABA Academy) and has been co-author of Scientific Papers.
He first started working as Designer for Stefano Giovannoni, then was asked to become Designer and Startup Manager for the newborn wooden toy brand Milaniwood where he spent the next 3 years. In 2009 he started Freelancing on product, strategy and communication design projects for SMEs, especially in toys, traveling to China, Germany and UK. His passion for the social and cultural dimension of design has formed his vision that creativity and market can be a whole.
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Since 2010 he is part of the Teaching Staff at the School of Design of Politecnico di Milano for the Meta-Design course named Co.Meta where currently he is Contract Professor, along with colleagues Prof. Venanzio Arquilla and Prof. Davide Genco, exploring the potential of design to increase the quality of life for people with Autism and their caregivers. His hands-on approach has led him to enroll in clinical workshops and courses also, in a wider view, in the field of disability which formed him in the themes of accessible and inclusive play, such his involvement in the LUDI network promoting the right to play. In 2015 he has started creating experimental toy designs with local health institutions for special educational and health-related contexts, not only for kids as in the Awareness Toys project.
My pattern of experiences has been wide along the years,
but none of them was as revealing as when I found out that for me
being a designer means to be an intellectual force for the practise
of filantropy and the development of the highest potential of human beings.
With projects ranging from products to brands, his story-telling designs such as Brucovolante, Metroquadro and Domino Clorophilla are highly narrative and entertaining designs, highlighting the magic and surprise behind everyday objects. This connection established between ideology and object, user and designer, results in what he calls ‘Design Humanism’.
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Based in Italy, TOY is born to support Fabio’s research, projects and cooperations with the aim of fostering, with both a social and entrepreneurial cut, the debate around design, education, disability, society and technology.
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