Fernando Campana – Artists & Designer

Biography

Over the past 40 years, Brazilian designers Fernando and Humberto Campana have left their mark on the design world with their unconventional approaches.

In 1984, they founded Studio Campana in São Paulo, which became internationally renowned for its unique and innovative ideas in the fields of furniture and product design, architecture, landscape design, fashion and beyond.

Whether it is meter-long, colored ropes that wind around a metal frame, hundreds of pieces of fabric folded on top of each other, a seemingly endless tangle of lacquered steel wire or a bundle of plush animals sewn together - what might initially appear to be a sculpture or even a performance is in all these cases one thing above all: a seating object.

Until Fernando's death in 2022, the duo transformed everyday materials that were often considered “worthless” into iconic pieces of furniture and product designs. Their work is characterized by a remarkable combination of traditional craftsmanship and experimental materials, often inspired by everyday life or Brazilian culture.

In Brazil, the Portuguese word “gambiarra” describes the inventive approach to solving a problem cheaply and creatively, to improvise. An attitude to life and a practice developed out of necessity that is omnipresent in São Paulo, one of the most populous cities in the world. Many of the Campana brothers' designs take up this concept of accumulating diverse materials and thus create an aesthetic of spontaneity and improvisation.