Interview with Vincenzo Carrara

Vincenzo Carrara ("VC") interviewed on Tuesday, 20 March.

Could you please tell us about your experience as a designer, artist, architect or creator?

VC : I'm not a "professional" designer. I just have passion for anything creative and I try to unleash my passion in many different fields. I've been doing this for almost my entire life and not always for business. I'm now a marketing executive so I leverage creativity in the development of brand communication and advertisement and I also published several books in which I gave complete freedom to my creativity. I do paint, draw comics, develop cartoons, love creative cooking and do many other creative things. The point is that if you're a creative person you try to leverage your creativity across mediums, forms and fields because one builds on top of the others and they all become richer.

How did you become a designer?

VC : Very seldom kids know what they will do once they become adults. This was the case also for me. My parents, then, motivated me exploring many different things. Thanks to them I discovered that I enjoy leveraging both my left and right brain. For pragmatic reason I did study chemistry and engineering (right brain prevailed) but during my spare time I always fueled my creative side. Over time I started investigating how to leverage both sides for a living and this is one of the reasons why I established Todd & Marlon. As owner and designer I can leverage the two sides of my being.

What are your priorities, technique and style when designing?

VC : Design for me is about the receiver. It all starts with the person I'm designing for. I do not design for the world and I (generally) do not design for myself. I have a specific group of people in mind and I try to understand them in depth before starting the design process. This is my first priority. I then try to understand how I can offer them something unique that can delight my target group of people. My design will most likely be loved only by them and hated by many others - I never go for a democratic compromise. Finally my design should be functional otherwise there is no reason for being - it would just be art. Summarizing: people, uniqueness, functionality. All the above process is generally done on a piece of paper and written with a simple pencil. Once I do my sketches then I pass the ball to the digital and technical experts who do proper rendering and physical models prior moving to production.

Which emotions do you feel when designing?

VC : It all start with excitement for the new idea. The idea that keeps you awake at night and never leave you during the day. It becomes and obsession to the point that you really need to start jotting it down. The excitement over time leave space to the lack of patience and even a bit of frustration if the the work does not proceed as fast as I wish. Finally there is a feeling a liberation and emptiness. I feel totally empty once I complete the work as all my ideas and thoughts are finally out of my mind and just in front of me. Almost exhausting.

What particular aspects of your background shaped you as a designer?

VC : I believe the balance between my left and right brain is what shaped me as a designer. Without a proper balance creativity leads to pure art, but design needs also some rationality to make it functional. On the other hand, too much rationality instead make the work arid and aseptic. Having had the opportunity to study engineering while nurturing creativity in other fields is what shaped me as a designer.

What is your growth path? What are your future plans? What is your dream design project?

VC : My path is not defined and it will not be defined. I like to evolve naturally and nurture my passions as they come. So far I did "professionally" designed only watches despite being very active from a creative perspective in other fields. In the future I might start leveraging my design skills in other fields while still working as designer for Todd & Marlon boutique watch company. I have a couple of ideas in mind and a project might start soon but it is still confidential.

What are your advices to designers who are at the beginning of their career?

VC : Being a designer and living with it has never been easy and nowadays it is even more challenging. There are lots of designers to compete with in our flat world. A designer needs to be prepared and capable to work for long time before being able to live with his/her own work. If this is what they want then get prepared financially and psychologically for the long journey. Identify as early as possible your "unique signature" and make it loud and consistent across all your works. Broadcast as much as you can (leverage Social Media) and be very prolific. Design for a specific tribe of people and nurture them consistently over time. It will take long but if your work is good then you'll get noticed.

You are truly successful as a designer, what do you suggest to fellow designers, artists and architects?

VC : There is only one thing I would mention. Never make the time a "constant" of your work. Time needs to be a variable. In this kind of work we often tend to make compromises due to time deadlines. Never do that. Never make agreements based on time neither with others nor with yourself. Be free to create, destroy your creation and start again from scratch. If you get a time constraints then abandon the project - it is not worth your name on it.

What is your day to day look like?

VC : I'm not a professional designer so my day is made of many other things. In generally I wake up between 5am and 6am, if I can I do some exercise or swim, then quick breakfast and by 7am / 7:30am I start working. Early moring I do the work that requires quality time for thinking and creativity because is when nobody will disturb me. Then I do work that requires interaction with others. I have no lunch break but several changes of type of work and some breaks in between. By 6pm I stop working to dedicate time to my family. Boring but effective day.

How do you keep up with latest design trends? To what extent do design trends matter?

VC : Trends are visible across multiple touch points and mediums. The more we interact with the world the more we can notice and draw the red line that brings everything together. Those design trends are important indeed but till a certain extent. Each designer needs to identify and nurture his / her unique signature. The design trend should not interfere with or compromise it.

How do you know if a product or project is well designed? How do you define good design?

VC : There is no good design in general. Design is for a specific group of people. I might be the target or not. It is a bit like art. Everyone has his / her own preferences. The only difference is that design needs to be functional - hence this might be the one criteria to define a good design. If it is functional then is good then the rest is up to the target group of people to judge.

How do you decide if your design is ready?

VC : In my case it is very simple. I let my design grow in my mind till it is ready to be put on a piece of paper. Once it is on paper I sleep over it and if the morning after my mind is empty then the design is ready. This is the feeling I have once the design is ready - emptiness.

What is your biggest design work?

VC : My "biggest" design work is my first one. It is the Todd & Marlon 24-hour watch design. We grow up and get used to watches based on a 12-hour system in which the hour hand makes two turns every day. This method of measuring time is not natural - the day is made of 24-hours. In fact the first watches were based on a 24-hour or 2x12-hour model and they have been abandoned over time. Only a couple of manufacturers still produce 24-hour watches. I wanted to fuel this trend and introduce something special. The Todd & Marlon in fact is a so called Double-XII watch and it is the only one readily available in commerce. I wanted this watch to clearly show the 12 daily and night hours while still being easy to read and pleasing to the eye. Combining all the above was not easy aesthetically especially considering the movement and space constraints. I'm very satisfied with the result and with the fact that this will remain in history as the Double-XII watch of the XXI century.

Who is your favourite designer?

VC : I'm inspired by the work of Starck, Calatrava and Alexander McQueen. The order I mention them is meant to indicate a specific evolution. I let you explore those designers so to better understand them and identify what put them together in an evolution.

What are your philanthropic contributions to society as a designer, artist and architect?

VC : The scope of the work done by Todd & Marlon is mainly philanthropic. In the website there is a specific section dedicated to it. The bulk of the revenues coming from the sales of the watches goes to companies like Emergency USA and Spark MicroGrants on a regular basis but they are also used to help with sudden catastrophes such as Mexico Earthquake (Sep 2017) or hurricanes Harvey and Irma in US (Sep 2017). We will continue with our philanthropic effort and add more donations in the future.

Vincenzo Carrara Profile