A closer look at Servomuto (mute servant)

Dear Shaded Viewers,

Alessandro Poli and Francesca De Giorgi are the founders of SERVOMUTO.

Outside of their joint project Alessandro is a graphic designer and the former art director at FLAMBOYANTMAGAZINE.NET, Francesca is an architect and she freelances as her main activity.

The idea behind the brand SERVOMUTO was to put together hand-crafted lampshades with unexpected fabrics and prints and to transform them into something new that is closer to art than design. 

"We both come from Lecce, in the South of Italy, where the tradition is all about Baroque and where the lampshades have always been played an important interior design element in our family houses.
Francesca's mother is an artisan and she owns a small shop selling lampshades." said Alessandro.

They both grew up around these objects which give them the nostalgic element that one immediately feels. THe objects are deeply rooted into their own personal histories. THey like people to experience this emotion through their lampshades.

Their vision is to rediscover craftsmanship and to give it an additional value. The objects must be hand made and never produced by a machine. THe design process starts with brainstorming about different things related to lampshades on a weekly basis until the ideas take shape in their minds. Once that has occurred  we draw, sketch, do fabric research and then we build the lampshade at Francesca's mom's atelier. 

All the products are  handmade and the materials are old wall-paper, vintage blankets, fabrics with silk prints, and old posters from the 70's (i.e. the mountains); basically everything that is far away from a lampshade.