“Being design” has a very different meaning from “making design”: in the title, in the photos and in the dialogues collected in this book dedicated to the history of Caimi Brevetti, the curator Aldo Colonetti has highlighted this vocation already present in the first innovative products designed by Renato Caimi from 1949, a specificity that the four sons – Gianni, Renzo, Franco, Giorgio – have been able to develop with equal enthusiasm until today.
Fantastic photographs, mostly black and white, portray the People of Caimi at work with a hint of irony.

Since 1949, Caimi Brevetti has been the heart of a great corporate history, consisting of concepts and designs but especially people. This history is documented in a book, published by Skira, in which the company and its designers describe their nearly 70 years of industrial design.

Behind every Caimi product there is the human component, the people who design and make it and, more importantly, the people who decide to purchase it. This is where it all starts. This is one of the mainstays of the Caimi Brevetti philosophy, established by the founder Renato Caimi and perfectly shared by his four children. That philosophy inspired the conversation that framed the entire narrative by Aldo Colonetti.

“This is a journey where people are the key figures, alongside an array of inventions – simply consider the most recent, the Snowsound system – which develop the design from their industrial expertise and knowledge of the production process. This way, the great designers involved can discuss, as peers, the most advanced innovations in technology and scientific research. The photographic documentation, largely in black and white, contributed by Raoul Iacometti is a bona fide chronicle inside the factory and in the offices of the designers, and represents not only the now and the future of Caimi, but bears righteous witness to our country as a whole, the Brianza region and hard-working Milan.” 

Ethics and aesthetics go hand in hand. For Caimi Brevetti, “being design” means first and foremost designing, while protecting the idea and making design truly useful. Being design means more than just creating design. Being design means putting the person and the concept of research squarely at its core.

In this virtuous circle of people and human relationships, the role of the designers and their relationship with the company is pivotal. While keeping foremost their inventive independence, the designers stay constantly connected with the technological innovation and processes behind the origins of every Caimi Brevetti product. An enviable model that is not very widespread, where craftsmanship and industry speak the same language. This design philosophy stems from a modus operandi in which knowledge and original solutions are constructed together, step by step, with adjustments, revisions, breakthroughs and new paradigms. This is the only way it is possible to build a productive and ongoing relationship with every single designer. 

The photographs taken by Raoul Iacometti are paired with the story told by this choral book, in which the images represent the central theme of the story, clearly and accurately documenting the entire design path: from the idea to its accomplishment, highlighting in every image the person beside every machine, every press, every coating system, and every foundry crucible.

This sensitivity is part of a design culture where industrial design is perceived as an object, but also as a service.

This is precisely how “Being Design” aims to communicate throughout its 208 pages: a corporate philosophy that highlights the identity and general recognizabilty of Caimi Brevetti and, at the same time, the identity of each designer involved.