INTRODUCTION AND BACKGROUND
1. What sparked your passion for furniture design? What was your vision when you started in this field?
I fell in love with design in high school, thanks to a “young gentleman from Sarajevo” who briefly served as a substitute art history teacher while our regular teacher was on maternity leave. He introduced us to industrial design, and when he showed us the work of Enzo Mari, I was speechless, completely fascinated. Mari was a true icon of Italian design from the 1960s until he died in 2020. I was captivated by all the products he created for Danese Milano, especially by his beautiful synthesis of form and function. It was at that moment that I fell in love with furniture and industrial design.
A few years later, I had the incredible fortune of studying under Enzo Mari in Florence, alongside Paolo Deganello, Andrea Branzi, Isao Hosoe, Denis Santachiara, and many other legends of Italian design.
At the time I was studying design in Zagreb, my vision was more aligned with the simplicity and functionality of Bauhaus and Ulm. However, that changed drastically when I moved to Italy, where almost all of my professors were key figures in the Italian Radical Design movement. My design philosophy deepened even further during my seven years of close collaboration with Ettore Sottsass in Milan.
2. Can you share the story of how you first connected with ARTISAN?
I still clearly remember the moment when I first encountered Artisan and learned about their decision to enter the design furniture production field.
It was back in 2012. I had just moved from Milan, Italy, where I had lived and worked for over two decades, to Belgrade, Serbia, to follow my love, now my wife, Ana.
During that time, I started teaching at the Academy of Fine Arts in the Design Department, aiming to share the knowledge and experience I had gained in Italy, particularly with Ettore Sottsass. I wanted to pass this on to students and, hopefully, to the local and regional industry as well. However, finding manufacturers who truly understood the power and potential of design and design thinking was challenging.
So, when I heard that a “crazy” manufacturer in Tešanj was trying to incorporate and embrace design, along with their passion and expertise in solid wood production, I immediately contacted them to explore the possibility of collaboration. Two weeks later, I found myself at the Artisan factory, developing the Pasha Table and the Malena Chair.