When it comes to contemporary Brazilian furniture design, the Campana Brothers are clearly the nation’s shining stars.
Raised in the agricultural town of Brotas near São Paulo, the brothers — Humberto, a formally trained lawyer, and Fernando, who studied architecture — teamed up to launch their now heavily collected (and covetable) design practice.
The brothers’ work is anchored in traditional Brazilian craftsmanship and materials given a colorful and whimsical reinterpretation. Based in their small São Paulo atelier, the Campanas have collaborated on furniture, fashion and industrial design with everyone from Alessi to Louis Vuitton.
Their most recent New York partnership, however, is pure Brazilian — the new Fitas shoe collection and in-shop installation at Galeria Melissa NY in SoHo. Crafted from flourescent lighting interwoven with Melissa’s iconic “jelly” shoes, the Campana piece will be on display throughout the spring.
We spoke to the brothers to learn more about their distinctive eye for design.
The architect who had the most influence on our career was Oscar Niemeyer. He blended modernism and functionalism to create poetry, which he brought to architecture. When Fernando was a kid he wanted to be like him. Humberto was born when Niemeyer helped plan the city of Brasilia. Niemeyer and Brasilia symbolized Brazil’s modernity and future.
When it comes to furniture in the home, material, shape and function have to work together. We always consider the form of an object and try to establish a dialogue between emotion and functionality — but in the end, we give free rein to our ideas. We don’t look for perfection; we need to be able to create without restrictions.
Brazil is a very important source of inspiration for us, and its multiculturalism nourishes our creations. Our designs reflect the country’s characteristics and translate that identity — the colors, the mixtures, the creative chaos and the triumph of simple solutions.
We enjoy the process of discovering materials and trying to push them as far as we can to divine new forms. Our design carries the freedom and diversity of different materials, ways of manufacturing, disciplines and concepts.
For us, there is very little difference between the designer and the artist. We feel that both are researchers and witnesses of their time.
We don’t collect other designers. We like to be surrounded by our own furniture, testing the capacity and beauty of our pieces. Our houses are a continuation of our studio and our universe.
One of our favorite design galleries is Friedman Benda in New York. We like how it presents a wide panorama and perspective of contemporary and conceptual design from around the world — and not only design from New York.
The one design fair we like most is Milan’s Salone di Mobile because it’s a diffuser, a center of new ideas and concepts, a place where we live and breathe design. The Italian excellence in producing furniture has facilitated the opportunity to present new projects. This year we will unveil a new sofa called “Bastardo.”