Domenico Santoro is an Italian designer and co-founder of the Pastina Design Studio with his work and life partner, Francesca Puddu. In his work, Domenico is eccentric, thoughtful and bold: he has devoted his professional life to unchain the design from the furnishing world and let it free to expand towards every aspect of reality. Thanks to his smooth and delicate lines, Domenico’s design elements go beyond furniture and light on accessories, jewels and masks, which are the leading items of his project "Aria", realized in March 2020 in order to raise funds for the Covid-19 emergency.
We had a pleasant talk with Domenico to learn more about his work, his fanciful ideas and his vision of a boundless design.
We aim to eradicate Pastina Studio from a physical address because, in our opinion, this will be the natural evolution for most professional activities in the future and we don’t want to be caught unprepared.
Hello Domenico, tell us a bit about yourself.
I'm Domenico Santoro, I’m an Italian designer and creative director of studio Pastina (learn more at www.pastinaisgood.com). Pastina is a studio operating with a global and boundless approach to design. Our activity is focused on the development of design, architecture, fashion and art projects and we have customers from Europe, Asia and North America.
How are you doing and how did you spend the lockdown?
I’m doing very well, considering the circumstances. I spent the lockdown in my holiday house and love nest on the Lucanian Dolomites with my work and life partner, Francesca Puddu.
Mobility and remotely are the keywords in our work approach. Francesca and I have always been used to work on the go, so the lockdown hasn't changed our modus operandi (at least in practical terms), and our collaborators work almost exclusively remotely. We aim to eradicate Pastina Studio from a physical address because, in our opinion, this will be the natural evolution for most professional activities in the future and we don’t want to be caught unprepared.
The quarantine has imposed a stop to many of our work activities, but this gave us the opportunity to work on several projects put aside and waiting to be dusted off: in June, in fact, we filed three patents for industrial invention.
Beyond that, during the first days of the emergency we created "Aria". Aria is a project launched in March 2020 with the aim of giving our contribution as designers to fight the Covid-19 emergency.
The first tool people needed but couldn’t find were masks, so, by the end of March, we produced and put on the market our personalized ones. This lead us to create "Aria": a step by step online guide that allows people (needing a basic knowledge of how to use needle and thread) to create their own DIY emergency mask, even using their old clothes’ fabrics (have a look and learn more on the dedicated page: www.pastinaisgood.com/aria-project). And Aria is not over yet: it is still possible to download the guide with templates and instructions for making your personalized emergency mask.
Tell us about your art.
I read, process and rewrite. Not literally, of course.
I mean, my job follows this pattern: first, I deeply look into a specific context; then, I process the information collected; finally, I translate it into a project.