Summer is over, autumn has begun, and it’s time to take stock, because since our last little recap a lot has happened: we’ve traveled, interviewed interesting people, and launched new projects.
In short, before we officially pack away our swimsuits and pull out our sweaters, here is a quick summary, Rawr-style.
Between the end of August and the beginning of September, we held the first edition of Playground, our summer school. We’ve already talked about it on the blog and on social media, but to tell you how it really went, we decided to let Gio, who experienced it as a participant, share her thoughts. Here you can find her review.
After the summer break, we’ve resumed recording “Tutta colpa di Bruno,” the podcast that, episode after episode, is taking us further and further.
We went to Cesenatico to interview Alessandro Scarpellini, Art Director and Design Manager, as well as Founder and curator of the blog Visual Journal. Then we headed all the way to Rome to meet Gaia Zuccaro, Interaction Designer and instructor at Talent Garden.
The podcast always gives us a great excuse to spend a couple of hours with friends, colleagues, and people we admire. That’s exactly what we love about it: we sit down, ask questions, and listen to stories that probably wouldn’t come up in a normal conversation.
And we’ve discovered that it’s educational for us, too. Not just because of everything that goes into preparing an episode, but especially because of what happens during the interviews; listening to the experiences and perspectives of our guests is giving us much more than we ever expected.
They are people with different roles and personal and professional backgrounds. Each one has given us new insights and a different way of looking at our work: the journey of Federica Ricci, the passion for hats of Lorenzo Grosso, the concept of virtuosity recounted by Giulio Simeone, the importance of the process for Frenk Poloniato, the delicacy in the words of Alessandro Scarpellini, and the desire to experiment of Gaia Zuccaro.
You can find all the full episodes on our YouTube channel or on Spotify.
We mentioned our trip to China for Rotel and now we can share a bit more.
We went to see where and how the projects we work on take shape. Being there allowed us to follow the production processes, discover how much attention is paid to detail, and engage directly with the people involved. We were able to make decisions together, on the spot, without having to organize an indecent number of remote calls.
Above all, it was an opportunity to get to know the client better and consolidate a collaboration that, over time, has gone beyond professional aspects: a relationship that nourishes us not only as designers, but also as people. Because yes, meeting in person still makes a difference.
In the meantime, we also stopped by FABA where we interviewed the great Frenk for ep. 04 of “Tutta colpa di Bruno” and took the opportunity to get a sneak peek at how the project we worked on together is coming along. By the end of the year, we will finally be able to show it to you.
Furthermore, in recent months we have started a new collaboration with Urmet ATE, a company that develops devices and solutions for security and telecare. We worked on a product dedicated to personal safety, a device designed to provide concrete help in specific situations. We are very happy to support projects like this and to contribute to improving the product's user experience.
We’ve also been quite busy at the university.
This year, for the first time, we served as thesis advisors [Ale and Chris, Ed.] for several students, and it was an awesome (though demanding) experience. Managing such long-term projects means finding the time to give everyone the right attention, fitting in reviews between work, classes, and everything else.
Sometimes even in rather unlikely places.
But it was definitely worth it.
The students we mentored started with some very solid project ideas and transformed them—through research, discussions, doubts, reviews, and prototypes—into truly fantastic projects.
The thesis defenses took place in September, and together with the faculty, we listened to "our" students present months and months of work in just a few minutes. Seeing them reach the finish line, defend their choices, and explain with enthusiasm something they had built step by step was incredibly rewarding.
At the end of September, we attended the inauguration of the new headquarters of Efesto, located in a beautiful farmhouse in Casier. We explored the new spaces and celebrated this new chapter with them. We always love seeing other creative businesses grow and build something that truly represents them.
In October, Chris and Gio popped over to H-FARM for the event organized by Supernova Agency.
The theme this year was Artificial. AI is challenging so many things: the way we work, the tools we use, the value of our skills, and, more generally, the very role of the designer. And, of course, we’re asking ourselves questions too. Not so much to see if AI will replace us, but to reflect on how our way of designing will change, what will still make sense to do, and which aspects of our work will continue to make us unique.
After listening to some very interesting talks, with diverse viewpoints and a few provocations, we took home plenty of food for thought, which we’ve collected in our highlights.
After a year full of new developments and nearly three years since Rawr was born, we feel the need to tidy things up.
Between projects, clients, and new ideas, the risk is focusing on everything that needs to be done and losing sight of the direction. That’s why we are working on our identity and positioning; we want to better understand who we are today and who we want to become.
Rawr is something alive, growing and changing along with the people who are part of it. And perhaps it is precisely this constant self-questioning that allows us to keep the energy we started with alive.
Let’s see where it takes us.
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