The first recap of the year was all about a fresh start. This second part, however, comes with quite a few updates.
Over the past few months, we’ve given a biiiig push to Rawr’s internal projects.
Between one thing and another, time has flown by, and we’ve finally taken a moment to pause and see what we’ve accomplished so far.
We kept our resolution to launch our podcast, “Tutta colpa di Bruno”: it’s a format where we chat with designers and industry figures to learn more about them and their journeys, and to share what goes on behind the scenes of design work.
Three episodes are already out:
You can find them on both Spotify and Youtube (that’s right, you can watch us too).
Who would you like to see in the upcoming episodes?
If you noticed a change of location in ep.02, there’s a reason for it. We recorded it live during the final exhibition for the courses at the Scuola Italiana di Design – SID, where we teach [Ale and Chris, Ed.]. We organized an exhibition to showcase the students' projects, and while we were at it, why not take advantage of having Lorenzo Grosso there for a live episode?!
After looking at and commenting on the work, he sat down with us in front of an audience of super curious and engaged students. It was just great!
This summer we decided to launch a summer school, done our way: we called it Playground, a mix of workshop, hackathon, and co-living. Five days of collaborative design, four tutors, fifteen participants, and a brief that combines product and UX design.
We can’t wait to get started and tell you how it went.
We finally dropped the new merch: with the heat, the shop needed a refresh too. So we launched the new Rawr t-shirt, featuring an awesome graphic designed by our friend and illustrator Gaia Coppola, aka Gaiaisonholiday.
We liked it so much that we offered it in two color variants, green and purple (we couldn't choose). Some people have already snapped them up, so head over to our shopbefore they’re gone.
In May, we all went to Milan to attend the Digital Design DaysWe heard some very inspiring talks that made us reflect on what it means to be a designer today, amidst AI, process culture, and creative responsibility.
Our top 3 speakers are (in no particular order):
· Ilenia Notarangelo & Arianna Cristiano from Illo Studio, who made us think about how principles shouldn't be used to make systems rigid, but rather to give them direction.
· Marina Willer from Pentagram, who shared how she sparks creativity in her free time by exploring without overthinking or feeling the pressure to perform, simply for the joy of self-expression.
· Stefan Sagmeister, who, with his usual charisma, reminded us of something simple yet fundamental: beauty is not the opposite of function; it is a function in itself.
But we didn't just listen: caught up in the excitement, we signed up (without really knowing what it was) for a Design Battle. Only later did we realize it was Europe's first live creative competition, that it would be held in front of an audience, and that Sagmeister himself would be judging the projects.
Despite feeling a bit panicked, we decided to go for it. With an unusual brief and only two hours on the clock, it was fun to try and think outside the box and push our creativity under such a tight deadline. Our own Ale even took home an honorable mention. Not bad!
Since we were in Milan, we went to say hello to our friends at FABA at the fair Toys & Baby. We took the opportunity to check out other companies' projects, from well-designed breast pumps (a whole world to discover) to toys so cool we wished we’d had them when we were kids.
In short, Milan gave us so much and brought the team even closer together. Gio, for example, has finally "loosened up," as she puts it.
In June, we also flew to Vienna to continue our collaboration with Rotel. We were there during HIGH END Vienna, one of the most important trade shows in the audio industry. We saw some really cool products, listened to sound systems that made us wish we had a bigger house, and gathered plenty of interesting insights on product design, interaction, and the listening experience.
As this recap goes live, we’ve just returned from China (with a fair amount of jet lag to shake off). After Barcelona and Vienna, we continue to follow Rotel around the world, because what started as a collaboration has now become a relationship built on dialogue and a shared desire to design together, at any latitude.
The rest, as always, we’ll share along the way on our social media.
And if you don’t have time to keep up with everything we’re doing, we’ll see you back here for the next recap.
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