Matteo Fogale
Studio
Innovation, collaboration and quality are hallmarks of designs by this Uruguayan-born furniture and product designer.
Working from London since 2009, Uruguayan-born industrial designer Matteo Fogale values a collaborative approach, which has inspired an internationally diverse design portfolio.
With artist and engineer grandfathers, it’s not surprising that Uruguayan-born Matteo Fogale became an industrial designer. At age seventeen, he and his family moved to Venice. His high-school qualifications weren’t recognized in Italy, so he secured a place at a technical school, condensed its four-year curriculum and graduated in two years. While studying art at the University of Architecture in Venice, a friend recommended he try his hand at industrial design. On the island of Murano, the glassblowers’ skill in handling difficult techniques impressed him. That’s evident in his two collaborative projects with Swiss designer Laetitia de Allegri: the Nebbia collection of contemporary drinking goblets (“tipetti”), made using traditional Muranese glassblowing techniques, with muted colours that evoke the island’s foggy weather, and the Nereidi collection of vases designed for Venetian glass manufacturer Salviati.
Fogale, who has been based in London since 2009, considers industrial design an art but doesn’t sit alone in his studio sketching ideas before pitching them to potential manufacturers. Instead, he prefers to work collaboratively, whether with other designers or manufacturers. His design projects include furniture, retail design and objects. When he and de Allegri collaborated on –ISH, a range of furniture and objects made from recycled and reclaimed postindustrial waste including denim, cotton and cardboard, the project was spotted by fashion brand COS. The company commissioned them to design window displays for Milan, London, Paris and New York fashion weeks.
Sustainability is an important factor for Fogale. The Cruz del Sur side table, made from sustainable Portuguese cork, is flat-packed and easily assembled without tools. Compact and light, it’s produced and hand-finished in London. For London Design Festival 2019 he collaborated with Australian costume designer Emma Archer on A Second Life, an installation for the entry hall at Sketch restaurant. The project was commissioned by Matter of Stuff and saw the designers repurpose the pine dowelling of their 2018 show, redefining waste as a legitimate raw material. The duo’s Papillon design, which incorporated pleated offcuts of pale terracotta-coloured fabric, looked fantastic against the grandiose hall’s aubergine walls.
Uruguay doesn’t need to cry for Fogale. At London Design Festival 2018 he curated an exhibition and furniture series at the Aram Gallery entitled Hilos Invisibles. Designed in collaboration with seven design studios from Montevideo, the furniture pieces were inspired by the drawings of modernist Uruguayan architect Julio Vilamajó. Fogale also curated the Uruguayan pavilion at London Design Fair 2019 and aspires to realizing a Uruguayan pavilion at the London Design Biennale in 2020.
“I can’t sacrifice quality,” says Fogale. “Investing in quality is a good thing for designers.” Whether he is working alone or in collaboration with another designer or manufacturer, designing a bespoke piece or a range for production, this tenet remains paramount. matteofogale.com