Giorgia Zanellato (Venice, 1987) and Daniele Bortotto (Pordenone, 1988), designers, both studied Industrial Design at the IUAV in Venice and went on to take a Master’s Degree in Product Design at the ECAL in Lausanne (Switzerland). Giorgia Zanellato then joined the team at Fabrica – Benetton Research Centre (Treviso), while Daniele Bortotto started to work for the Swiss designer Adrien Rovero. After thus completing their training, the two designers came together on their first joint collection, the “Acqua Alta” series, dedicated to the city of Venice and presented at the Milan Salone Satellite in 2013. The following year they designed the “Serenissima” collection for Moroso, an industrial design project in which Venice’s colours and structural features become the inspiration for furniture, fabrics and ornaments.
After the success of these ventures, in 2015 they founded the Zanellato Bortotto firm, which works for big Italian and international names – Cappellini, Nilufar, Moroso, Rubelli, Tod’s, Alcantara – and has also had projects selected for galleries and museums – including the MAXXI in Rome and the Triennale Design Museum and Museo Poldi Pezzoli in Milan – as well as exhibiting at various international events – Salone del Mobile, Design Miami Basel, Maison&Object, Venice Biennale, London Design Festival. Their approach, always supported by careful cross-referencing with the location and time, ensures functionality without forgetting poetry of form, decoration and style, through a design process which establishes a dialogue, during production, between the worlds of craftsmanship and industry, creating both mass-market goods and limited editions and one-off pieces.
