Gianfranco Zaccai was born in Trieste, Italy, and grew up in the U.S. His ties to both countries have always been strong, and after graduating from Syracuse University, one of his first jobs as a designer was for a company in Milan that made clinical diagnostic devices.
“The fusion of the two cultures, American and Italian, was a great learning experience for me because the approaches are so different yet synergistic,” he recalls. “Back then, in the U.S., design was all about form following function, while in Italy, other sensibilities also came into play: emotion, tradition, and culture.”
Zaccai founded the design firm Continuum in 1983. He says they approach all projects in the same way: “Like creating a great meal, it has to be the right ingredients, in just the right quantity, served in the right way; a perfect mixture of the functional, emotional, ecological, and economical.”
From the outset, Zaccai and his team learned the importance of doing their own research. “You really can’t get the depth of understanding you need from a document someone hands you. You have to get out in the real world to see for yourself what happens within the context of a real setting, to talk with people and observe how they interact with objects and environments, to learn about their dreams and aspirations. That’s what leads to the ‘aha’ moments.”