Humberto Campana

JOB DESCRIPTION
Interdisciplinary creative

CURRENT PROJECTS
We are designing an exhibition for the Musée des Arts Décoratifs in Paris that will open in September. We are also doing a house here in São Paulo—our first house from bricks to the end. Plus, a project for Alessi, a new sofa for Edra, and a garden in Vietnam.

FIRST STEP ON A PROJECT:
I always start from the material, falling in love with it and trying to understand its nature.

LAST STEP ON A PROJECT
The final part of any design is to see it used, to see it in people’s homes, and to understand how they live with it.

EDUCATION:
I am a self-educated designer. I graduated from law school, but I took a sculpture course in college, and I became a sculptor first.

HOW DO YOU BREAK A CREATIVE BLOCK?
By accident. I broke one of my biggest blocks during a trip on the Colorado River. I was a sculptor at the time.

My boat capsized. I survived, and, two hours later, started to design a chair with a spiral, in maple, very heavy. Then my brother took the pieces of wood that were left over and designed another chair. It was very symbolic, to design out of an accident. We created an entire collection based on that.

WHY DO YOU DO WHAT YOU DO?
To maintain my sanity. To keep my roots, to stay grounded, to not get lost.

MENTOR:
Ingo Maurer. Paola Antonelli did a show in the 1990s of our work with Ingo Maurer’s. It’s funny, because he was my icon. One day, she wrote to us to do this project, and it was like a dream come true.

WORLD-SAVING MISSION:
I usually never talk about this, but if I had to, it would be to rescue traditions that are dying because of the system of mass production. First act as “design czar”: I would say, don’t get so drunk with success. Because the next day you can have no work, and it can be very bad.

DREAM TEAM:
My dream team is my studio here in Brazil, with 12 people working. We want to be small, and not grow bigger, because it is like a small school or
a laboratory of design.

OFFICE CHAIR:
Our chair prototypes, which we make here in São Paulo. We use all the chairs that we prototype, to test the results. The Anemonas chair is my favorite; it is very colorful and light.

OFFICE SOUNDTRACK:
Contemporary Brazilian music, and Johann Sebastian Bach

FAVORITE TCHOTCHKE:
It’s my cell phone, because I travel around the globe a lot. For me, my cell phone is like my house. It’s the object that connects me with friends that are far away.

MOST USEFUL TOOL:
My hands

BEST PLACE TO THINK:
Out in the streets. Never inside the studio. I like leaving the situation, and seeing the reality of where I am.

SOMETHING OLD:
The garden I planted with my father in the 1960s, at my family home. Nobody lives there, so it’s falling apart, but it is a connection with my parents.

SOMETHING NEW:
The New Hotel, in Athens. We put together a group of students in Greece to refurnish this old hotel. For three years, we held a school inside the hotel. It was a very rich project for me, and for the students.

FAVORITE SPACE:
My house in the countryside, outside São Paulo, in Brotas. It’s a lodge that I’m finishing.

GUILTY PLEASURE:
Smoking

UNDERRATED:
There is no investment in Brazilian design by the government. But we have a lot of young, talented creators.

OVERRATED:
In Brazil, there is too much investment in football, not enough in education.

LEARNED THE HARD WAY:
We are doing more architectural projects. In the beginning, I didn’t know how to read a floor plan. This was hard for me. It is still hard, but I’m learning.

DREAM JOB:
To be a gardener, to plant trees. I love trees. It’s my dream for the future,
to create more parks. I think the world would be better with more greenery.