Cromatica by Florim: a lexicon of colour shades for mixing. A large size and its submultiples.

Andrea Trimarchi and Simone Farresin, two Italian designers based in Amsterdam, are the founders of the Formafantasma studio. Their studio has created a coherent body of work characterized by the experimental investigation of matter, exploring topics such as the relationship between tradition and local identity, the critical approach to sustainability, and the meaning of objects as devices for cultural relations.

In Cromatica, the gradual, constant engineering of the production processes of architectural ceramics has made it possible to manufacture larger and larger sizes and develop more and more precise colour gradation systems, which also produce slabs of material in amazingly bright, shiny colours; at the same time, increasingly accurate controlled mechanisation of manufacturing cycles has helped to make the potential, minimal flaws in the finished product completely imperceptible. On the one hand, this has had the beneficial outcome of quality standards absolutely inconceivable until the recent past, but on the other it has often led to worries about the risk - intrinsic in a virtually “perfect” modular, mass-produced product - of minimising, or even completely eliminating, the stimulating visual variety once created by the sequential repetition of ceramic tiles when every one had its own, individual flaws.

Andrea Trimarchi and Simone Farresin

With the Cromatica collection, Formafantasma investigates fresh possibilities provided by the “colour factor” in contemporary ceramics manufacturing, while at the same time meeting the need to provide continuous spreads of covering, technically perfect but still offering the fascinating potential for compositions of individual pieces which are never monotonous. The entire collection - produced in a variety of sizes - includes six basic colours, with two types of surface finish (one natural, the other glossy); the slab production cycle combines different technologies to deliver a rich lexicon of shades and gradations on the large surface of a single ceramic panel: the small sizes in the collection, “offcuts” from the larger slabs, are combined - even at random - to create compositions with a wide variety of colours, for design schemes featuring unique, original chromatic blends.