CROMATICA

Cromatica: note sulla collezione | Cromatica: notes on the collection

The Cromatica ceramics collection

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.

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.

The colour range developed for Cromatica is the outcome of in-depth design

work conducted by Formafantasma with the aid of materials from the CEDIT archives;

amongst the initial inspirations which stimulated the two designers’ creativity in their

search for a concept which could combine the brand’s past with its near future, pride

of place must definitely go to the major “colour catalogue” work provided by the

“41 Colors” collection of glazed tiles, designed for the company by Ettore Sottsass at

the end of the last century.

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