Here are two products by Andrea Branzi, one of the seminal godfathers of 20th-century Italian design. The PUPA armchair and the KORALL vase make up part of his collection for Queeboo, the quirky Italian design store launched in 2016 by fellow Italian designer, Stefano Giovannoni.

Branzi is in the centre of this shot and Giovannoni is second left, posing together with the stable of Queeboo designers: Together they make up a comprehensive sample of contemporary and also more seasoned, iconic Italian furniture and product designers.

The Korall vase is tactile, smooth and chunky – it looks like a tree trunk! With a Japanese feel, the single spray of flowers in this image emphasises its natural charms. Several flowers or bunches can be displayed, sprouting from the three different apertures in the vase stem. Sulptural and striking, it’s not just a neutral base from which to display living blooms, but very much a design statement.

The Andrea Branzi Pupa armchair comes with a black or white moulded polyethylene body, together with a gold or silver steel base.

From the Queeboo website: ”My products are absolutely disconnected, but very much expressive: PUPA armchair, GURU anthropomorphic lamp, KORALL  and CANOTTA vase. Each of them has its own identity and a different productive technique: rotational and injection moulding.

Nowadays the collections are made this way: everyone goes in a different direction, but if the objects are being placed into an ambience, they can create a dynamic scenario” – Andrea Branzi

Like his Korall vase, Branzi’s Cannotta vase also makes use of several apertures to give different directional impact and angles to the shoots and blooms displayed inside. Cannotta means ‘tank top’ or vest in English. It’s surprising and engaging that something this butch in essence can remain so bold and yet become so pretty and amusing with the addition of exotic flowers.

The last of Andrea Branzi’s four design pieces for Queeboo, his ‘Guru anthropomorphic lamp’ to quote from the designer, looks just as its name suggests. Redolent of a religious or inspirational leader, rousing the faithful to worship, the Guru lamp reflects the style of this signature collection – smooth, chunky, organic. There is something striking in its charm and its simple, sculptural appeal.

A leading-light of the team of Italian architects and designers who created the ‘Memphis’ style in Italy that was so influential across the globe in the 1980s, Branzi is still very much at the fore of contemporary interior design solutions. A proponent of the Italian Radical Architecture movement, he has designed artefacts for leading design stores such as Alessi and he has written many seminal books including ‘Weak and Diffuse Modernity’ in 2006.

Born in 1938, Branzi’s work and his world vision are driven by the notion of constant change:

“We live in permanent uncertainty, and uncertainty has always existed, for those who have known how to interpret it, as an extraordinary opportunity.” -Andrea Branzi

Given that his influence on global exterior and interior design has lasted for so long, he has clearly taken every opportunity and each time come up with something compelling and just a little bit magical.