CAMPARI TIME

It is a little known secret about me (err... until now that is) that I am particularly fond of a Campari and Soda on a hot summers evening. Just the thought of the drink brings back evocative memories of all sorts of squares and pavement cafes strewn across Europe with my money left in exchange for the slightly fizzy, brilliantly red and very bitter drink. Served long and with a straw of course.

My other passion - good industrial design and elegant items that hold everyday objects (what? you didn't know about that either? shame on you!) - is cross-fusef with my love for Campari in a strange way too.

Campari bottles that are on the shelves of supermarkets worldwide do not tell the true story of the drink. The smaller 10cl bottles that you can find in Italian cafe bars and good cocktail bars across Europe are at the root of a design excellence hat stretches far back, into the 1920's in fact. These bottles (see picture below) were designed in 1932 and are still unchanged to this day.

Product CampariSoda 10cl bottle, 10% abv
Designer Fortunato Depero
Year 1932
Company Gruppo Campari, Novi Ligure, Italy

Since it is interesting (to me!) here's a little more about the company and product.

Gaspare Campari was born in Castelnuovo, Italy in 1828 and by the time he was just 14 was working as “apprentice maitre licoriste”, a type of highly skilled and knowledgeable barman, in Turin. In 1860 he founded Gruppo Campari in Milan. Campari's business model was almost Coca Cola-ish in its aggresiveness - he would only sell his product to outlets displaying “Campari Bitters” posters, which themselves became design icons when Davide, Gaspare's son took over the business during the 1920's. This brand focus - notably decades, indeed almost a century, before the concept became embedded in advertising culture sometime around the late 1970s - meant Campari quickly became established as a strong brand across Italy and set the stage for what is today a global brand selling over 30 million bottles per year to make the company the 6th largest operator in the global beverages marketplace. For all the stats click here.

Secrecy surrounds the drink. Even today only one person knows the entire formula of ingredients, Luca Garavoglia the Group's managing director. One of the main known ingredients is bark from Cascarilla trees that grow in the Bahamas.

The CampariSoda bottle in the picture was designed by Fortunato Depero, an Italian futurist artist in 1932 and a now infamous poster featuring a dancing clown inside a peeled orange was designed by Leonetto Cappiello in 1921.

ON THE FIRST DAY..

"The Spirit of God was hovering over the waters. And God said, 'Let there be light,' and there was light. God saw that the light was good, and he separated the light from the darkness. God called the light 'day', and the darkness he called 'night'. And there was evening, and there was morning, the first day."

Or so says Genesis 1:2-5.

Polko says bullshit. But lights there are. And plenty of them! Here are a few of my current favourites:

This is called Once (In The Blue) and made by Flos of Italy. It has two bulbs inside a 1m x 2m resin and aluminium asymmetric ball. One is a white halogen for traditional lighting, the other a black light that gives a fantastic effect at night. Big and beautiful.

This is Ari Grande by Axo Light. In a single line as here, or clustered together in a block or circle. Mmmmmm.

Blò IC, designed by Roberto Pamio for Oty Light, a smallish single halogen plasterboard fixed clear glass unit. With rough beaten steel backsplash panels behind work surfaces I think these are among the best kitchen designs ever.. unfortunately, we have nine halogen points in our kitchen and so the total cost would add to over 1,300 euros..

And then, my big favourite.. Campari Light by Ingo Maurer, one of the finest and quirkiest lighting designers of the moment.. Real Campari in bottles, suspended by an adjustable Campari bottle crown. Too much to buy at 240 euros but I reckon I can do something similar for a room I'm currently finishing at home!.. though I do like Campari so may have to resort to coloured water?!