A visit to Benetton’s research & content creation laboratory

I had the marvelous opportunity to spend the day visiting and diving into the world of Fabrica and Benetton. There are so many layers to this empire it’s almost hard to explain. Fabrica is a research and content creation laboratory dealing with all sorts of contemporary issues that relate to social change, design, culture, and communication.

Based just outside Treviso, Fabrica is located within a vast architectural complex that was restored and expanded by renown Japanese architect Tadao Ando.

Fabrica offers young designers and artists a one-year study grant which includes a professional training opportunity, along with a wealth of resources and relations that come with the creative environment they immerse themselves into. The results produced by the grant-holders are very impressive and I was very happy to have Sam Baron, the Director of Fabrica’s design department available to give me a tour. The whole site is amazing, as is the work going on inside, with a real sensation of collaboration and busy enthusiasm bouncing around off the walls and around the desks. Here’s just a small selection of photos from my visit, which do no justice to the incredible amount of work happening in this place... enjoy!

Looking at the quarterly magazine COLORS.

Sam Baron.

Extra-Ordinary Gallery: a study of ordinary things, interpreted by Fabrica.

This is where it all started for Benetton.

Mini jumpers and color charts.

Benetton campaign from the 1960s.

Thanks so much to all the kind folks at Fabrica and Benetton for hosting me last week. It was an incredible day!

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    Ambra Medda

    Ambra is a passionate, seasoned curator, who facilitates great design through innovative collaborations between designers, artists, brands, and institutions. Among many other things.