The problem with cutting your teeth on designs most competitive, leading edge, is that sometimes theyre left just a bit too sharp.
In 2009, PR specialist Cristina Belmonte arrived in Vancouver (by way of Madrid, London, Milan) overqualified and adrift.
Her husband was following his career in animation to our shores, so she left London with him. But she had admittedly low expectations for the kind of design scene shed find here. And she was unsure if shed even find a challenging role in that sector of PR, after a decade spent working with some of the most high-profile clients in Europe (B&B Italia, Sellar Properties).
But three years later, after a fortuitous meeting with Omer Arbel (see story), creative director of Bocci, she is fast-tracking again in her former world, rocketing Boccis designs straight into Italys most exclusive lighting show Euroluce.
It is the satisfying culmination of a strategy she put into place the moment she took the boutique Vancouver industrial design firm on as a client. In Belmontes experience, it takes between seven and 15 years to be invited to exhibit at the show, meaning thousands of talents are rejected every year.
Theres nothing like Milan [Salone Del Mobile/Euroluce], and I know people hate that, Belmonte concedes in an accent that pays tribute to both her Spanish roots and UK career. But they are the masters of design, because they have been doing it forever and because everyone goes there.
She recalls with a laugh how one well-known UK designer, Tom Dixon, got so fed up with trying to get accepted, that he took a bolder approach and rented a nearby design museum, in its entirety, to curate a show himself at no small expense.
But Belmonte has been watching the soaring triumphs and firey failures of designer excess for 20 years. Case and point: exhibiting at Euroluce comes with a price tag of an easy quarter of a million. But none of this fazes the 40-year-old former journalist, who has tossed back beers with Richard Rogers, Renzo Piano and the like, and speaks the language of their industry more fluently than her native tongue.
So when Bocci told her from day one that her brief was to get them into Euroluce, her response was a reasonable thats impossible, youre nobody.
In Belmonte's experience, a Canadian passport and cowboy approach can sometimes give the "wrong impression" overseas.
But a disheartened look around the design ghost town that is Vancouver (i.e. everybody leaves) resulted in an epiphany: When in the Wild West, do as the cowboys do. And Belmonte took the challenge on and loaded the big guns.
She introduced Bocci to the Galleria Rossana Orlandi in Milan, known as the discoverer of new talent. In 2010, Bocci had its first installation there the 28 series. It was so successful, Bocci has been invited to return every year since in 2011 with the 19 series bowl, and, in 2012, launching the limit-stretching 38 series.
She saw Bocci inked into repute via dozens of design magazines (Monocle, Wallpaper*, Dwell).
It still took three years of being told no for Belmonte to ultimately get the Bocci profile in front of the correct people at Cosmit. And when she finally had that audience, the canon shifted; Old Italy awoke to a young design company, blowing glass in the remote wilds of 1706 W. 1st Avenue, Vancouver, BC.
And, as surprised and happy as they were, Arbel and the owner of Bocci couldnt resist adding, But were next to Swarovski. We want to be next to Flos. So she made that happen too.
Sometimes people dont understand what PR does, she says, her unlined, banged brow furrowing. So when you talk about strategy and lobbying, most of the time people just come to you and say, Are you the girl who writes the press releases? And youre like WellNo.
In the world I move, its very niche. You are hired because you are capable to get people to places. You are connected.
April 9-14, Bocci will début at Euroluce, alongside the big players of Flos, Ingo Mauer, and yes, Swarovski.
