I was born in 1983 from a U.S. mother and Italian father. I have lived most of my life in Italy but also two years in Los Angeles as a child and one in Shanghai as an adult. I have a Master’s degree in Architecture and I do a bunch of different things, but none of them involve architecture. Nevertheless my architectural background has strongly helped shape the way I deal with projects and given me the obession for process design. This, alongside my interest for communication represents the common ground for all the differet kinds of work I do.
I mostly find my projects hard to label. Sometimes they are easier to decribe as product design projects, others as communication projects or art projects.
I feel the borders are really blurry though. That’s why on my homepage they’re just devided between concept based and aesthetic based. You might have noticed that extreme photo retouching is a tool I use a lot to obtain images for many of my projects. But I also enjoy working with vectors, 3D modeling, lo-fi animation and working with my hands.
Design Stuff
If I have to describe my job in one word it's ``Designer``, but it's more complicated than that. Most of my designs for tangible objects are meant to remain ideas, series of images or prototypes at most. Their main purpose is to convey a message and to entertain, and whenever possible to get a smile or even a laugh. Those that have been produced as series exist in ridiculously small numbers.
Teaching
I am an academic teaching Basic Design inside the Product Design Junior's Degree at the University of Ferrara. My course is focused on design methodology and communication. I'm also a highschool Photoshop teacher in Bologna.
Communication Stuff
I consider communication my best skill. Despite most of my client work not being displayed on this website, I am a communication consultant for several small and medium size businesses. I am also Corporate Communications Officer for a company called All'Origine that deals antiques. It's a wonderful job that enables me to conduct historic research and even stay in touch with international mueums.
Graphic Design
This website is not dedicated to showcasing my commercial works in the field of graphic design, but as a communication consultant I have designed very many logos and business identities both for private enterprises and public institutions.
Art Stuff
Some of my experimentations involve just the study of proportions, of color combinations and are merely ornamental. I don't necessarily consider them good art, but I can't say it's design either. So please just bear with me. Some of my works are more sculptural, others are just visual. I realize I don't come across as an artist with a strong coehrent body of work, but that's because I'm not an artist. I'm a designer!
More Stuff
There is a small number of people that may know me for things other than those listed so far. So just in case you are one of those: yes I'm the same Gianluca Gimini that used to write about design on Turris Babel and Il sole 24 ore.
