After years of studies, prototypes and production attempts, and thanks to the collaboration with a group of young Bolognese designers and EGO.M brand, Giovanna and Carlo Castiglioni present one of their father’s unpublished projects: writing tools.
The design inheritance can be identified in the prototypes made in 2001 by Pier Luigi Ghianda’s Bottega, reproducing the three-lobed arch shape studied by Castiglioni and Cavaglià, which represents the true alliance between mind, hand (fingers) and object, as well as having the characteristic of not rolling on the table.
The collaboration started in 2020, when Fondazione Achille Castiglioni, Cavaglià and the EGO.M Team met and were entrusted with the development and production of the project, now unveiled on the date of Achille’s 103rd birthday: 16 February 2021.
Passion and tenacity push EGO.M to work immediately on the link between past, present and future. A highly topical project that, after twenty years, bases its production on the use of current technology that was not widespread at the time of the project and on research into materials.
With great awareness of responsibility and respect, once they have learnt the fundamentals of the project, the original philosophy and will – which Cavaglià transferred to them over the course of a year’s work – EGO.M concentrates on transforming it into a product.
The team’s professional skills are rooted in their respective and diversified family and educational experiences: architecture, communication, organisation and administrative management, production, research, technological innovation and craftsmanship, and finally commercial distribution.
The new 3D printing technologies based on additive manufacturing have given rise to a new form of writing instruments: the trilobal arch shape, finding in graphene the material suitable to form the soul of the project.
Extremely sharp yet complex to make on the product, and suitable to be held by the three fingers of the hand. These characteristics are complemented by a pleasant texture and non-slip grip.
In the 3D printing technique, each stem is individually manufactured, which makes it possible to speak of craftsmanship in industry. Slow filling, wall thickness and other important printing parameters then determine the final rigidity of the product, making it impact resistant. Added to this is the perceptive quality of the filament processing.
The project is called CENTO3:
3 are the tools designed and their respective types of writing
3 D is the technology used for production
3 are the partners in the project – Fondazione Achille Castiglioni, Gianfranco Cavaglià, EGO.M
3 are the involved generations.
There are also three versions of the product: the multifunctional pencil, the pocket size pen, and finally the micromine, the pencil made of pencils.
“In the daily routine of the outside world, if a pencil was not immediately in hand, while rummaging in his pocket, in a firm tone, Achille Castiglioni would ask: don’t we have a pencil?” “by Achille Castiglioni (G. Cavaglià).
Info egoundesign.com
CENTO3, produced by EGO.M in collaboration with Gianfranco Cavaglià and Fondazione Achille Castiglioni
