Gianfranco Zaccai
Gianfranco Zaccai was born in Trieste, Italy, and grew up in the USA. His ties to both countries have always been strong, and after graduating from Syracuse University, one of his first jobs as a designer was for a company in Milan that made clinical diagnostic devices.
“The fusion of the two cultures, American and Italian, was a great learning experience for me, because the approaches are so different, yet synergistic,” he recalls. “At that time in the USA, design was about form following function, while in Italy, other sensibilities also came into play: emotion, tradition, and culture.”
Zaccai founded the design firm Continuum in 1983. He says they approach every project the same way: “Like creating a great meal, you have to have the right ingredients, in the right amount, served the right way; a perfect blend of the functional, emotional, ecological, and economic.”
From the beginning, Zaccai and his team learned the importance of doing their own research. “You really don’t get the deep understanding you need from a document someone hands you. You have to go out into the real world and see for yourself what happens within the context of a real environment, talk to people and observe how they interact with objects and environments, learn about their dreams and aspirations. That’s what leads to the ‘a-ha’ moments.”
“Like creating a great meal, you have to have the right ingredients, in the right amount, served the right way; a perfect blend of the functional, emotional, ecological, and economic.”
– Gianfranco Zaccai
A hands-on approach to researching the problem was the foundation of the two designs that Zaccai and Continuum created for Herman Miller. When addressing the design of Exclave, they began by creating a project space where they could place, move, and replace all components as needed. They quickly discovered that this flexible approach was the greatest asset for people working together to solve problems and develop innovative solutions. “Our research showed that collaboration is, first and foremost, spontaneous, sometimes even somewhat chaotic,” Zaccai says. “Most collaborative events are brief, consist of just two or three people, and happen almost anywhere. Unfortunately, most workplace areas are not designed to foster collaboration. And more importantly, these spaces don’t enable a seamless flow of ideas from one place to another.”
For the Compass system, the team learned firsthand about the various needs that had to be met in healthcare settings. Zaccai says: “It had to be not only comfortable and reassuring for patients and their loved ones, but minimally invasive in the precious space needed for delivering optimal care. It also had to be quickly adaptable to accommodate emerging technology, and easy to maintain, reducing the possibility of infection.”
Zaccai and Continuum’s work is not limited to Herman Miller; among many other consumer products, they also created the Swiffer cleaning system for Procter & Gamble and the famous Reebok Pump.