About
Amandine Gini is a product designer and scenographer with strong interests in materiality and experience. After graduating in 2019 from the Bachelor of Industrial Design at ECAL and working there as a teaching assistant for two years, she joined Fabien Cappello’s studio in Guadalajara, Mexico. Back in Switzerland, she also gained experience working for Panter&Tourron in Lausanne and initiated in parallel her own practice as a scenography designer for ImagesVevey in 2022.
In addition, her pluridisciplinary approach leads her to manage projects with a more global vision, ranging from art direction to exhibition design, creating dialogues between existing design tools and her innovative approach. Her work has been exhibited at the Milan furniture fair, in the Jardin des Tuileries in Paris and in Guadalajara, Mexico.
EXHIBITIONS
2024
Out of the wood works, NOV Gallery, House of Switzerland, Milano (IT)
2023
ALT_MATTER, NOV Gallery, House of Switzerland, Milano (IT)
2023
ALT_MATTER, NOV Gallery, Design Days, Geneva (CH)
2022
800 GRADOS, Espacio Abierto, Guadalajara (MX)
2022
Jardin des Tuileries, Paris (FR)
2021
Exposición Torre Avancer, Fora Arquitectura, Guadalajara (MX)
2019
ECAL x MacGuffin, C-Mine, Genk (BE)
2018
ECAL x MacGuffin, IKSV Design Biennal, Istanbul (TR)
2018
ECAL x MacGuffin, Fondation Lumas, Arles (FR)
AWARDS & GRANTS
2024
Matchmaking Pro Helvetia, Logitech, Lausanne (CH)
2024
Ikea Foundation, Switzerland (CH)
2023
Seoul Matchmaking Programme, Pro Helvetia (CH)
2023
Matchmaking & Circular Design Event, La Becque, Pro Helvetia (CH)
2023
Ikea Foundation Switzerland
2020
Bosquet des innovations, Paris (FR)
2018
China Hardware Innovation Camp, Shenzhen & Hong Kong (HK)
PRESS
2023
Maison&Ambiances, N°162
2023
Wohnrevue, N°06-23
2023
FRAME → Link!
2023
Stylepark → Link!
2021
Maison&Ambiances
2019
VTWonen, Article about Geonoma project→ Link!
2018
World Architecture Compagny → Link!
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FORMWORK
Furniture
NOV Gallery
2024
FORMWORK
Furniture
NOV Gallery
2024
PATCHWORK
Product
4321.KR
2023
TC23
Product
Swiss Parliament, CH
2023
OFFSET
Lamp collection
NOV Gallery
2023
Harvesting Memories
Scenography
Musée de la Confrérie des Vignerons
2023
800 GRADOS
Material research
Santacruz Glass Design
2022
CC Ceramics
Product
Self-initiated/
2021
CPX Table
Furniture
Private commission
2020
Sample soaps
Product
SAMPLE SOAPS
2019
171°
Product
Self-initiated
2019
Geonoma
Product
Self-initiated
2019
P10
Furniture
ECAL X Plateforme10
2018
Vevey
Scenography
ImagesVevey
2018
Curve
Product
Self-initiated
2015
FORMWORK
Infos
with Victor Moynier
Limited edition for NOV Gallery
Spruce and oak wood
Photography—Cynthia Ammann
Supported by IKEA Foundation Switzerland & Fondation Casino Barrière de Montreux
FORMWORK is a furniture collection that delves into the utilization of discarded wood within the construction industry, resulting in objects characterized by the combination of spruce and oak wood. The project views reclaimed timber as a precious raw material and offers an alternative to help reduce the consumption of virgin wood in the furniture industry.
The collection's singular aesthetic lies in the use of a wooden patchwork layout, utilizing spruce as a vertical and structural element, while oak is chosen for its aesthetic appeal and durability. The resulting pieces create a graphical yet elegant language, blending traditional and contemporary woodworking approaches.
Comprising a chair, a wall-mounted shelf, and a side table, the three furniture pieces draw direct inspiration from the structures found in the timber formworking process—a temporary structure used to cast concrete on building sites.
PATCHWORK
Infos
with Victor Moynier
Limited edition for 4321.KR
Spruce and oak wood
Photography—Amandine Gini, Shinyoung Bahc
In celebration of the 60th anniversary of Korean-Swiss international relations, this collection of wooden trays was created as a merge of Korea’s unique textile patchworks and Switzerland’s woodworking heritage.
Originally, the wrapping cloth in the Korean domestic landscape was known as “bojagi” and made from scraps of left-over fabrics sewn together.
Inspired by bojagi’s geometrical patterns, the PATCHWORK trays play with the graphic layout of carefully selected Swiss wood types which include oak, larch, walnut, and fir. The shape also draws inspiration from the slanted sides of the iconic Korean tea trays.
TC23
Infos
Swiss Parliament x ECAL
Bern, CH
Photography—Marvin Merkel
Designed exclusively for the Swiss Parliament, the TC23 pencil sharpener is one of the official gifts offered by the Federal Assembly during parliamentary visits. With its cast aluminium body, its rotary movement and its unique shape, the pencil sharpener is inspired by a Swiss icon, the pendulum winding key. Designed and developed entirely in Switzerland in collaboration with local partners of excellence, this gift helps to promote Switzerland’s image abroad.
OFFSET
Infos
with Victor Moynier
Limited edition for NOV Gallery
PLA & cellulose laminated paper
Photography—Noé Cotter
Graphic identity—Spectrodrama
Supported by IKEA Foundation Switzerland
OFFSET is a collection of lamps exploring ecological and aesthetic alternatives for the production of objects in line with current environmental concerns.
Based on compostable air packaging sourced in the transport industry, the collection is designed around an inflatable paper diffuser, using air as a constructive element and paper as a light-diffusing material. Composed of a table, a wall and a suspension lamp, the family explores the structural and visual potentials of this material and takes inspiration in the idea of lightness and flexibility inherited from design movements and ideologies of the 60’s.
OFFSET, as the name suggests, refers to the patterns that the digital welding controller can generate. The lamps take different shapes inspired by outdoor camping mattresses or down jackets’ patterns, both produced with cutting-edge welding techniques.
Starting point of the collection, the paper used is laminated with a natural PLA & cellulose film which allows to maintain a constant air pressure over time. The material is entirely bio-based and compostable.
The family of lamps has been developed to be shipped flat-pack and inflated at home, reducing shipping costs & emissions as well as packaging volume. Also designed for disassembly, each component of the product can be dismantled (thanks to magnets or screws fixture) and recycled or repurposed separately.
In an alternative where innovation relies on bio-based materials, Amandine Gini and Victor Moynier work with paper, one of the oldest and most promising natural materials for the future.
Harvesting Memories
Infos
Musée de la Confrérie des Vignerons
Vevey, CH
Photography—Calypso Mahieu
Harvesting Memories is an exhibition that reveals objects from the museum’s archive of the Fête des Vignerons. The scenography was thought as a temporary architecture which hosts an exhibition for three seasons. Working around the idea of repurposing elements, yellow crates normally used for grape harvest are placed in this room to display the selected objects. Once the exhibition over, the yellow crates will be given back to the wine growers of the Riviera and will welcome the grapes of the next harvest as originally intended.
800 GRADOS
Infos
with Emilio Ramirez
Glass & metal
Exhibited at Espacio Abierto
Guadalajara, MX
Photography—Emilio Ramirez & Amandine Gini
800 GRADOS is a material research conducted for a local glass factory in Guadalajara with Emilio Ramirez, a Mexican product designer. By collecting car parts, stainless steel kitchen utensils and iron grills from local landfills, we let the glass take on completely different shapes. It allowed new possibilities of expression for this material, letting the urban moulds dictate new shapes. The research was exhibited at Espacio Abierto and contributed to generating new links between local creatives and the industry.
CC Ceramics
Infos
Charcoal pigmented ceramic
Genève, CH
Photography—Cynthia Ammann
Research around the materiality of blackness, its fine nuances and the tension between shiny and mat black surfaces. The perception of both its appearances can have a totally different impact whether it absorbs or reflects the light environment.
CPX Table
Infos
Limited edition
Swiss solid oak
Champex-Lac, CH
Photography—Adrien Sgandurra
CPX Table is as solid oak furniture piece designed for the interior of a chalet situated in the Swiss alpine region. Its shape exploit the alliance between the know-how of the Swiss cabinetmaker and the adaptation of this craft to the current technologies of digital processes. The identity of this piece of furniture lies in its formal simplicity and the use of certain structural qualities that can be achieved through digital milling. The visible surfaces have a plain appearance, while the underside of each tray shows the construction and reinforcements. The structural reinforcements that hold the solid top and accommodate the table frame and legs were integrated into the table in the manner of traditional marquetry using contemporary processes.
SAMPLE SOAPS
Infos
Co-founder with Margo Clavier
Cold saponnification organic soaps
Martigny, CH
Photography - Adrien Sgandurra, Amandine Gini
Design of the identity and art direction for the swiss-brand SAMPLE SOAPS. A collection of monochromatic soap bars produced by a soap maker in Martigny, Switzerland.
171°
Infos
with Nathalie Borgeaud
Polypropylene offcut straps
Lausanne, CH
Photography—Adrien Sgandurra
171° is a collection of baskets made with straps rolls recovered from a webbing manufacturer’s offcuts.
Geonoma
Infos
Botanical Garden Geneva
Geneva, CH
Photography—Adrien Sgandurra
A luminaire developed for the night of the museums and the Botanical Garden of Geneva in 2019. Inspired by the world of botanical gardens, plants and organic matter, this luminaire with flexible filaments interacts with its environment.
P10
Infos
ECAL X Plateforme10
Lausanne, CH
Photography—Adrien Sgandurra
P10 is a collection of three public benches designed for the Plateforme10 spacefurnishing competition.
Vevey
Infos
ImagesVevey, 2018
Musée de la Confrérie des Vignerons
Vevey, CH
Photography—Adrien Sgandurra
Adrien Sgandurra’s one year photography exhibition at «Musée de la Confrérie des Vignerons» in Vevey focuses on the duality between the traditional methods of swiss winemakers and the technological improvements around winemaking. The scenography of this exhibition carries on this duality of the ancient and the new also through the room’s historic architecture that strongly contrasts with the technical panels and the screens’ reflexion.
Curve
Infos
Lausanne, CH
Photography—Younès Klouche
The container’s shape is revealed progressively with the objects that are disposed on its elastic surface.