When design merges with AI

The International Milan Furniture Fair and the Fuorisalone have always been an important laboratory for exploration and contamination, a hub for networking, for new opportunities to take a thoughtful look at the realm of design and architecture, and an important showcase for the city of Milan, which is recognized worldwide as a benchmark for design.
It is from the top of this landscape that Martina Castagna told us about Atelier Castagna and how generative AI has revolutionized the way she works:


courtesy Aitelier Castagna 

As I started getting interested in startups and innovation and consequently diving into the first notions of Artificial Intelligence (AI) too, I immediately realized its great potential, but at the same time I always struggled to find a real practical application for our industry.
For those who are not familiar, when we talk about Generative AI, or Artificial Intelligence, we refer to the ability of a machine to generate new and original information from a series of inputs given to it. The information generated ranges from text to 3-D models to images, videos and music content.
While researching on the net, I have repeatedly come across really good digital artists who are able to create incredible, fascinating and in some ways fairy-tale-like images, but that is what they remain: viral images only on the net.

Dealing with interior and furniture design is a job where aesthetics definitely plays a prominent role, and being able to adequately represent a product or the interior of a home is very important, so hypothetically a very fertile ground for generative AI; but doing design is not just that: it is an all-around job where you need basic skills and an awareness of spaces, you need to know how to do research, how to match colors and materials correctly, and how to create a layout that works and not just that it looks extremely good in a rendered image.


courtesy Aitelier Castagna 

Through AItelier Castagna, my newly founded startup/studio, I am doing just that: combining years of experience as a designer with the potential of AI, using it as a support and an integrated piece of my creative process to bring to life interior and product designs that have new and revolutionary shapes, but at the same time finding real application in the reality of the industry too, not limited to the digital world only.


courtesy Aitelier Castagna 

Moreover, thanks to AI I have turned the creative process upside down. Foolish? Possibly. Does it work? Very well. I start working on the product directly from a rendered 3D view, and once I get the desired look, I go and edit the individual parts and details. If this is not enough for me, I expand my view by enlarging the view to obtain an image set within a context that follows the same style as the product itself; thereafter only, after presenting the product to the company, do I go on to create the 2D with the technical specifications.


courtesy Aitelier Castagna 

I realized that by applying this method, it is much easier to communicate with companies, because you arrive with a view that represents the actual product, immediately triggering a "wow" effect, and you don't run the risk of running into wrongheaded interpretations: you immediately see it as it is, positioned within a context that follows its style and allows you to express "its soul" at its best, and I believe this has enormous potential.
In this way, generative AI allows me to better express myself, simplifying communication and enabling me to bring to life objects and interiors with unique and innovative features.


courtesy Aitelier Castagna