I and I

I+I was begun in 1996 by two friends - Paolo Giordano and Silvio Caputo. Paolo had been travelling in India for some years, working as a photographer and he came into contact with Silvio who was working on an architectural project for the developing world. They decided to work together on a report on the great Indian contemporary architect Nari Ghandi and travelled together with Ghandi to Maharasthra. On this trip they talked a great deal and developed ideas for working together. Paolo had been overseeing production for Twergi ( the wooden department of the Italian Alessi design company ): it consisted of a production of 5,000 wooden boxes, made and hand painted according to the designs of artist Nuala Goodman. Nuala, Irish artist and Paolo's life partner collaborated on the project, teaching the painters in Rajasthan to reproduce her paintings precisely. Following the production of the Alessi boxes was an interesting challenge for Paolo and led him and led him to the decision to begin designing and producing a small collection of objects working closely with skilled Indian craftsmen, with the collaboration of Silvio and Nuala. It was decided to call the company‘ I+I'- meaning ‘Italy and India'. Paolo has concentrated his creative energies on ‘I+I' ever since and it has slowly grown and transformed into the company you know today. Today‘ I+I' is mainly concentrated on the design and production of high quality handmade rugs which are produced in India and Nepal, as well as a series of objects in limited editions which are made in Italy. The company remains dedicated to valuing artisan excellence in every region, combined with good design. Our aim is to produce special pieces which are handmade but assisted by cutting-edge technology. The electronic mapping system that we now work with in India can recreate a paper facsimile of any rug; this would have been impossible just a few years ago. Then when working in Italy the combination of avant-garde technology such as five axis machining together with the manual expertise of its craftsmen permits us to produce small series of objects of extraordinary quality.