AN INTERVIEW WITH ELIA NEDKOV
“WALLS BECOME PAGES ON WHICH YOU CAN TELL A STORY”
Behind the catalogues similar to art books and the scenographic settings that characterize Viero Paints, there is the personality of Elia Nedkov, a talented art director who has been taking care of the brand image for years.
Nedkov, in fact, is a bit like the ‘soul’ of the aesthetic of Viero Paints: since 2008 passionately follows the whole image that is around the collection of decorative elements, from the choice of paper for catalogs to graphics, from logos to sets for inspiring photo shoots.
The idea – he tells us about the birth of the philosophy that drives the brand – has always been to project the aesthetics of the wall into a strongly architectural and contemporary dimension».
Born in Bulgaria in 1971, after a period as a young painter and a diploma in mathematics (“it was a forced choice – he admits, smiling – but essential in forging my somewhat rebellious character”) Elia studied fashion in Vienna and architecture at the Polytechnic of Graz, where he worked for a long time before opening a studio in Milan. Winner of the “Polydecor Design Award” and of the “DuPont Corian competition for a food & coffee bar”, today he lives between Bulgaria and Italy but, in reality, he feels a bit like a citizen of the world, always looking for suggestions and beautiful stories to tell, even through a wall.
Elia, how was your relationship with Viero Paints born?
“The first approach was in 2008. It all started in a fairly naive way: I had been called to make a layout to an existing catalog. Actually, the pre-existing approach seemed to me very simple and so I proposed something totally different. My idea was to create an unconventional catalog, with an extremely sophisticated vision, able not only to speak to the applicators’ target and the building market, but also to architects and the world of culture. This is how the Architect Book was born: a catalog-book dedicated to the architect’s world, designed to inspire it and give it a vision. I must say that we were the first to take decoration and put it in an architectural context: many companies later took a lot of cues from our way of taking pictures, from our approach, from our aesthetic philosophy.”
How do you build images, settings and catalogs? In particular, what are you interested in transmitting through Viero products?
“Clearly in all these works there is a great deal of me; many of the images I produce take inspiration from my daily life, from my interest in fashion, architecture, painting … To achieve these moods I take care of the architecture projects, the styles, the images, the choice of paper, the graphics and I surround myself with a team of people who have the same sensitivity and with whom I can speak a common language. After all, everything that happens in the photos of the catalogs is the expression of a particular language, which needs to have an intellectual, calm and sophisticated approach to the wall.
This idea of mine, in fact, goes beyond the classical concept of decoration. A wall for me should not be embellished but must rather be presented so it tells a story.
Sometimes I see a beautiful woman, then I talk to her and I discover that she is clever, she has personality, it can surprise me: it is the moment that I find fascinating.
Here, the same thing happens for a wall. The catalogs of Viero are not simply catalogs of products but are catalogs of possible worlds, with their own personality and intelligence. To browse a Viero catalog for me is a bit like suggesting the viewer to change the frequency. I like the idea of making people think through images just as you do when you listen to classical music.”
What is your aesthetic vision?
“I do not like “wow ” effects. I find that the “wow” line is like a big shot that falls short. Instead of this I am interested in the most dreamy, distant, calm things. In my opinion, in general, this is the right approach to architecture because architecture can not be born today and die tomorrow but must exist for very long periods. To achieve this I aim at absolute values and I let go of the effects: the effects are on the surface but if you want to start producing substance you have to go deep. That’s why if you’re insensitive, maybe the wow effects can shake you, but if you’re delicate, they hurt because you can already feel every little vibration. ”
How would you define your style?
“The problem of giving definitions is that now everything runs too fast. If I talked about minimalism ten years ago, today this is a too abused word, just like “design”. For me, in general, the fundamental thing is not to lose the primary and experimental vision of my work. This is why I am inspired by ancient visions, which do not change with time. I like to create emotions that are far from everyday life, full of small irritations.
More than a definition, therefore, to describe my style, I would speak of an oxymoron in which sophisticated, intelligent, surprising, calm, avant-garde and wise adjectives coexist.”
This is an excerpt from an Interview with Elia Nedkov conducted by Viero Paints in October 2018. It has been translated from Italian.