Uto Balmoral

Uto Balmoral is a curious example of a “virtual designer”: he is in fact a character created by a young Italian architect and designer (born in 1975) to present his products, partly in protest against the excessive protagonism of designer-characters compared to the concreteness of their work and partly to exploit the aura of mystery generated within his character as a marketing vehicle. Uto Balmoral made his debut at the 2011 Fuorisalone with an exhibition at the DAAL Gallery presenting a series of self-produced tables and lamps. The great success of this operation allowed him to launch into a career as a real designer through collaborations with brands such as Mogg, Tonelli, Emmemobili and Durame. His creations often hinge on a solid formal rigor derived from his experience as an architect, often based on clever plays on square geometries, but capable of sometimes giving way to a more cheerfully pop taste as in his fruitful collaboration with Seletti.