M-L-XL’s winning move for Ready Made Go 4

Originating in India in the 6th Century, chess is a game that has stretched zillions of brains and befuddled even more for nigh-on 1500 years. In 2018, the masterful board is getting a revamp for modern times by London and Venice-based studio M-L-XL.

Founded by Marco Campardo and Lorenzo Mason, M-L-XL’s output spans graphic design and publishing, curating, teaching, product design and much more. What weaves all of these desperate threads together is a research-led approach and a desire to use design as a tool to explore and solve social issues. If you went to Venice last year you may well remember the studio’s Breakfast Pavilion, which turned A Plus A Gallery into a space where the boundaries of art and design could be discussed, performed and even eaten. Closer to home, M-L-XL’s Heavy Formal Exercises filled the Tate Modern Turbine Hall with brick-built furniture for Self Publish Be Happy Endless Book Club, a clever twist on temporary seating.

For Ready Made Go 4 the pair have designed a new chess-like games table called ‘Blanco e Nero’, riffing on the black and white checkerboard of the traditional chess table. M-L-XL worked with sustainable surface material specialists Alusid on the project, using its Silicastone to create a white to black gradient surface, as well as a series of sculptural giant chess and draught pieces in the same material.

We love how your work has a strong political bent. How would you define M-L-XL’s ethos?

We consider design to be a tool and a medium for exploring wider social and cultural issues. Our ethos is rooted in our attention to modes of production and local resources, and we are particularly interested in making as a form of knowledge production. That is why our work explores the use of different materials and traditional craftsmanship, bringing those forms of knowledge to life in the contemporary context. For example, our stool Forato, designed last year for a special project at the Venice Art Biennale, reinterpreted the traditional material and casting technique used in Naples to make religious nativity scenes cheaply. Taking a contemporary form, the project brought to life a type of production and a material that is used in a completely different context. Equally, we think of design as a form of dialogue and discussion, as seen from our Breakfast Pavilion project. Here, we acted both as designers and curators, shaping a temporary event that used design to start a conversation between practitioners coming from different backgrounds. Ultimately, for us, design is a medium to explore narratives, issues and questions that go beyond the designed object, like our project Viva Venezia, a series of wool scarves that draw attention to the recent crisis of the city of Venice, produced in connection to the launch of our last typeface called Venezia.

The studio’s remit is very broad – from objects to type, publishing to exhibition design. What ties all of the threads of your output together?

This is closely connected to our approach that sees design as a medium that can take many different forms to explore a specific issue, question or narrative. This is an approach that we see as being strongly rooted in the Italian tradition. Figures like Ettore Sottsass, Enzo Mari, Bruno Munari or others, have all sought to create environments, worlds of references, where graphic design, objects, interiors, textiles or others media, where treated equally. We believe that the narrow separation between different forms of design production and the over specialisation of design disciplines can be limiting, and therefore are eager to embrace the idea of design as a tool and a process for exploring issues that we find interesting and urgent. 

Tell us a bit more about your product for RMG4, what inspired its form and how it was made…

We were commissioned to design a chess table, that traditionally can be very decorative and plays a lot with the surface of the object. For this reason, we wanted to use a material that is close to us – the terrazzo that is traditionally from Venice, where our studio has its main office – and adapt it for the contemporary London context. Starting from the textured structure of the material, we decided to “deconstruct” the black and white checkered surface of the table, turning it into a black and white gradient surface. While we didn’t end up using a traditional terrazzo, the table was made from an innovative composite material called Silicastone produced by Alusid, which presented all sorts of challenges during the making process.

How has the process of designing for RMG4 been different to your normal approach?

The process was different because we had a very specific commission with tightly set limits and boundaries, that were given by the context of the project. However, we have maintained our approach that is very attentive towards the making and the use of material, seeking to push the boundaries of a specific production process. We really enjoyed working with Alusid, who understood what we wanted to make and were keen on exploring a new production process with us. It was a great synergy and we really enjoyed working with them collaboratively. 

What other projects are you currently working on?

We are currently working on other two projects for the London Design Festival 2018: an exhibition where we will be working with recycled plastics to produce a stool and we will present some new objects from the L furniture collection, like a bookshelf and a mirror, that will be shown at Mint Shop.