September 16, 2015

DESIGNERS CHRISTOPHER MACALUSO AND CAMILA DE GREGORIO







“For us, a designer’s responsibility is based on the desire to take part in creating a better world,” says Camila De Gregorio, one half of the design duo Eggpicnic, alongside Christopher Macaluso. Together they joined forces in 2009 to create products that could convey a message - one with a focus on education and environmentalism. After meeting in Milan, and starting their design experiments in Chile, Eggpicnic started to gain traction in 2013 when they were invited as speakers at DesignFest, the biggest design festival in Mexico. “The response was overwhelming,” Camila says, “and we were evaluated as the top speakers of the festival.”

Christopher was born and raised in Sydney and studied industrial design at UTS before completing his Masters degree at Scuola Politecnica di Design in Milan, Italy. He tutors at UTS and UNSW. Camila was born and raised in Chile, and graduated from the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile. She also tutors at UNSW.

They are currently exhibiting work at Object Gallery at the Australian Design Centre, and are running kids workshops during the upcoming school holidays.

Which five words best describe you? Intrepid, curious, consequent, nonconformist and astonished.

How did you get your career start and what path have you taken since? It was a very organic process. We started doing a series of experiments in design that were guided by what we believed in and by what we felt was important to communicate to the world. When we moved to Sydney we felt it was time to use this as a base to grow and transform Eggpicnic to a platform in which we could offer high-end quality products to our consumers while educating and telling a story.  

What’s the best lesson you’ve learnt along the way? To have a clear vision as this will guide your every move and to always be true to our values. 

What’s your proudest career achievement? This year we were invited to be the designers in residence at the Australian Design Centre to develop work for the exhibition Future Nature, in collaboration with the Australian Museum. We had the opportunity to access the collections rarely seen by the public and examine them to inform our design process. Our work Endemic reveals new applications for design and conservation based on Aboriginal methods of manufacturing and how our ancestors lived symmetrically with nature. The exhibition will be open until the 9 October.

What’s been your best decision? To build meaningful relationships along the way and to constantly educate ourselves.

Who inspires you? Thanks to our work we constantly surround ourselves with people that are a great inspiration to us, it’s the everyday humans making a difference. Just to name a few, Lorinda Jane, president of Palm Oil Investigations who created the first Palm Oil Scanner app and has been putting significant pressure on brands to stop the destruction of the rainforests in Indonesia. John Seed, Australian environmentalist and founder of the Rainforest Information Centre, which successfully campaigned to save the sub-tropical rainforests of New South Wales. Our Amazon Watch Allies team, bringing humans together from different fields to protect the Amazon Rainforest and the team behind Suicide Prevention Australia. 

What are you passionate about? We’re both very passionate about education and teaching. If you can reach people you can change and empower them. We can change the way we view the world. We’re also very passionate about birds.

Which person, living or dead, would you most like to meet?

What dream do you still want to fulfil? End wildlife extinction through education.

What are you reading?
Camila: The Meaning of Human Existence by Edward O. Wilson.
Chris: The Shark’s Paintbrush by Jay Harman.


images courtesy of eggpicnic