Umberto Asnago, the research chief who never stopped drawing

Most executives who run an R&D department put down the pencil; he never did. Umberto Asnago spent thirty-eight years at Giorgetti — from staff designer in 1968 to head of the company's research centre — and kept designing all the way through. Trained at the Cantù art institute, class of 1949, he went independent in 2006 and today also art-directs lighting house Penta.

At i4Mariani that double competence shows: the Avatar office collection, the Napa desk, the Noah home-office unit, the Asso and Lounge seating. La Mercanti specifies them for U.S. executive floors — research-grade furniture, drawn by the researcher himself.