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WHO is he?
Fabio Ongarato is the namesake and creative director of Fabio Ongarato Design, a pre-eminent global design studio headquartered in Melbourne with offices in Hong Kong. Ahead of celebrating 25 years in the business next year, Fabio leads a multidisciplinary team composed of designers, architects, strategists and project managers to deliver beautifully crafted work.
Tell us about some of your works, and name the one you are most proud of.
Although being based in Australia we have been working in Asia for over 18 years. Fortunately, we have worked on some amazing projects with Lane Crawford, creating the On Pedder brand, Joyce, I.T. Group and most recently re-positioning Japanese cult denim brand Evisu in Asia.
A project I am most proud of is a hotel we have recently completed in the Mornington Pennisula of Victoria, Australia. Created for an aspiring Chinese entrepreneur Louis Li, the brand we created is called Jackalope. Being a multi-disciplinary studio it’s a great example of what we do: from creating the brand right through to the hotel narrative, installations and all the art curation.
Are you involved with any project?
I am particularly excited about the upcoming launch in June of W Shanghai hotel in Hongkou District.
Describe your design style.
As a studio we don’t actually believe in having a design style as such. Our aim is to create something unique for the client rather than just delivering a house style, a look, a voice, a language, something that they might not ever have imagined themselves but that is unmistakably theirs and has leadership in their respective field or market.
Where are you most creative?
Once it used to be late at night after the phones stopped ringing but now I must be creative anytime, anywhere. I have an amazingly talented team whom I work with every day — through a rigorous process, ideas and concepts work their way through. Most of the time I feel like I am more of a conductor — stimulating ideas and discourse, trying to find the right path and expression for each particular project. Research is at the core of our methodology and we are a very open and collaborative studio bringing on board many external creative partners from around the world.
What does your home mean to you?
I travel a lot so home means everything to me. It’s a sense of a certain normality, family and sanctuary.
What do you collect?
I’m a huge hoarder and collector — I rarely throw anything of interest away. My office and home are full of things I keep. I collect design, furniture and contemporary art. I am also a huge lover of books.
My biggest passion is probably photobooks with a large but never ending obsession with collecting Japanese photography books.
Where would you like to go most in Shanghai?
Whenever I am working in Shanghai I always make sure I spend a day visiting all the contemporary art galleries. Shanghai has become one of the most exciting cultural hubs for contemporary art in the world. From RAM, The Power Station of Art right through to the amazing West Bund Precinct with Yuz, The Long Museum, ShanghART and so many more.
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