formafantasma joins santa maria novella as creative directors after eight centuries of history

FORMAFANTASMA TAKES ON SANTA MARIA NOVELLA

Formafantasma has been appointed Creative Director of Officina Profumo-Farmaceutica di Santa Maria Novella, bringing Andrea Trimarchi and Simone Farresin into one of Florence’s longest-running institutions. Founded in 1221 from the medicinal herb cultivation and preparations of Dominican friars, Santa Maria Novella has spent more than eight centuries turning botanical knowledge into fragrances, body products and preparations for the home. Apparently, there was still room for a new creative director.

The collaboration will see Formafantasma work across products, packaging, communication, retail spaces and events, in dialogue with Santa Maria Novella’s internal team and specialists from different disciplines. Rather than approaching the appointment as an exercise in visual reinvention, the studio describes the product itself — its quality, materials and the expertise behind its production — as the starting point.

heritage becomes the starting point for a new chapter | all images courtesy of Santa Maria Novella

EIGHT CENTURIES OF MATERIAL KNOWLEDGE

For Formafantasma, the attraction appears to lie precisely in the weight of what is already there. Santa Maria Novella’s identity has developed through the accumulation of ingredients, formulations, techniques, objects and spaces, with knowledge transmitted and adjusted over generations. The studio sees this continuity not simply as heritage to preserve, but as material to question: what survives, what transforms and how an institution with roots in the 13th century continues to operate in the present.

That position aligns naturally with Trimarchi and Farresin’s interest in the histories carried by materials and systems of production. Their role at Santa Maria Novella will therefore be less about imposing a single recognizable aesthetic than examining how the company’s many expressions can speak more coherently to one another — from what sits inside a bottle to the box around it and the space in which someone eventually picks it up.

the collaboration builds on more than eight centuries of history

SANTA MARIA NOVELLA WITHOUT THE REBRAND

Crucially, Formafantasma says its intention is not to redefine Santa Maria Novella through a new image. Instead, the studio wants to understand what has allowed the Officina to remain relevant since 1221 and use those conditions to inform its next chapter. That means looking at how its history is communicated, how new products are conceived and how physical spaces, objects and visual language can develop without reducing eight centuries to a particularly tasteful moodboard.

‘Their role will be that of curators, attentive to the knowledge the Officina has safeguarded for eight centuries,’ Santa Maria Novella says, pointing to Formafantasma’s multidisciplinary practice across product, space, research and exhibition design. The first results of the collaboration have yet to be revealed, but the brief is already unusually clear: no clean slate, no heritage frozen behind glass, and plenty of history to work with.

Santa Maria Novella was founded in Florence in 1221

the collaboration brings together design, heritage and material culture

the partnership builds on Santa Maria Novella’s centuries-old identity

the collaboration connects contemporary design with historic craft

project info:

company: Officina Profumo-Farmaceutica di Santa Maria Novella | @santamarianovella1221
creative directors: Andrea Trimarchi and Simone Farresin, Formafantasma | @formafantasma
location: Florence, Italy