When people search for Giuseppe Fioretti, they often find two words tied to my name: art and design. And that’s exactly who I am: a graphic designer, art director, and artist, currently part of the creative team at LEGO in Copenhagen. My journey has taken me from Naples to Barcelona, and now Denmark, guided by one obsession: finding the place where art and design become inseparable.
Early Experiments: From Pants Backwards to Customized Shoes
Ever since I was a teenager, clothing was my first canvas. I painted, cut, and transformed everything I wore, so much that my classmates used to call me “the boy with the pants on backwards.”
At 17, I even launched a small shoe customization project with my best friend. It all began when my girlfriend at the time gave me a pair of white sneakers and some markers. That playful gesture awakened something in me: the desire to transform the ordinary into something unique.
Art + Design: The Academic Years
While experimenting with fashion, I was also studying Graphic Design at the Academy of Fine Arts of Naples. There, I started to understand that my creative identity would always live in a binomial form: art and design. One gives depth and spirit, the other gives structure and communication.
This philosophy became the foundation of everything I’ve done since.
From Freelance to Desigual
For more than a decade, I worked as a freelance designer and art director, creating campaigns, identities, and storytelling systems for international clients. This path eventually led me to Desigual in Barcelona, where I became Head of Brand Design.
One of the most meaningful moments of my career was leading the Desigual logo redesign, a bold flip that earned international recognition, including a LAUS Award and a D&AD Pencil.
At Desigual I also discovered upcycling not just as style, but as a cultural and social act. That experience planted the seeds for something more personal.
Copenhagen and LEGO: The Future of Play
Today, I am part of the LEGO Creative Team in Copenhagen, where I focus on branding and campaign development, shaping narratives that connect people with the joy of play.
I also teach Branding at BAU, Barcelona School of Design, helping the next generation of creatives to merge strategy with artistic vision.
UREES: A Personal Manifesto
During the pandemic, when the world paused, I felt the need to create something of my own, without compromise. That’s how UREES was born, my upcycling fashion project.
With UREES, I give new life to forgotten denim, old Levi’s considered beyond saving, turning them into unique, unisex pants. For me, upcycling is not just a technique but an act of re-signification. Every stain, mark, or seam becomes a trace of memory worth celebrating.
As I often say: “I’d rather wear pants with real paint stains, the marks of human gesture, than ones printed with fake splatters.”
UREES is my manifesto, my aesthetic, my language. A space where art and design merge without compromise.
Art + Design as One
Across every stage of my career, one idea has guided me: design without art is empty, and art without design is silent.
From Naples to Barcelona to Copenhagen, whether at LEGO, Desigual, UREES, or in the classroom, my mission is to make them speak together, so that what we create carries meaning, memory, and impact.
Find More About Giuseppe Fioretti
Website: fiogiuseppe.com
Instagram: @fiogiuseppe
LinkedIn: Giuseppe Fioretti