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Carlo Poggio was born Acquarius in “Villa delle Rose”, Alessandria, Italy. His parents Olga and Pino immediately fell in love with the little Carlo and photographed him happily lying on a cushion on the garden table. From a very young age Carlo expressed an interest in the life of the family business, inspired by the stories that his Grandfather Quattrocchio told him. At the tender age of four his grandfather had a little pair of work overalls made and Carlo entered the business. His grandfather also created a small Quattrocchio tricycle-van for him and, together with his mother and sister Carlo cycled around the Italian Riviera, thus becoming the company’s testimonial.
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Pino and Olga often took the little Carlo on holiday to Tuscany. The many visits to churches, towers and museums may have seemed a bore at the time but went on to deeply influence his out look on life. Carlo Poggio graduated in Law from the University of Genoa with a thesis on the Politics of Economics and, as a reaction to the boredom that this period provoked, he went on to throw himself heart and soul into the family business with his Father Pino. One night, while crossing the Place Vendome in Paris, he decided that he wanted to create something that really celebrated the expertise of the company and that combined his memories of Pisan architecture with the thrill of his first visit to New York. Together with Beppe Gallini and the designers De Pas, D’Urbino and Lomazzi, Carlo Poggio proceeded to develop a unique product, an architectural system rivisited with an essential and industrial twist. The system became a sort of meccano for adults and architects to be used for designing and constructing work spaces, exhibitions and limitless modular constructions.
In 1983 he founded the brand ZERO and in 1988 he opened the US branch, ZERO US Corp. in Rhode Island. In 1992 he opened the showroom ZERO Soho in New York where he was recognised as having contributed to culturally and creatively improving life in New York. He also became an honorary member of the Art Directors’ Club of New York. In 1995 he created the brand ZERODISEGNO under which he has worked with designers of the caliber of De Pas, D’Urbino and Lomazzi, Santachiara, Pesce and Rashid to create collections of furniture and accessories that were “worn” on the pret-à-porter catwalks by models dressed in Versace and Dolce & Gabbana.
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In the year 2000 Carlo Poggio and his brands were official sponsors of the American Architecture section at the Venice Biennial and immediately afterwards became International Sponsors of the Guggenheim Museums. In 2001 he registered the brand Nobody’s Perfect to identify the collection created with Gaetano Pesce. In 2002 he began the project Art and Design that generated extraordinary, limited edition pieces in collaboration with some of the great creative names of the age such as Gaetano Pesce, Alessandro Mendini, Marco Ferreri and Mimmo Rotella. In 2008 he founded the company Carlo Poggio Design S.r.l. In 2010 the Ravello Festival dedicated the entire Design section of the exhibition to the work of Carlo Poggio and ZERODISEGNO entitling the show “Madness is freedom”.
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In 2011 Carlo Poggio created the collection “L’Italia ricomincia da ZERO”. In this collection the pieces, designed by 10 masters of international design, took on a distinctly political connotation. Carlo Poggio has a dedicated team who work closely with him. The team consists of Giuliano, Alfredo, Giovanni, Giacomo, Italo, Hanna, Ornella, Maria as well as a host of collaborators all driven by the same infectious enthusiasm as Carlo Poggio who has likewise contaminated artists, designers, graphic designers and famous photographers. Many works by Carlo Poggio and ZERODISEGNO are present in the permanent collections of some of the most important museums in the world such as: Brooklyn Museum, Denver Museum, Die neue Sammlung, Munich, Museum of Modern Art, Philadelphia, Musée des Arts Decoratifs, Palais du Louvre, Wolfsonian Museum, Miami, Schirn Kunsthalle, Frankfurt, Design Museum London, Victoria and Albert Museum, London.
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Carlo Poggio is also dedicated to the education of the younger generations. He gives lectures and lessons in the faculties of Architecture of various universities and in the Master programmes of Design Management both in Italy and abroad. Carlo Poggio is a collector of emotions. These emotions can be provoked by a variety of phenomena such as perspective, enigmatic smiles, women with hour-glass figures, the Gulf Stream, the Sunfish, spiritual affinities, plunging necklines, the leaning tower of Pisa and sudden storms. Carlo Poggio has a son, Niccolò, of whom he is very proud, and an indomitable wife, Carla, whose silhouette casts its shadow on a Sienese rose garden.