The Tod’s Group is going through a period of renewal. The new designer Walter Chiapponi is bringing fresh air to the conservative design codes of the company. Thanks to founder Diego Della Valle’s enterprising spirit another new project called No_Code was created to explore the relationship between craftsmanship and technology in 2018. For this, Della Valle hired one of Milan’s most freewheeling editorial thinkers Michele Lupi to give No_Code cultural gravitas. Along with Korean industrial designer Yong Bae Seok, the No_Code laboratory has developed a new shoe between a traditional Italian one and a sneaker, which has taken off in Asia already. But best of all, thanks to Della Valle’s personal curiosity, No_Code under Lupi embarked on a research project to give a face to Silicon Valley. Yes, to the home of the lords of data who know everything about us and we nothing about them. That was the premise. Here, we present exclusively to a German audience these illuminating images by photographer Ramak Fazel which he took on a journey from December 2019 to January 2020 and were now launched in a No_Code book. More from Lupi in his own words.

Achtung: What about the Rolleiflex?

Michele Lupi: When it came to portraying such a digital environment as Silicon Valley, we decided to collaborate with Ramak Fazel, an Iranian-American photographer who is very well-known in the design world. He has always worked using an analog camera, a Rolleiflex 6×6. We thought this sort of incongruity would be fun. The camera attracted attention wherever we went.

A: Why this book?

ML: We decided to do a book instead of an online exhibition precisely because we were conscious that digital and analog are no longer two clashing worlds. Until not long ago, they represented the “old” and “new” sides of society. That idea is outdated now. It is precisely this ability to find a balance between craftsmanship and technology, between analog and digital, that will shape it in the future. Just as we’re doing today with No_Code. Also, we wanted to make something that would physically remain on people’s tables, something tangible.

A: Where did it start?

ML: In 2016 Diego Della Valle was at a dinner with several international journalists. He asked them: “Have you ever been curious to get a better understanding of what Silicon Valley really is? They know a lot about us, through our devices. But what do we know about Silicon Valley? What kind of houses do they live in? What cars are driving through their car washes? How do they dress? Which restaurants do they go to? Basically, how do they live?”

So, when I joined Tod’s in late 2018, I suggested that we could attach this project on Silicon Valley to No_Code.