Vectorealism is a design and fabrication studio in Milan, active since 2009.
We work with designers, brands and cultural institutions on installations, signage, awards, prototypes and one-off pieces, and we design workshops and event formats. Our lab is at via Carlo Boncompagni 57.
How we work
Projects reach us from three directions:
A design to build
Architects, designers and set designers bring us a project that is already drawn: awards and plaques, exhibition elements, prototypes, small runs. Our work begins where the drawing meets the material.
An occasion
Brands, festivals and cultural institutions have an event, a space or an audience, and ask us what to build: signage, displays, limited-edition objects, live activities.
A format to invent
Workshops, residencies, pop-up labs, courses for design schools and European projects. Here we also design the space, the programme and the tools.
01
Brief
What the object has to do, where it will stand and for how long, how many pieces are needed and by when. A reference, a sketch or a photograph is enough to start.
02
Feasibility
We choose material and process, point out what weighs most on the cost and what is worth changing to stay on schedule. Some technical choices we make ourselves, and we explain them.
03
Samples and prototype
Before production we prepare material samples and, when needed, a prototype on which to decide colour, finish and size.
04
Production
In our lab and with a network of craftspeople and professionals we have worked with for years. From one-off pieces to thousands of units.
05
Delivery
We check the quality and finish of every piece. We ship, or agree on specific delivery arrangements and, when needed, installation.
Since 2009
Vectorealism was founded in 2009 from an idea by Eleonora Ricca and Marco Bocola: the first online laser cutting service in Italy, open to professionals and self-producers. In the following years it was featured in Bravacasa, Casa24 and Style. In 2013 the startup won the Premio Nazionale per l’Innovazione nei servizi, the Italian national award for innovation in services, and became Digital Fabbrichetta srl. The motto of those years was make things, not slides.
Projects of a different kind grew up around the service. For years we produced and sold Beamaps, framed pieces made from OpenStreetMap maps. With Booster, our own mentorship programme, we won the City of Milan’s Mi15 call, which funds social-impact projects in the city’s neighbourhoods. Some collaborations have lasted more than ten years: we have worked with Terraforma since 2014 and have made the plaques for the IN/ARCHITETTURA Awards since 2020.
We have been invited several times into the city’s cultural programs: by Domus, with Joseph Grima, at Palazzo Clerici during the 2012 Salone del Mobile; by Dropcity, which entrusted us with Fabrication Topologies, a week-long open studio in its lab during Milano Design Week 2026; by Di Studio in Studio, the festival of artists’ studios, which in 2026 included our lab in its route.
Bravacasa, 2011
Casa24, 2012
Style, 2013
National Award for Innovation in Services, 2013
Founders
Eleonora Ricca
Industrial designer, a graduate of the University of Genoa, she founded Vectorealism in 2009. In the studio she handles detailed design, from the drawing to the part ready for production. A trainer and mentor, she also leads the studio's teaching: the Digital Fabrication courses at Domus Academy and SIAM, and the workshops.
Marco Bocola
He founded Vectorealism with Eleonora Ricca in 2009 and leads the concept and strategy of the studio's projects. His background is in the sociology of work: after a degree in Applied Social Sciences from the Università Cattolica in Milan, from 2009 to 2012 he was a consultant and researcher at Fondazione Irso, with Federico Butera, on organization and innovation. He looks at digital fabrication as someone who has studied work, its processes and its people. This gives him an attention to how things are made, as much as to how they look.
We have worked with
Design and furniture
- Alessi
- Kartell
- Moleskine
- De Padova
- Veneta Cucine
- Barovier & Toso
- Vaghi
- Design Group Italia
- Bergamaschi & Vimercati
Fashion and cosmetics
- Borsalino
- Karl Lagerfeld
- Acqua di Parma
- Cosnova
Architecture
- Cino Zucchi Associati
- Carlo Ratti Associati
- Citterio and partners
- INARCH
- Coima
Art and culture
- Fondazione Prada
- Triennale Milano
- Fonderia Artistica Battaglia
- rivista Andersen
- Bergamo Film Meeting
- Milano Film Festival
- Fondazione Amplifon
Industry and technology
- Tenaris Dalmine
- STMicroelectronics
- RINA
- CESI
- Reply
- Ducati
- NTT Data
- Essilor
- Officina Stellare
Education and research
- Domus Academy
- Istituto Marangoni
- Politecnico di Milano
- Università degli Studi di Milano
- Università di Milano-Bicocca
- Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia
- CNR
With a file ready
The online service we opened in 2009, the first in Italy for laser cutting: materials from the catalogue, a quote in a few minutes.