Retro-Futuristic Glamour in Draga & Aurel’s Bold Designs

Draga & Aurel is a multidisciplinary studio and workshop specializing in art, collectible design, and furnishings, founded in 2007 by Draga Obradovic and Aurel K. Basedow. With diverse backgrounds spanning art, fashion, and craftsmanship, the two designers are renowned for blending original techniques with an artistic approach to materials and composition.

Pioneers of upcycling in the design world, Draga & Aurel began their journey by reimagining vintage furniture and objects, infusing them with their distinct style and shaping their first collections. Their debut at Milan Design Week in 2009 marked the beginning of significant collaborations with leading furniture brands.

In 2019, the duo captivated audiences at Milan Design Week with an exceptional project: the Transparency Matters collection, which explores the use and possibilities of transparency through light and color phenomena. Since its launch, the studio has continued to expand the collection, growing in popularity and recognition.

Their design output stands alongside Aurel K. Basedow's artistic works, which are powerful, evocative, and poetic. At Draga & Aurel, art and design follow two parallel, yet complementary, paths—constantly exchanging ideas that sometimes even reverse their meaning, creating a unique fusion of vision and form.

How your diverse backgrounds in art, fashion, and craftsmanship influenced the inception of Draga & Aurel, and what core principles define your design philosophy?

Our careers began in art, as we both studied at the Academy of Fine Arts. This shapes our experimental, hands-on, and playful approach to projects. We founded Draga & Aurel in 2007, initially focusing on upcycling vintage furniture. In 2019, we launched our first collection, Transparency Matters, which primarily explored resin as a medium. Our approach to design is rooted in material experimentation, colour research, and the study of artisanal techniques and craftsmanship. At the heart of our work—reflected in the name Transparency Matters—is the pursuit of transparency, both in aesthetic and conceptual terms.

Your work often draws from both contemporary art and Space Age aesthetics. How do you blend these influences to create designs that feel both timeless and avant-garde?

References are an essential part of our creative process. Our work begins by looking outward, reflecting on the past, and then introspecting. The traces of the past and the lessons they teach are fundamental in both art and design. Creativity lies in the ability to internalise these influences and reinterpret them in ways that are contemporary and aligned with an artistic journey.

The interplay of texture and transparency is a hallmark of your collections, such as Transparency Matters. What drives your experimentation with materials like resin, metal and concrete, and what challenges have you faced in perfecting these techniques?

We were immediately captivated by resin—an unpredictable material that offers us significant freedom of expression, both in terms of colour and shape. Over time, our use of resin has evolved: initially, it was applied as a surface coating, but later we began casting it in moulds to create three-dimensional forms. We experimented extensively in our workshop in Como to understand how to “tame” it. This led us to explore combining resin with concrete, casting the two vastly different materials together in a single mould. Recently, we’ve been delving into working with Lucite, an acrylic resin that requires an entirely different approach compared to epoxy resin.