Adriana Fontana and the art of making it work

The first time Adriana Fontana took part in a CASACOR, in 2017, it was a door-opener for her career. The project for a children's bedroom with a mezzanine, designed for CASACOR Franca, required a great deal of inventiveness and confidence. The headache was huge, but so was the reward: at the end of the show, the project was sold in its entirety, exactly as it had been designed. "When you start participating in CASACOR, you raise the bar for yourself," says the interior designer in an interview with CASACOR. Since then, she has become a constant presence at CASACOR Ribeirão Preto — where she has participated since 2019 — and is back at the show in 2026.

Adriana Fontana - Cozinha de Ficar. CASACOR Ribeirão Preto 2021 (Felipe Araujo/CASACOR)

With a degree in Interior Design from Centro Universitário Belas Artes, and specializations in Design and Art History and in Interior Design in Florence, she opened her own studio in 2001. Since then, she has built a trajectory in which colors, textures, and materials coexist in harmony. The multiplicity of interests is her trademark: in a single conversation, Adriana talks about politics, economics, art, travel, technology, market, and design, and reinforces the importance of always staying tuned in.

Adriana Fontana - Ninho de Histórias. Projeto da CASACOR Ribeirão Preto 2026. (Victor Filomensky/CASACOR)

It is at the intersection of repertoire and curiosity where the magic happens. Adriana, in fact, makes a caveat: her creative process is far from magical. There are projects, deadlines, clients, suppliers, a team, a work in progress. "I have a schedule. I need to make this happen." Hence the importance of three key words for her studio: organization, references, and experience. "You need to have creativity, solve problems and, in the end, make everything look beautiful."

Adriana Fontana - Pimenta Ardida por Manhattan. Projeto da CASACOR RIbeirão Preto 2025. (Felipe Cuine/CASACOR)

Creation, although not romantic, is no less memorable. Adriana speaks about her projects with great affection and does not see them as finished works: she remembers how they were made, who was there, what was missing, the supplier who came through, the detail that had to be invented on the spot. When talking about the Petit Palais Store, a container set up at CASACOR Ribeirão in 2024, she recalls the quick thinking required to design, in just 12 days, a structure with PVC pipes cut in half, a gradient that couldn't be obvious, and a ceiling solved with garden shade cloth. "The project was being developed on top of what was already being developed," she jokes.

Adriana Fontana - Loja Petit Palais. Projeto da CASACOR Ribeirão Preto 2024. (Carolina Mossin/CASACOR)

For her, the show works as a creative laboratory: a place to test an idea, create a persona, show possibilities that a conventional project might not accommodate. "CASACOR is the best showcase we can have," she sums up. At the show, she likes to experiment with other languages beyond the one she is already known for. The baby's room she signs at CASACOR Ribeirão Preto 2026, for example, is intentionally more classic — in contrast to the colorful repertoire usually associated with her name.

Adriana Fontana - O Primeiro Refúgio. Projeto da CASACOR Ribeirão Preto 2026. (Victor Filomensky/CASACOR)

In this way, each edition also shaped not only her creative eye, but her way of working. In the year following her debut, needing a blue throw that did not exist at any supplier, she bought the wool and wove the piece with her own hands. At Janelas CASACOR 2020, she created a container that, in the midst of the pandemic, still brought her clients. Then came the kitchen, the café, the colorful hallway — projects she lists with fondness. "Each one has a story," she recalls. Coping for years with the challenges and unforeseen events of doing a CASACOR left as a legacy something she carries today into any project: calmness. CASACOR taught Adriana to improvise without giving up quality, to solve a problem in a way that no one notices it ever existed: a differential, in her view, of the professionals who go through the show, and which over time becomes resourcefulness.

(Felipe Araújo/CASACOR)

The 25 years of experience, however, are not synonymous with doing more of the same. Adriana keeps drawing, researching, testing what works and venturing into the limits of her own work. It was this way that, little by little, she understood that confidence does not come from always getting it right: it comes from knowing that, when something goes out of place, it will be possible to look at it, invent a solution and make it work.