Italy plays an important role in the history of design that cannot be forgotten. The country strong connection with art, architecture, and design have contributed to shaping personalities that stood out in this creative and artistic industry.
For Milan Design week 2018 we have selected some of the brilliants minds whose work inspire and exceed the ordinary. They prove that making a bold, unique design statement can be iconic and enduring.
Revolutionary product designers, striking interior designers, and outstanding architects which reinvent new concepts, materials and exclusive pieces that have inspired the world of design.
See also: Minimal Luxury: The Contemporary Home of Rob Mills Architecture
Paola Navone
Paola Navone is a Milan-born architect and designer. Always on the go and looking or inspiration she has become an anthropologist of creativity. For Paola Navone, traveling signifies extending new horizons, gathering colors, scents, shapes, tastes, and mixing all that into another culture and space-time combination. Creating objects that blend magnificent design and craftsmanship
Gaetano Pesce
Architect and designer Gaetano Pesce’s decades-long career has been spent working on projects around the globe. Pesce has a bold approach to color in his sculptural furniture, and the unique shapes and materials in his designs showcase an affection for the abstract.
In his work, he expresses his guiding attitude: “that modernism is less a style than a method for interpreting the present and hinting at the future in which individuality is preserved and celebrated.”
Dimore Studio
Founders Britt Moran and Emiliano Salci create exclusive design signature that blends classic principles with contemporary styling. Their work crosses and interlink design, history, art, and architecture.
“A timeless visual and emotional pathway. A language inspired by a set of emotional alchemies made of unexpected choices, preservation, inventions, appreciation of prints, lights, lacquers, and oxidations.”
Fabio Novembre
The Italian architect Fabio Novembre he became famous through a large series of design projects for restaurants, nightclubs and shops in Italy and abroad, as well as through his unique pieces. His approach to work is a dialogue with the body that is for him a matter of engaging passion “I cut out spaces in the vacuum by blowing air bubbles, and I make gifts of sharpened pins so as to ensure I never put on airs.”
Patricia Urquiola
Patricia Urquiola was born in Spain, but it was in Itlay that she developed and created her company. Her teachers were Achille Castiglioni and Vico Magistretti from which she learned unique lessons and become one of the most talented artists in the modern design world.
For the designer, a chair represents a bridge between emotions and functionality: “Because the design must express the life with love. I am very curious and I love describing the everyday objects”.
Giulio Cappellini
Giulio Cappellini is an architect and founder design firm Cappellini, which he has transformed into one of the biggest trendsetters worldwide.
The furniture brand represents has the same spirit and the goals of a continuous renewal. Once defined as a “tutti-frutti affair, with minimalism offered up alongside pop fashion, computer tech and amoebic forms”, Cappellini’s collections have included works by Marc Newson, Jasper Morrison, Alessandro Mendini, the Erwan & Ronan Bouroullec and others.
Andrea Branzi
Andrea Branzi is an architect, designer, educator, and urban planner, Branzi has been on Italy’s cutting edge for half a century.
He defines himself as ” a person who deals with theoretical physics and sees architecture not as the art of building but as a much more articulated form of thought.
Piero Lissoni
Piero Lissoni, the internationally known architect and designer with a vision for spaces, ambiances and time. Together with Nicoletta Canesi, founded the interdisciplinary studio Lissoni Associati in Milan, concentrating on architecture as well as interior and product/light design.
Luca Nichetto
Venetian Luca Nichetto began his career working for respected brands Salviati and Foscarini before launching his own design firm in 2006.
Born from the deep passion for industrial manufacturing and craft, Nichetto’s practice combines both Scandinavian and Italian design culture has given Nichetto Studio worldwide recognition.
Stefano Giovannoni
The Milan based architect and product designer, Stefano Giovannoni is known for his colorful design with a twist of humor, his work always tells a story. He created an expressive design full of symbols and metaphors. “I think nowadays you have to create emotions – something that can tell a story to the people. Therefore, I have chosen to follow a kind of narrative approach to design.”
