Hasta La Ideas

Promotion: brands should focus less on selling products and more on customer experience in their retail stores according to experts at a panel hosted by Dezeen and brand retail experience agency Liganova.

Hosted and curated by brand experience experts Liganova, the panel discussion took place during Milan design week between UK managing director of eyewear brand Gentle Monster, Gary Bott, and director at experiential art centre Superblue Miami, Carlota Dochao Naveira.

Chaired by Dezeen Co-CEO Benedict Hobson, the event titled Redefining Spaces: The Rise of Hyperphysical Experiences, saw the panellists discuss the role of spaces in creating relevant and meaningful experiences.

Korean brand Gentle Monster is known for creating immersive concept stores that resemble art galleries with obscure themes such as its kung fu-influenced boutique in London and its harvest-themed outpost in Downtown Los Angeles.

Transcending the boundaries of conventional retail design, the stores aim to attract customers inside with experimental art installations at the entrance.

The brand’s UK managing director Bott explained how in order to “truly engage with a much wider audience” brands need to embrace the “alien concept” of shifting the focus from selling. Instead, stores should focus on the audience and creating an outstanding experience for them.

“Hyperphysicality means creating something that is ‘hyper real’ in an unexpected context, something almost fantastical that speaks to all senses,” explained Bott.

“It’s the antidote to mass consumerism because [Gentle Monster is] not focused on trying to sell products. I think no one wants to feel like they’re being sold to and our spaces don’t feel like they’re selling – there’s no transaction.”

“A lot of the things that we do have way more short-term creative value than they do short-term commercial value,” he added, explaining that Gentle Monster’s approach focuses on building brand equity – the value of a brand, determined by the consumer’s perception of its quality and desirability.

“Commercial value is much longer term. We see that and we experience that Halo effect.”

Carlota Dochao Naveira agreed, “People are moving away from wanting to own something to wanting to experience something, and experience something with other people and have collective experiences,” she said.

“Younger generations are valuing experiences over the idea of owning something physical – we’re lucky to be able to respond to that.”

Grown out of Pace Gallery, Superblue was opened to provide a space to showcase immersive art that previously existed outside of the confines of the commercial art world and bring it to a wider audience. Its community space showcases work created in collaboration with leading artists, such as James Turrell, Es Devlin or Teamlab.

In addition, Naveira explained how Superblue is working with real estate developers and architects to create what it calls “integrated experiences”. Conceived and designed by artists, these include luxury spa, hotel, restaurant, dining and theatre experiences.

“We really push for giving artists full integrity,” said Naveira. “And that’s what we support them in – in the creation of their work.”

But there’s always a common language between brands and the artists that we work with,” she continued. “We always find that it’s way more successful collaboration when a brand allows artists to have full rein of what they’re trying to do, obviously, within parameters within budget constraints.”

When asked by Hobson about what the future of retail experiences looks like, Bott responded, “I think when it comes to retail, we’ll perhaps be moving to more of a speakeasy model where you’re hiding the products within the space. It’s like another level or layer that you need to peel back – a behind-the-curtain approach, which I think is interesting.”

To learn more about Liganova, visit its website.

Milan design week 2023

Salone Club Breakfast Club! took place on 19 April as part of Milan design week 2023 See Dezeen Events Guide for an up-to-date list of architecture and design events taking place around the world.

Partnership content

This article was written by Dezeen for Liganova as part of a partnership. Find out more about Dezeen partnership content here.

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Earlier we looked at the Draft Top Lift, an invention that neatly beheads aluminum beer cans, so you can sip from them.

Now the company behind it is Kickstarting the Draft Top Pro, a heavy-duty countertop unit for commercial use.

At first this seemed silly to me, but the more I think about it, the more I realize its benefits. For a bar to stock bottled beer is never as convenient or cost-effective as having kegs hooked up to taps, but bars do it, because a subset of customers demand it. So it’s not a stretch for bars to stock canned beer, and assuming customer acceptance, not having to pour that into a glass brings benefits.

Years ago I tended bar, and I remember that glassware provides two problems. One, they require regular washing. If the bar where you worked didn’t have enough glassware and/or the dishwasher got backed up when you were slammed, you had a bottleneck. Also, beer glasses always came back from the dishwashing station piping hot, so you had to chill the glasses prior to serving beer in them, another time-waster.

The second problem was breakage, which just inevitably happens. The worst was when a glass would break anywhere near the ice station; you then had to use hot water to melt all of the ice in the bin, for safety’s sake. (More than once I melted all the ice down and found glass shards that thankfully didn’t make their way into anyone’s throats.)

And in venues where glass vessels are not permitted (is this just an American thing? Here our young men have a tendency to break bottles over each other’s heads), serving beer in beheaded cans would save you from having to buy hundreds or thousands of red Solo cups.

The $299 Draft Top Pro has been successfully Kickstarted, and at press time there were 13 days left to pledge.

Dezeen Showroom: designers Francesco Meda and David Quincoces aimed to celebrate the beauty and resilience of untreated teak wood with the Lademadera outdoor furniture collection, created for Spanish brand Gandia Blasco.

Meda and Quincoces wanted the Lademadera collection of seating and coffee tables to have a quiet simplicity and coherence of detail that would allow it to blend into natural environments.

“When designing pieces for the outside world, and to be in nature, you have to try to design respectfully to create objects that coexist with their setting,” said Meda and Quincoces.

The Lademadera pieces are made of black powder-coated aluminium and untreated FSC-certified teak wood as it is naturally durable and ages to a desirable silvery-grey patina.

The wood is sourced from Java, Indonesia, by Otazen, which uses European quality standards and selects teak from plantations that follow strict reforestation procedures.

The seating is made from Gravidry polyurethane foam rubber that dries rapidly without the need to remove the fabric covers, and the circular and rectangular coffee tables come in different heights so they can be overlapped.

Product: Lademadera
Designer: Francesco Meda and David Quincoces
Brand: Gandia Blasco
Contact: alejandra@gandiablasco.com

Dezeen Showroom

Dezeen Showroom offers an affordable space for brands to launch new products and showcase their designers and projects to Dezeen’s huge global audience. For more details email showroom@dezeen.com.

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I love a beautifully-designed lighting fixture because I truly believe a really great one has the ability to illuminate a space – both literally, and metaphorically. Besides the physical light that it quite obviously emits, a well-designed lighting fixture can add manifolds of personality and charisma to a room. They can function as sculptural pieces, that are an extension of your personal taste and preference, truly exhibiting the richness and niche-ness of your curation capabilities. And a stunning lighting fixture that I believe would do exactly that is the Tri Light by Tokio.

Designer: Tokio

Designed by the design brand Tokio, the Tri Light is a modular sculptural light that is inspired by the Japanese shoji. The Japanese shoji is a door, window, or room divider in the form of a paper screen, that is quite popularly used in traditional Japanese architecture. The Tri light features an interesting honeycomb-like structure that directly drew inspiration from a shoji. “Inspired by the Japanese shoji concept, Tri Light is the combination of old traditions and modern technology – we set out to design something that would be modern, classical, and timeless at the same time,” said Tokio.

The light is built using milled and anodized aluminum triangles that were designed to be expanded and configured in different configurations and customizations.  “An infinitely expandable design system, the Tri Light illuminates the timeless geometry of nature within the areas we inhabit. It is luminous and ethereal, yet as timeless as the laws of physics themselves. The Tri Light is an expression of fundamental forces that are universal yet infinitely diverse,” said Tokio. The light has a curving design, and it can be added, played around with, and configured infinitely.

The Tri Light has a dimmable light that can be tuned and modified from 2700K to 4000K lighting. The innovative design can be divided into multiple zones, so that each area can be configured to feature and emit different light strengths and temperatures, making it a pretty versatile and modular lighting fixture. The Tri Light was designed to “illuminate the timeless geometry of nature within the areas we inhabit”.

The post Modular light inspired by Japanese shoji is the prettiest lighting fixture I’ve seen first appeared on Yanko Design.

As the most important design event of the year has come to a close, we look back at the biggest industry trends from Milan design week 2023, including everything from maximalism to algorithmic design.

This year saw the Salone del Mobile furniture fair return to its regularly scheduled time slot in April for the first time since the start of the pandemic. Attendance was up 15 per cent from last year – totalling more than 300,000 visitors – although the fair itself was markedly smaller.

Many of the bigger brands instead staged attention-grabbing installations in the city centre as part of the fuorisalone events programme, among them a growing roster of luxury fashion houses from Bottega Veneta to Loewe.

While brands largely steered clear of Instagram bait and went hard on maximalism, smaller designers explored innovative production techniques making use of everything from reclaimed materials to artificial intelligence.

Here’s a breakdown of the biggest trending themes that emerged throughout the week:

Digital meets physical

With real-life events resuming, designers left the metaverse firmly in the rearview mirror and instead experimented with using digital design strategies to create physical products.

In the 5vie district, Lebanese designer Richard Yasmine exhibited a range of AI-designed, 3D-printed homeware modelled on volcano craters. And at the Alcova exhibition, Brooklyn practice Forma Rosa Studio presented a series of ceramic stools and lights, whose fractal forms were generated by an algorithm and realised by adapting traditional pottery techniques.

Similarly, American designer Ryan Decker presented a series of alien-looking lights (above) that blur the boundary between the real and the digital, combining sculptural handmade components with flat aluminium sheets, which he printed with digital 3D renders and AI-generated textures.

Taking a more interactive approach, Australian Studio Snoop presented what it calls the “world’s first AI designer” – a chatbot in the vein of ChatGPT that helps designers to optimise their work.

Industrial waste materials

From agriculture to construction, using waste materials produced by other industries continues to be a popular strategy for designers looking to reduce the environmental impact of their products.

Design studio Formafantasma swapped plastic upholstery foam for surplus sheep’s wool and natural latex in a collaboration with furniture brand Tacchini (top and above), while Californian firm Prowl Studio used waste hemp fibres to fortify the bioplastic that forms its industrially compostable Peel chair.

Nearby at Alcova, material research studio Atelier Luma presented acoustic panels formed from a byproduct of rice production alongside bioplastic stools made up of rice hulls and pressed olive waste.

Other designers instead worked to give new life to important demolished buildings. Wooden handrails from Hampshire’s Fawley Power Station now form a series of tables and chairs by Korean designer Subin Seol, while facade tiles from Alvar Aalto‘s iconic Finlandia Hall were recycled to form a display table for the Habitarematerials exhibition.

Less Instagram bait

After producing some of the most Instagram-friendly installations in Milan over the past two years, including four monumental water tower structures that glowed like lanterns, fashion house Hermès took a more pared-back approach for the 2023 edition.

“This year, the scenography is not that overwhelming,” Hermès Maison’s co-artistic director Charlotte Macaux Perelman told Dezeen.

Apart from a few outliers – among them Marc Fornes’s pavilion for Louis Vuitton (above) and a sparkly installation by German lighting brand Ingo Maurer inside the Porta Nuova – this disregard for being Instagrammable was reflected across the city.

Instead, brands focused more on providing an experience for visitors. Google recruited Lachlan Turczan to create a blacked-out space reminiscent of a theatre, where passersby could sit and watch the trippy images created by the artist’s giant water-covered speakers.

Others followed the Alcova model and opened up historic buildings to the public, with Danish furniture brand Gubi showcasing its products inside a 1930s lido and Italian designer Cristina Celestino taking over the headquarters of the Tennis Club Milano Bonacossa, designed by Milanese architect Giovanni Muzio.

Maximalism

Flying in the face of a looming global recession, the trend towards maximalist interiors is still going strong.

On show throughout the city was an all-gold furniture collection by Dolce & Gabbana, paisley-print seating by Etro and a fabric collection by department store Liberty – defined by bold stripes and abstract patterns that take cues from Italian futurism.

In the 5vie district, Irish interiors studio Kingston Lafferty Design revamped an entire living room inside an old 1930s apartment (above), contrasting its ornate floral wallpaper with statement pieces including a red leather rug and the Erasmo Sofa by Afra and Tobia Scarpa.

Elsewhere, Milanese fashion and homeware brand La DoubleJ celebrated its first foray into wallpaper by giving a pattern clash-heavy makeover to the bathrooms of eight venues across Milan – from Pasticceria Cucci to the Apophis Club.

Fashion takes design week by storm

Fashion houses from Dior to Louis Vuitton have long had a presence at Milan design week. But after the pandemic set furniture sales skyrocketing, this year practically saw the city overrun with branded installations from the likes of Timberland, Stone Island, Sunnei, Jimmy Choo, Fila and more.

Among the notable newcomers was Italian fashion house Bottega Veneta, which closed its entire Montenapoleone boutique for the occasion and transformed it into a grotto-like installation designed by Italian Radical Design pioneer Gaetano Pesce.

And in the 17th-century church of San Paolo Converso, G-star RAW and Dutch designer Maarten Baas used boards made from the brand’s recycled denim waste to form jeans-shaped cabinets and an entire private jet (above) in a tongue-in-cheek comment on overconsumption.

Meanwhile, Dior brought back Philippe Starck to once again reimagine its Medallion chair and Loewe’s Jonathan Anderson reimagined the classic Welsh stick chair in a range of unexpected materials from foil to shearling.

Food for thought

In a country as innately epicurean as Italy, it makes sense that food wouldn’t just be contained to plates. Instead, designers created a veritable buffet of different products, integrating the distinctive shape of grocery items from carrot sticks to penne tubes.

While the pandemic-born Basketclub collective displayed baskets woven from real bread, marshmallow twists and candy necklaces, Austrian designer Robert Stadler used ceramic fruit and veg to form his OMG-GMO furniture collection, which features aubergines as table legs and giant watermelon slices for seats (above).

Taking a more abstract approach, Montreal designer Chris Fusaro exhibited a collection of bronze pasta strainers and bowls, which he cast in moulds made from real pieces of pasta by adapting a technique traditionally used to make jewellery.

Food designer Laila Gohar also returned to Milan design week following the launch of her homeware brand last year to create dramatic culinary displays for an exhibition by material brand SolidNature and OMA, as well as for Ingo Maurer and Hermès.

Milan design week took place from 18 to 23 April. See our Milan design week 2023 guide on Dezeen Events Guide for information about the many other exhibitions, installations and talks that took place throughout the week.

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