Designer

Designer, consultant and art director, Federica Biasi is one of the most prominent faces on the Italian design scene. Having trained in Italy, she worked in Holland for a number of years, taking inspiration from the simplicity of form that Nordic design is known for. In 2015, she founded her studio in Milan, initiating numerous collaborations with furniture and design firms. A low-key style, attention to the aesthetic traits and know-how of the businesses she collaborates with, and a clear design vision have made her one of the most visible names in up-and-coming Italian design. Nominated by Andrea Branzi as an emerging talent, she was an award winner in Paris at the 2018 edition of Maison&Objet.

French designer born in Nice, he splits his work time between France and Italy. After studying Applied Arts and Product Design (LTGC, Antibes – La Martinière, Lyon – Boulle, Paris), Nigro embarked on his career working alongside De Lucchi, collaborating on numerous product, furniture, lighting, interior design, event and stage design projects. Since 2005, various experimental works have been supported by VIA (a French organization promoting innovation in furniture design) and some can be found among the collections of the Centre Pompidou and Musée des Arts Décoratifs in Paris. In 2014, he was responsible for the exhibition design of the 7th edition of the Trienniale Design Museum “Italian Design beyond the Crisis” and he was awarded the title Designer of the Year by Now-Maison & Objet. His work’s distinctive stamp comes from the pairing of experimental research with a pragmatic analysis of “savoir faire”, a trait that has allowed Nigro to take on many and varied design challenges and address the different aspects of design.

A discerning and tuned-in interpreter of contemporary style trends, Silvia Prevedello has managed to strike a harmonious balance between the design aspect of the architect profession and an innate bent for decorative arts, photography and design. Her design philosophy combines form and function through the precise definition of materials and colours, to create products that express an overall concept unfettered by styles and individual features.

Manuela Busetti, Andrea Garuti and Matteo Redaelli all trained at Milan’s design school, the Istituto Europeo di Design (IED) and, following numerous individual collaborations with some of Milan’s most renowned design studios, they pooled their personal visions, expertise and sensibilities to form the project bearing their name: Studio Busetti Garuti Redaelli. Their design approach can be described as a painstaking synthesis of pragmatism and eclectic style. Being open to new things, continually exploring and being highly receptive all translates into solutions marked by both a technically and formally elegant simplicity, with a focus on usability and legibility. This intuition is in tune with the demands and needs of daily life, a fact reflected in the numerous awards picked up at international design competitions, including Archiproducts Design Awards in 2017 and the Hip Awards in 2021.

Design studio Ferriani Sbolgi was established in 2020 when two designers decided to join forces: both from Florence, Marco Ferriani and Sara Sbolgi had trained at the city’s design institute, ISIA. A long list of collaborations with acclaimed names — like Studiopepe, Piero Lissoni and Carlo Colombo — laid the foundation on which the creative duo built solid expertise in product design, furniture design and art direction, the cornerstones of all their projects. Short-listed in 2022 by DeZeen as one of the up-and-coming design studios of the year, they received the 2023 Archiproducts Design Award for their Diade product, designed for Foster, and the Red Dot Design Award for their Origami product, designed for Magnetolab. Since January of the same year, the studio has been actively engaged in the training of young designers, earning professorships at not one but two universities: teaching design at the ISEA institute in Florence, and product design at the city’s other design school, IED.

Gabriele Panciera, born in Milan in 1996, is a talented young designer who has graduated in Product Design from the design school Istituto Europeo di Design. Following numerous collaborations as an industrial designer, he embarked on a path of further study and exploration in London, a city where he has picked up prestigious awards and accolades that have helped shape his unique design vision. His training culminated with a Master’s Degree in Design Engineering from the Polytechnic University of Milan, graduating with honours. He launched his own business in 2020, focusing mainly on furniture design, limited editions and consulting for studios and companies in the industry. His commitment to innovative design and ability to merge aesthetics and function has earned him growing recognition on the contemporary design scene.

A designer from Bassano del Grappa in northern Italy, she graduated from IUAV, the Venice School of Architecture. She straight away began working with architecture and design practices as a freelancer. Studio Gherardi, based in Castelfranco Veneto, introduced her to the world of industrial design and, since 2015, she has been Battistella Company’s in-house designer, working with and alongside the in-house technical departments and external creative direction agencies on the development of new products and catalogues. For the group, she oversees the design of stands for Italian and international exhibitions, as well as the company’s showrooms. For Novamobili, she looks after the fitout of the Milan Flagship store. Since 2020, she has been coordinating creative direction for the Nidi and Novamobili brands. Since 2021, she is the Creative and Design director for the 3 brands under the umbrella of Battistella Company, which Novamobili is a part of.

Design studio established in 2015 by Giorgia Zanellato and Daniele Bortotto. After completing a master’s in product design at ECAL, in Switzerland, Zanellato began collaborating with Fabrica, Benetton’s Research Centre, and Bortotto with Swiss designer Adrien Rovero. Their first collaboration resulted in the Acqua Alta collection, launched at the Salone Satellite event in Milan in 2013. The project was met with a great deal of interest and initiated a line of research that is still ongoing. Their work has been shown in various galleries and museums, such as MAXXI in Rome and Milan’s Triennale Design Museum and Poldi Pezzoli Museum.

E-ggs is a practice that takes an across-the-board approach to design spanning product design, interior design and architecture. Attention and curiosity are captured by the discovery of the unusual in the everyday, in the pursuit of new expressive and textural languages. It is this exploration of everyday needs that sparks ideas. Made up of Gaia Giotti, Giona Scarselli, Cristina Razzanelli, Marco Popolo and Erica De Candido, they have won numerous international awards, including the Red Dot Award, IF design Award, Wallpaper* Design Award, German Design Award and Archiproduct Design Award.

Established in 2008 by Enrica Cavarzan and Marco Zavagno, the Venice-based Zaven studio specializes in product design, graphic design, installation design and art direction. There is an unwavering focus in their projects on crystal-clear formal clarity, characterized by an evident analytical matrix: each product is the result of a painstaking process of exploration and synthesis. The creative duo have initiated numerous collaborations in various fields and hold courses and workshops at many universities, academies and design schools. The studio’s designs can be found in museums and exhibitions the world over.

Makoto Kawamoto was born in Hyogo in Japan but lives and works in Milan in the field of design, graphic design and interior architecture. He has taken part in numerous exhibitions in Italy and abroad and was one of the candidates selected at the Young&Design competition 1997 and 1999; in 2000, he took part in the Saint-Etienne Design Biennale. Some of his product designs were selected for inclusion in the ADI Design Index 2005. In 2006, he was presented with the Good Design Award by The Chicago Athenaeum Museum of Architecture and Design. His works have been shown in numerous international exhibitions, including: the Chelsea Art Museum (New York), the Living Design Gallery Ozone (Tokyo), the Wexner Center for the Arts (Columbus, Ohio), 100% Design (London), the International Design Biennale (Saint-Etienne), Maison&Objet (Paris) and the Milan Salone del Mobile.

Edoardo Gherardi, architect and designer, founder of the same name studio. His services range from urban planning to architectural design, from interior design to industrial design. Through his practice, he has been tasked with museum exhibit design of some of Italy’s most important art exhibitions. He works both in Italy and overseas, handling building design and interior architecture projects. For Gherardi, design is a complex entity, the product of numerous overlapping factors that need to be coordinated in an organic solution.

Borne out of a desire to share their experience and passion and harness the creative potential generated by different sensibilities, Tormena-Neadesign is in the architecture and industrial and interior design business. The founders – Luca Tormena, Guido Piazzalunga and Simonetta Arcaini – collaborate with leading companies in the furniture industry, tasked by them with the design of products, display spaces for retailers and stands for international exhibitions. They offer art direction services, with a team of creative minds bringing together all the skills required to develop graphic and photographic communication.

Shannon Sadler embodies the Italian-French fusion in the world of design, with a background that intertwines the influences of both cultures. He collaborates with Italian and international brands, blending form, functionality, and aesthetics. He has worked on projects ranging from furniture design to graphics and spatial design. After several collaborations, he opened his studio in Milan in 2015; in 2023, he inaugurated the new headquarters in Asolo, returning to his roots. This new phase of his career marks a return to origins. With a style that celebrates the simplicity of forms and attention to detail, Shannon Sadler’s furnishings and objects reflect a careful reflection on the combination of form and function. His work has been featured in prestigious industry magazines such as Living, Elle Decor, and Icon Design.

Novamobili studio is the Novamobili department concerned with product research and design. A place where the focus is on devising new furniture solutions in line with contemporary living requirements. Here, the team brings creative flair and specialized expertise to the table to develop ideas and give designs tangible form. From concept to prototype, through those first rough sketches on the drawing board, Novamobili studio handles each stage of the process all the way through to the final configuration of products to be added to the collection.