IED Alumni at Milan Design Week 2025
Date
01 April 2025
The world’s most important event for the design sector returns to liven up Milan with the Salone del Mobile at Rho Fiera and the super-rich program of city events within the Fuorisalone circuit.
As every year, IED Alumni are among the key protagonists of Design Week 2025, presenting product collections for major brands and contributing their creative and artistic input to installations, exhibitions, and events.
Silvia Badalotti interprets the theme of Fuorisalone 2025 “Connected Worlds”
Photography Alumna, photographer and prompt designer, Silvia Badalotti has created three subjects for the Fuorisalone communication campaign, focused on the theme “Connected Worlds.” Reflecting on how the interaction between different worlds creates complex and collective narratives, Badalotti uses artificial intelligence to create three symbolic images representing the three main characters on the stage of contemporaneity: the person, technology, and nature.
Outdoor and indoor worlds by Studio Adolini
Studio Adolini, founded by Niccolò Adolini, Product Design Alumnus, is showcasing numerous projects. Out-Fit is an outdoor gym created for the company Ethimo, a self-structured fitness room for staying in shape while immersed in nature.
For Gervasoni 1882, Studio Adolini has designed the Torii table, inspired by the traditional Japanese gate from which it takes its name. The cement references a recurring element in the design style of the studio: lightened concrete, combining functionality and elegance. This material also appears in the vase collections Xilon for Paolelli Outdoor and Musa for Talenti.
Other products designed mainly for indoor use are Foggy, a family of wall and freestanding mirrors with an innovative internal lighting system, and steel faucets designed for Quadro Design.
Indoor and outdoor collections also for Simone Bonanni
For Carpanese Home, a Verona-based company with two generations of expertise in woodworking and high craftsmanship, Bonanni designs five of the eleven new pieces constituting the new furniture collection Unfolding, resulting from design research on the theme of graphic synthesis and the stylization of shapes: Slow, a modular sofa with rounded lines, the Slow P armchair, the Bitt coffee table, the sculptural Maki bed, the padded Bill armchair, and Doublé, a dining table available in two different sizes.
A solid geometric wooden structure and a distinctive aesthetic, on the other hand, constitute the common thread that unites the pieces of Nuance, an outdoor collection designed for Otazen.
Federico Peri, poetic synergies with Carpanese and Saba
For Carpanese Home Federico Peri signs the artistic direction for the third consecutive year. The new Unfolding furniture collection is presented at Design Week 2025 with an exhibition titled Beyond The Shape curated by Peri. The exhibition takes visitors on a journey through the company’s most intimate design language, showcasing their manufacturing know-how, high cabinetmaking tradition, and the hands and knowledge that shaped the objects.
Another significant collaboration is between Federico Peri and Saba, which aims to expand its traditionally upholstery-focused product range. The collection, called ANAM, explores contrasts between softness and rigidity, fabric and lacquered surfaces, giving the furniture a tactile quality and visual lightness in line with the brand's iconic DNA.
For Baxter, Federico Peri also presents two evolutions of existing collections, showcased at their “Baxter Cinema” showroom in Largo Augusto: a desk for the Blend collection and the table version of the Wave lamp.
Luca Pinotti for Porta Venezia Design District
The first signature project of the District is PORTAL, an object symbolizing the soul of the Porta Venezia neighborhood. Portal is an air freshener designed as a 3D portal, emitting a fragrance created to express cultural mix and boundless creativity. The object was made by designer and alumnus Luca Pinotti, Furf Design Studio, and Designtech, with the fragrance from Givaudan, a leading company in the sector.
Luca Pinotti's contribution also extends to a thematic talk organized with Epoi, a non-profit organization co-founded by Pinotti, and Lynk & Co: on April 9, Design Week attendees can attend “The Next Day of car design,” an interview with Zehao Liu, Chief Designer of Lynk & Co Design and Founder of Solaris Community.
Flavia Martignago and the idea of light of Filotto
Product designer Flavia Martignago, trained in Rome and Florence, has interpreted Filotto's concept of light with Koso and Rocco: metal components characterized by color and functionality, designed for the innovative magnetic wall accessory system developed by the company in early 2025.
European art reinterpreted by CARA \ DAVIDE
The tenth edition of Doppia Firma aims to celebrate its milestones and history, while looking toward the future of design, including Product Design Alumni Cara Judd and Davide Gramatica. The project, which has long fostered dialogue between design innovation and European art masters, is selecting eight works from past editions and commissioning seven new design pieces from international designers who collaborated with Italian artisans from the Alpine region. Among the chosen designers is the Italo-South African duo CARA \ DAVIDE.
New and old collaborations for Controvento by Gabriele Chiave
The "diffuse geography" studio Controvento, co-founded by Gabriele Chiave, has signed new collections for Fendi Casa, a long-established partner, and for Contardi. The latter is presenting the Alma lamp collection at Euroluce 2025 in Rho, characterized by the use of glass and elegant sculptural shapes.
Very Simple: Kitchen, a regular stop at the Isola Design Festival
The modular kitchen brand founded by Riccardo Randi, now a required stop at the Design Week in the Isola District, is presenting the reinterpretation of its hyper-functional products by German artist and designer Alex Proba.
Finemateria and the experiences made of lightness
The interior design studio Finemateria, founded by the creative duo Gianluca Sigismondi / Stefano Bassan, continues to stand out among the most interesting and experimental young Italian design realities. Sigismondi and Bassan are curating “Paff Paff – Liminal Spaces for Sensorial Rituals,” an installation at Park Associati's architecture studio in Porta Venezia Design District, exploring the use of wool to offer visitors a regenerating experience of inactivity. The project is in collaboration with cc-tapis and QuadroDesign.
Besana Carpet Lab also is collaborating with Finemateria: the designers are creating a dynamic, multifunctional space for the company’s 100m² booth at Salone del Mobile, guiding the public through an immersive journey that tells the brand soul, the quality of materials used, and the breadth of their product catalog.
The material experimentation of Davide Balda
Davide Balda, a multidisciplinary designer focused on researching new materials and sustainable production processes, is presenting his project “Telare la materia, cucire nuovi legami attraverso gli scarti tessili” at Fuorisalone 2025 in two different city areas: at Basic Village, within the Conscious Object exhibition, and in one of Paolo Sarpi's windows in collaboration with Arsonars. The exhibition at Basic Village includes a collection of objects made by Balda in bio-material, while the Sarpi display is made with Tecnosuolo, a fertilizing substrate created from textile fibers and animal and plant fibers extracted from unsold clothing.
Yellowdot Design with Rossana Orlandi and Eggs Milano
The studio founded by the creative couple Dilara Kan and Bodin Hon remains among the most loyal and present IED Alumni at Fuorisalone with two significant collaborations. First, their renewed partnership with Rossana Orlandi Gallery for the exhibition “RoCollectible 2025,” and a new collaboration with EGGS Milano, the restaurant led by chef Barbara Agosti.
“Breaking the Shell” is the name of this latest project, where Yellowdot’s experimentation with reused egg shells for producing furniture and tableware finds its place within the restaurant, blending with the fine dining experience.
The wood poetry of Carlos Pereira
At J. Moreira da Silva’s booth at the Salone del Mobile, we will find the RASA furniture collection designed by Carlos Pereira, a pluri-awarded Portuguese designer and founder of Studio Induse. RASA fully utilizes advanced techniques of curved wood craftsmanship, with each piece characterized by clean lines, organic forms, and a meticulous study of the relationship between structure and ergonomics.
Watch out for Jonathan Bocca
Among the emerging designers to keep an eye on in recent years, and also at Fuorisalone 2025, is Jonathan Bocca, who is presenting his collection of objects made with paper industry scraps and mixtures of sand and natural glues at the MTM La Cavallerizza theater.
Vladimir Mazzoletti for the hospitality industry
Vladimir Mazzoletti is showcasing two of his pieces Iron Paper and Desert Star at Hotel Il Duca in Piazza della Repubblica. The first is a living room table with a newspaper holder, and the second is a series of modular seating created with Maglificio Benacci from Como.
Mirian Miguel’s Nodriza for Instituto Cervantes
Nodriza is a set of four pieces made of glass and casein bioplastic, designed by Spanish designer and PLAF_estudio founder Mirian Miguel for Diseñadoras Re(diseñando) el mundo, an itinerant exhibition supported by Instituto Cervantes.
The project explores milk as both a content—through a blown-glass milk jug and dairy plate—and as a material, using casein from sheep milk to create these pieces. Inspired by the figure of the wet nurse, it reinterprets the concept of care as a design object.
Federica Biasi for Gervasoni Home
Internationally acclaimed Milanese designer Federica Biasi signs several indoor and outdoor collections for Gervasoni Home, presented at both their showroom and booth at the Salone del Mobile.
The art of power napping by Martin Tzankov
The Power Nap Chair, designed by Martin Tzankov of Estudio Buenacasa, is presented at Salone del Mobile 2025 in Hall 3, Stand L18 after also appearing at the Dibla Design Award in Bulgaria and the Stockholm Furniture Fair. The chair is designed for those who make power napping a key part of their routine.
Matteo Brambilla and his Ethimoblu
Young Milanese designer Matteo Brambilla, founder of Ethimoblu, is taking part in Fuorisalone 2025 with a collection of marble furniture designed entirely by his studio for Serafini, named Levante Collection, and a collaboration with Paolo Castellarin’s Studio P7 for Rubelli, the historic Milanese company that has been producing and marketing furniture made primarily from fabric for over 130 years.
Check all activities with IED presence during the Milan Design Week here.
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