Granted this post is somewhat overdue, but I suppose some things are better late than never.
From the 22nd to the 27th April, Milan hosted its annual International Design Festival. Luckily, I was one of the thousands of people who had the privilege of attending. Milan seemed to be fully booked for the week, but luckily we managed to get a hotel… kind of. Our hotel was technically not in Milan, lying out at Gorgonzola; an hour train ride away. This did cause issues in terms of logistics, as it was a hassle to have to travel for two hours if you wanted to change into evening wear.
Despite this though, we attacked the Zona Tortona with as much enthusiasm as you could gather after an EasyJet flight, a bizarre hotel and an hour train ride. Firstly, I was struck by the size of the thing. I have been to design exhibitions before, and some small design festivals in the centre of local cities, but this thing was ENORMOUS. You could not walk more than 20 metres down a packed street in one of the hotspots without passing several exhibitions. We spent the entire first day wandering through the design-converted television studio as well as several other venues and I feel we barely scraped the surface. There were several key things I took from the exhibits themselves though:
> Space – It must cost MILLIONS to hire one of the prime locations for the week of the Zona Tortona, and most of the exhibits were sparsely furnished. Most seemed to adopt the minimalistic approach, which granted does make you look more intently at the few items that are shown, but I could not help but think they could have shown me a little more for the money they were spending.
> Artsy design – The majority of pieces shown at the prime spots were one-offs. Design that looked great, and occasionally made you think ‘wow’, but then you would never actually buy. This would be both because of the practicality of the piece, and the price tag. Saying that though, I am not sure which sort of product I would have preferred to see. Yes they were all one-offs, but that can be more inspiring than a range. Open question – is an exhibition to inspire with your design or to explain your solution with it?
> No cameras please – We were tourists, who had just come a long way to see your work. You are paying lots of money for us to be able to see your work over others. Then why, oh why, are we not allowed to take pictures? 95% of the exhibitors in Milan were more than happy for us to snap away freely. Quite a few even let us use their product. With some though, the moment you brought out your camera a burly security guard would appear. Why? The perfect example of this was the Adidas exhibition. A weird almost empty space with some speakers in the centre that changed shape with sound. We were not allowed to take photographs of it (see photograph of it below :p). All the students and visitors there left that section with the attitude ‘what a waste of time’.
> Bring a strong bag – The first day we were so overwhelmed by the extend of the design that we grabbed everything that was handed our way. Leaflets. Brochures. Magazines. All bundled into a small bag that pretty soon gave way. Luckily other stands were also giving out bags. These became full, were loaded into other bags which also either became full or gave way. The rest of the trip I was extremely selective with my reading material.
> Scary but encouraging – You can take the Zona Tortona in one of two ways. I took it in both. It can be exceptionally intimidating and really scare you off doing design. There is just so much, and it is all so varied, how can you possibly hope to compete in it? Even the fliers they hand out are better quality (both in terms of graphics and print quality) than your entire CV. However, there is such a range of design there that you could really do anything and fit in. All you have to do is get yourself known, and that is half of the battle won. There were so many thousands of people viewing work, all you need is a small slice and that is more exposure than you could possibly reach anywhere else.
At this point I could launch into an in-depth recollection of the entire trip, what we did hour by hour etc, but pictures say a thousand words. All of my photos from the Zona Tortona (including photographs visiting the designer’s block exhibition – fantastic) can be found here.
It was a fantastic trip, and something I hope to repeat. Perhaps one day I will be able to spend vast quantities of money and exhibit just a few items…
Tags: design festival, italy, milan, photos, product design, zona tortona
