Looking back at 2018, I would say that sustainability was certainly one of the major upcoming trends in the design world. People are more and more interested in working with materials that they perceive as authentic, as real. I believe that in 2019, the general trends from 2018 will be further amplified especially the trends based around the sustainability issues as the problem is ever more present in the public debate.
I believe that in 2019, the general trends from 2018 will be further amplified especially the trends based around the sustainability issues as the problem is ever more present in the public debate. More meaningful design that is always made in a more conscious manner and with the idea that the products, as well as the design, should be able to last!
On our side, we are currently working hard on some new products for Milan with a new Italian brand we have just starting to collaborate with, but also on several new collections for Green Mood that will be launched in the off, in the city in the Fuorisalone. This year in Milan Bonaldo will also be marking the 10th anniversary of our iconic Big Table with the launch of a special edition.
We have also started collaborating a very nice British brand working on a new piece with natural materials like cane and wood, with some of those pieces to be launched in May in NY. As for the last 9 year in a raw, we are again collaborating with Buzzispace on new collections to be launched at Neocon in Chicago in June. And since we now have the chance to be working with XL Boom we are now designing several new collections of smaller products which is very much fun since in general, we tend to work on much larger products.
Looking back at 2018, I would say that sustainability was certainly one of the major upcoming trends in the design world. People are more and more interested in working with materials that they perceive as authentic, as real. Hence, the strong comeback of materials like ceramic or terracotta for instance. Designers are more easily accepting and playing with imperfection, with a handmade feel that makes a product more unique and warmer. People want to feel the materials,
the textures.
We are also in a period where certain minimalism is making a strong comeback, this also happens to coincide with the 100th anniversary of the Bauhaus movement in 2019. More and more designers are defining their products with strong functional and lightweight graphic shapes. A sort of no-nonsense aesthetic that is also sometimes very close to the modernism of the 50s and 60s.
But post-modernist influences are also getting stronger with aesthetic cues being more widely taken from the 80s but also inspired by the geometry of brutalist architecture.
So we go on living in a world were different creatives influences live alongside each other and are even very often mixed together.
As far as we are concerned, 2018 saw the launch of several of our projects where we have tried in some ways to improve the day to day life of people. We are trying to make them engage and relate with each other in a more humane, less informal and more fluid manner. Coming up with a very innovative concept like the BuzziBracks for Buzzispace were self-standing structures and curtains are used to define full spaces. We have also tried to redefine what comfort could feel like in shared space with the very comfy BuzziSpark or tried to improve the acoustic performance of spaces with the BuzziHat and BuzziZepp which are both innovative acoustic lights.
We have used the technology developed by Green Mood to create green walls out of naturally preserved plants that don’t need any watering or maintenance in order to break away from the wall and propose a series of products that can bring greenery to spaces in an innovative manner with the G-Line collection we designed for them. The idea is again to make people feel better and give architects the possibility to create more humane spaces.
With Bonaldo we have played with Venitian Terrazzo, one of the first historically recycled material, in order to define some playful coffee tables that have a design inciting people to play with them. This same playful logic where we give people the chance to interact with our design can be found in our small Orbital candleholders for XL Boom, and as well in our very edgy Plateau Suisse cheese plate.
With Vincent Sheppard, we have gone on mixing industry and nature with our Wicked chair that, like the rest of the collection, mixes visible metal structures with woven rattan.
In 2018 we also further collaborated with Ligne Roset with the launch of our Geoffrey mirror which can also act as a valet. A strong and graphic piece that is less simple than it first appears and that is fast becoming a bestseller.
