I have always been looking for a design that gives light to architectures. With firms of the sector, as a lighting designer and creative director, I develop the creative project and harmonize it with the industrial process, to create in glass and light. During my working experience I practiced architecture, graphics, interior design and industrial design. What thrilled me the most was glass and lighting. A real revelation that brought me to learn how to elaborate, design and invent with glass and light. I graduated from the Venice Institute of Architecture. I continued the studies at the Polytehnic University of Milan where I learned the design aspects of lighting. From that moment my goal has become the pursuit of efficiency of light, as a result of the beauty of the industrial product. Therefore I learned how to use production and engineering at their best for industrial decorative lamps.

Graduated in Architecture at the Politecnico di Milano, since 2007 she has been partner of Bartoli Design with Carlo and Paolo, where she continues the experience gained in years of consulting and planning for leading interior design companies. Dealing with different fields (design, outfitting, architecture) she enriches small or large-scale projects with a holistic approach. Her activity ranges from brand creation to product strategies, as well as product design and product engineering. Several of her projects have received important awards: Tube, an innovative sofa for Rossi di Albizzate, received the IF Award for Good Industrial Design and is represented on Poste Italiane’s postal stamps with the theme “Italian design for a new domestic landscape”. Her chair R606 UNO in composite material for Segis received the Compasso d’Oro ADI in 2008 and the Materialica Design Award and the table Still for Bonaldo was awarded the Red Dot Award. In 2016 the Camel chair for Segis received the Golden Key Award.

His professional career has given him the chance to gain experience in different fields: from communication to financing service. He has successfully developed a new business and at the same time renewed new commercial networks and company organizations. He has a peculiar attitude towards strategic thinking, from team work to talent honing and management. As a Coach Manager, he is truly a remarkable specialist of relationships for the development and acquisition of fundamental self-awareness. He has had numerous managerial roles in important Italian and international companies ranging from Commercial Manager in Mondadori Advertising to General Manager in Cemit Interactive Media, and he has been the General Manager in Condé Nast. After a few years in consulting, he came back to the company field as a Managing Director and as CEO of Cerved's Finservice Group.

An industrial designer, Barki graduated in Industrial Design at NABA, and then continued her studies at the Università Elisava in Barcelona. Winner of various Design contests, she exhibited her works at the Power Power Station of Art in Shanghai, at the Salone del Mobile and at the Fuori Salone in Milan. Parallel to her professional activity she is also active in academic life, where she teaches digital modelling techniques and interaction design. In the world of design, she is mainly interested in product design, graphic design and 3D modelling. The latter, in particular fast prototyping, has allowed her to develop projects and collaborations with various companies, among which are DWS Systems and Zortrax, in the field of 3D printing design, and to exhibit her works at the CES in Las Vegas, Formnext (Frankfurt), at the Mecspe (Parma) and Maker Faire in Rome. She writes articles and is a speaker at conferences and seminars on the union between fast prototyping and Design.

Bottoli is involved in professional and research activities in interior public and urban inhabited spaces. After many years of teaching at the Design School of the Politecnico di Milano, he concluded his academic activity in 2014/15 with the chair of “Urban set design and design methodology” at the Academy of Fine Arts in Macerata. Today, he teaches only in some select university courses and Professional Associations. With respect to urban spaces he proposes a radical evolution of traditional “Colour Plans” and for closed spaces he experiments with forms of engagement of the artistic gesture in daily life. With Giulio Bertagna he is currently working on the promotion of a new method of design and colour rendering management called ACD, Advanced Colour Design. He is a member of ADI – Association for Industrial Design at BEDA. Among the founders of Gruppo del Colore – Associazione Italiana Colore (Italian Colour Association), he is also a member of the Presidency Council and of the Technical and Scientific Committee.

Bernstein studied Graphic Design at Politecnico di Milano and obtained a Master’s degree in Type Design at the Royal Academy of Art in The Hague (NL). She is partner of Tiemme, a multidisciplinary design and architecture firm. She is an expert in the creation and development of identity systems and in the design of signage systems and signage for offices and public spaces. Since 2007 she has been teaching graphic design, typography and type design in international design schools and universities (among other things, she is a teacher of Typography at Politecnico di Milano and visiting professor at the School of Architecture and Design, Universidad de Navarra, Pamplona). She collaborates with several publications and takes part in conferences in the field of type and has collaborated on «Italic 2.0 Contemporary Type Design in Italy» (DeAgostini 2008).

Valan graduated in Industrial Design at IED Milan and subsequently obtained a Master’s degree in Quality of Surfaces. She worked with Clino Castelli on colour design projects in Europe and Japan and with Jorrit Tornquist on colour projects for architecture. She has worked in the field of office design in several fields, from seating design to ergonomics, from collaborations with Clino Castelli and James Irvine for Olivetti to the creation of office systems with Hisao Hosoe. In 1998 she founded her own studio and since then she has been designing the identity of products and spaces through the definition of colours, materials and finishes. Her projects range from lifts to office furniture, from electric appliances to sports equipment, from armoured doors to markers and glasses. Her clients include: Samsung, De Longhi Group, Lechler, Kone Ascensori, Lego, Artsana, Techogym, Fila, and Campari.

After studying Communication Design at Politecnico di Milano she joined Leftloft as an information designer and discovered her passion for the shape of data. In 2009 she started collaborating with the male magazine IL of the newspaper Il Sole 24 Ore. In 2010 she experimented with the first Italian digital magazine: La vita nòva — awarded by SPD, European Design Awards, Malofiej and D&AD. Her projects are featured in various publications such as: Data Flow2 (Die Gestalten Verlag), Designing news (Die Gestalten Verlag), Information Graphics (Taschen), and Visual Storytelling (Die Gestalten Verlag). In the following years, she collaborated with various magazines, such as the Mit Technology Review, Harvard Business Review, New York Magazine, Esquire, and Wired. Since 2013 she has been working as a professional journalist and is in charge of the digital design area at Il Sole 24 Ore, where she deals with interaction and interfaces of the daily digital products offered by the newspaper and by Radio24. She teaches at the Università IUAV (Venice) and at CFP Bauer (Milan).

Graduated at Politecnico di Milano with a specialisation in Health Design and Design for All. After collaborating with some Italian studios, since 2003 he has been working in product design for studio Arduini Design in medium and high-complexity industrial sectors, in the hospital field and in products for the disabled and for third age. He has developed research and experimental concepts as well as applications of innovative materials for various Italian and international companies. He has taught and held workshops in various design schools, such as the Faculty of Architecture in Genoa, Laba in Brescia and Politecnico di Milano. He is a consultant for some in-house training companies for the design of training and recreational activities.

After his degree in Industrial Design he started working at studio Zanuso. Later, he worked as a consultant for Design Group Italia and became a business partner at studio Arduini Bonfanti e Salvemini. His main field of work is the design of durable goods, also produced with complex technologies, with special focus on the development and experimentation of innovative systems. Interested in design issues applied to disability and Design for All (Inclusive Design) he founded EIDD in Dublin – European Institute for Design and Disability (now Design for All Europe), of IIDD – Italian Institute for Design and Disability and of Hbgroup – Human Basic Design. Occasional collaborator with specialised magazines and design universities, he is a faculty member in the Industrial Design Degree at the University of Genoa. Winner of a Compasso d’Oro and of a National Award for Innovation, he has also received mentions in national and international design awards.

Baldessari graduated in Industrial Design at IED Milan in 1980, where she subsequently worked as an assistant in design courses for a few years. She gained her professional experience in firms that operate in the field of design, in particular studio Danilo and Corrado Aroldi and studio Isao Hosoe design. In 1983 she founded “Baldessari e Baldessari architetti e designers” with Giulio and Paolo Baldessari, professional partners who are active in the fields of industrial and visual design, architecture, exhibit and interior design. She develops and participates in international design projects with important Italian and foreign studios working in the world of furniture and lighting design. She has been awarded prizes and mentions taking part in national and international contests. She is a professor of Design History and Interior Design at the Academy of Fine Arts and, since 2018, at RM.

Moscatelli graduated in Architecture at the Politecnico di Milano and subsequently obtained a Master’s degree in “Territory and Sustainable Architecture”. After collaborating with studio EMBT in Barcelona, since 2008 she has been working with Studio Moscatelli on architecture and urban design, receiving awards and acknowledgements for redevelopment projects for buildings and public spaces. He has published articles on some magazines of the industry, such as Ananke and Area, and has taken part in the realisation of the monographic volumes On the road – Milano and Archibook Expo 2015. Since 2011 he has been teaching in Italy and abroad. He has held presentations and conferences at the Association of Architects PPC in Como and Brescia, at Politecnico di Milano and at the Floormart fair.

Architect and journalist, Scarzella is a communication expert and a consultant for companies in the design industry as well as curator of research projects, books and international design exhibitions. She has been the editor of the magazine Domus and writes about design and architecture on specialized international magazines. She has been professor at Università La Sapienza in Rome, Università di Genova and at the Estonian Academy of Arts in Tallinn. Founder and vice president of the association DComeDesign for the promotion of female creativity, she designed and currently leads, together with Valentina Downey, the LabBrainDesign. Since 2010 she has been actively working in social design, developing training projects in contexts of social unrest in Asia and Africa and has been collaborating with UNIDO – United Nations Industrial Development Organization. Photographic research, her lifelong passion, is an important tool for her creative work.

A professional journalist, Masini graduated in Italian literature with a specialisation in Art History at the Università degli Studi La Sapienza (Rome). He writes for Quotidiano Nazionale (Il Giorno, il Resto del Carlino, La Nazione) and over the past thirty years he has held various posts in the Group, until becoming the manager of editorial projects. He has a Master’s degree in marketing and communication and another in digital marketing lab, both acquired at the Sole-24 Ore’s Business School. He has taught “Media languages” and “Art Markets” at the Università degli Studi Carlo Bo in Urbino. He was a member of the Board of Directors at Ads and Audipress and a member of the Design Prize scientific committee. He recently published the book Gabriella Crespi, Spirito e Materia, arte e design (Gabriella Crespi, Spirit and Matter, art and design) for Odoya.

Born in Milan in 1961, at the age of twenty-five Francesco Dondina established Dondina Associates to work in the fields of brand identity and communication design, focusing primarily on its applications to the areas of fashion, design, art and culture. His studio’s more important clients have included Giorgio Armani, Krizia, Valentino, Ferragamo, L’Oréal Paris, Cassina, the City of Milan, the MoMA, Feltrinelli and MUBA, the Milan Children’s Museum. He designed the images for the exhibitions of Bramantino in the Sforza Castle and of Bernardino Luini in the Royal Palace, both in Milan. With Marco Zanuso Jr. and Giuseppe Rabonim he designed the ticket offices for Expo Milano 2015. From 2010 to 2012, Dondina Associates also had a base in New York, since in that period he partnered with the Asia Society Museum and the American Ballet Theatre. In 2009, he published a book of an interview with Bob Noorda, Una vita nel segno della grafica. In 2015, he devised the Graphic Design Lectures cycle of events held at the Sforza Castle and, in 2016, he curated SIGNS, an exhibition about contemporary Italian graphic design held in the Base location in Milan. He has taught at the Cfp Bauer and Milan Polytechnic for many years.

Translator, conference interpreter and professor of English language, she graduated in English Language and Literature at the University of Aarhus and accomplished a research PhD in Theory of Translation at the University of Milan. She has been teaching both in Italian and international universities and in corporate contexts for 15 years. This experience gave her the chance to be able to deal with students from different cultures and educational backgrounds, with the aim to make them reach a good language level for several social and professional operating contexts. Besides, she works as Project Manager for important translation assignments and interpreting projects. She released monographies on language didactics and contributed to numerous academic papers in this field.

Graduated in Psychology at the University of Padua, he is registered in the Register of Psychotherapists in the region of Lombardy. After a second degree in Philosophy, he conducted extensive philosophical research also on oriental cultures. This research effort led to the foundation of the Kuan Institute in 1985, an institute for the diffusion of Chinese Medicine in Italy. He is a member of the American Psychological Association. Already active as a teacher of Communication Psychology and Psychosomatic Medicine at various institutions, he is the Chairmain of the Isituto di Formazione Europeo and a teacher of ECM courses at the Fondazione Maugeri di Montescano.

Documentary-maker and visual sociologist, Rossano deals with visual sociology and anthropology at the University of Barcelona, where he concluded a Ph.D. in Sociology in 2016. In 2002, he graduated in Law at the Università degli Studi di Napoli Federico II and three years later he obtained his Diploma of specialiation in cinema direction at the Centre d’Estudis Cinematografics de Catalunya. In 2006, he attended and concluded the Master’s Course in Management for Showbusiness at the SDA Bocconi in Milan. An expert in video-making and in the organisation of cultural and theatre events, he has worked at the Piccolo Teatro di Milano (2006) and at the Napoli Teatro Festival Italia (2009-2010). Rossano is the author of documentaries that have participated in various international festivals and is an arduous writer of academic articles and short stories. His research activity falls within the disciplinary field of Sociology and Anthropology, in connection with audiovisual methodologies and techniques.

Born in Turin in 1966, he attended the Photography Department of the Istituto Europeo di Design. After his studies, he started his career as a photographer, ranging from portraits and celebrity shots to the fields of beauty, fashion and advertising. His portfolio includes works for FIAT, Iveco, Lavazza, Chicco and Oréal. He studied and developed the image of various celebrities in showbusiness, such as Arturo Brachetti, Luciana Littizzetto, Subsonica, Fernanda Lessa, Antonella Elia, Neja. In recent years, he has extended his research to video language, both as a director and as a director of photography (he created the video for Alfonso di Levante). Ranzani is the author of the following publications: Ecce Femina (2000), 99 per Amnesty (2003), La Soglia. Vita, carcere e teatro, and Go 4 it/Universiadi 2007. He was the person of reference for the artistic group 4k in the project Torino Mosaico, and for the artistic group Dead Photo Working in the opening project of Luci d’Artista in Turin. He conceived and organised the international photography contest OPEN PICS for the Turin Book Fair. He is currently the President of AFIP Torino.

After graduating with full marks from the Brera Academy of Fine Arts in Milan, Lia Luzzatto continued her studies, exploring the fields of fashion and specialising in hardcopy and digital chromatic communication. She now works as a colour consultant in many fields, writes books, takes part in seminars and teaches. Because of its symbolic, communicative, psychological and sensory complexity, colour is a vital resource in every visual context. Lia Luzzatto lectures in Colour Theory at the Academy of Communication and the Luxury Lab in the Academy of Luxury in Milan. Writing together with Renata Pompas, whom she met attending Luigi Veronesi’s lectures in chromatology at the Academy, she has published numerous books about colour that are constantly going through reprints for publishers including Hoepli, Il Castello and Bompiani. She is a founder member of the Italian Colour Association’s Colour Group and is a member of its Presidency Council and Scientific Committee. Previously a member of the CISST – Italian Centre for Studying the History of Fabrics – and of ADI, she is currently a member of the ECD Environmental Colour Design of Buenos Aires and of the Stockholm-based Colour Study Group.

After taking her diploma at the Accademia di Comunicazione in Milan, Chiara Grandesso went on to take a Masters in Communication in Art & Design at the Royal College of Art in London. She then won a scholarship to continue pursuing her research at the Kyoto City University of Arts in Japan. Once back in Europe, she won the Parallel Prize and was subsequently invited by Philippe Starck to start working with him in his Paris office. Although she maintained a partnership with the office upon returning to Italy after this experience, she also started doing graphic design work on her own initiative. She has received acknowledgments from both the ADCI and the Padua municipal council Culture Department.

Born in Caracas in 1957 to Italian parents, Giulio Vinaccia moved to Italy in 1985 and spent the years from 1997 to 2012 working with his brother Valerio in the area of industrial design, while also starting to take an interest in social design in his native Colombia in 1993. From 1996 to 2002, he worked with SEBRAE, the Brazilian Support Service for Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises, developing a dozen projects of design for craftsmanship in several communities of Brazil. In 2004, the Spanish government commissioned him to carry out a project to study the iconography of the Camino de Santiago. He subsequently worked to flank communities in critical condition in Sweden, Canada, Afghanistan and Egypt. Since 2009, he has been working with the development programmes at the UNIDO – United Nations Industrial Development Organisation – in China, Haiti and the five Caribbean states, Pakistan, Madagascar and seven southern Mediterranean countries. In 2015, he won the World Green Design Contribution Award and in 2016, together with UNIDO, the ADI Compasso d’Oro Award, the first one every presented in the award’s history to the category of social design.

After obtaining a degree in architecture at the Politecnico di Milano, he embarked on a professional experience outside Italy and then joined his family’s design firm in 1997 as an associate. Gecchelin currently manages the firm. He has collaborated with various national and international brands, such as: IGuzzini illuminazione, Ivela, Reggiani, Raat, Kelvin Italy, Aermec Sierra, and Whirlpool. In 2002, he won the ADI Compasso d’Oro for the Latina citrus juicer produced by Fratelli Guzzini. His background as an architect and his strong interest in all aspects of creativity and technology have granted him a multi-disciplinary view that ranges from interior to graphic design, from photography to illustration. He matured teaching experiences in various institutions in Milan (among which are the Politecnico di Milano and IED) before joining the RM faculty.

Born in 1947, Carlo Forcolini graduated from the Brera Academy of Fine Arts in Milan in 1969. From 1975 to 1979, he worked with ICF De Padova, while at the same time he started to work with Vico Magistretti, one of the great masters of Italian design. From 1978 to 1984, he lived in London, where he was one of the founders of Alias and became Director of Artemide GB. In 1992, he founded Nemo and in 1999 Forcolini.Lab, followed in 2005 by Oylight. Over the years, he has designed for Amar, Cassina, BBB Bonacina, Luceplan, Luci Italia, Gervasoni, Joint and Pomellato. From 2001 to 2007, he served as President of ADI, Associazione per il Disegno Industriale, and in 2007 was appointed a member of the Consiglio Italiano del Design. From 2009 to 2014, he was, in this order, CEO, then Vice-President and finally Academic Director of the IED Group. His designs feature in the collections of the Cooper Hewitt Museum in New York, in the Museum of Decorative Arts in Paris, in the Design Museum at the Milan Triennale and in the Collection of the ADI Compasso d’Oro Award. He has shown his work in exhibitions in Madrid, Los Angeles, London, Hamburg, Cologne, Tokyo, Sidney, Santiago, Moscow, Oslo, Naples, Milan, Toronto and Brussels.

Camila Fecchio graduated in Industrial Design from Milan Polytechnic specializing in Communication Design, then took a diploma from the Alta Scuola Politecnica in 2007. She has worked in research and corporate consultancy, first spending two years at the Milan Polytechnic Department of Management Engineering, where she focused on design-led innovation, then moving to Design Innovation, the structure created in 1998 by Carmelo Di Bartolo and Maria del Pino Molina Betancor, where she co-ordinated strategic and advanced design projects. She has lectured at Milan Polytechnic for seven years and was didactic co-ordinator of DIBA, the Design Innovation Business Academy in 2010. In the same year, she started lecturing and co-ordinating the course in Creativity and Design at the Faculty of Communication, Public Relations and Advertising at Milan’s IULM University. Since 2012, she has also been doing graphic and communication design work for the web.

Mindert De Koningh was born in Haarlem, in the Netherlands, in 1958 and started working as a model maker after completing his studies. Working side by side with young Dutch designers sharpened his interest in everything related to industrial design, in due course leading to his decision to move to Milan in 1990. Meanwhile, in 1997, he founded Zooi and opened a workshop in via Savona. He attended both on teaching activities and on the production of prototypes for the students reading for Masters degrees in Industrial Design and in Fashion Design, his path crossing with those of many of the great names that animated the Milan design and art scenes. His work can be classified under two major headings: prototyping and building models and mock-ups for designers, firms and agencies working in all sorts of different industrial sectors; and consultancy and technical support services for artists in executing their works.

Born in 1981, Luigi Ciuffreda studied architecture and design at the École Supérieure d’Art et de Design in Orleans and at Milan Polytechnic, where he graduated in 2006 with a specialisation in museography and exhibition design for cultural heritage. From 2005 to 2007, he worked as an expert in the subject in the Interior Design workshops at the Milan Polytechnic Faculty of Design and, from 2013 to 2017, he lectured in design and exhibition design at the Milan Academy of Communication. He now operates in a variety of permutations of the field of design: product design, retail design, interior architecture an exhibition design. His more notable recent projects include the museographical design at the Lapidary Museum of Monte Sant’Angelo and the signage for the new NAS Arena stadium in Dubai. Since 2006, he has been a consultant with Buratti Architects, where he has collaborated on projects for B&B Italia, Fontana Arte, Living Divani, Poliform, Poltrona Frau, Porro, Tecno, Lamborghini, Ducati, Husqvarna, La Perla and Gebrüder Thonet of Vienna. Along with his professional activities, he devotes some of his time to personal research into illustration and graphic design.

After graduating in Industrial design in Melbourne, he moved to Milan to complete a Master’s degree in Car Design. Upon its conclusion, he worked for ten years as a freelancer in professional design firms, combining his activity as a designer with teaching. Salerno has designed for Sony, Chicco, Fiat, Ferrari, Indesit, Argotractors, Luxottica, Piaggio, Pirelli, Microsoft, and others and has obtained several patents and awards. He is currently senior Industrial Design Specialist at BTS Design Innovation, has taught more than 500 students in Master’s and pre-Master’s courses at university level. He strongly believes in harmonising several disciplines and interests in the attempt of making the world a better place through design.

From 1996 to 2000, Carlo Dameno worked with Carmelo Di Bartolo, where he supervised work with such firms as Lego Futura, Gillette, Fiat, Sunstar, Oral B, Lavazza and Bosch as project manager. In 1999, he joined Design Innovation as co-ordinator of the bionics and concept design research area, developing projects with Fiat, Piaggio, Tensoforma, Ariete and others. In 2008, he teamed up with Monica Ferrigno to establish Ildoppiosegno, a design office with a dual identity, focusing on the one hand on industrial design and on the other on research. The office has worked with such clients as Bayer, Status, United Pets, New Holland, Samsung, Piazza and iBarzaghi. He has lectured in bionics in Turin, Madrid, Milan and at the Technological Institute of Aragon, in Zaragoza. A tutor in the creativity and design workshop in the degree course in Corporate Communication at the IULM University in Milan, he is a participant in BIOMA, the international symposium in bionics and design at the University of Aveiro, in Portugal.

After his humanistic studies, Vergani trained himself as a scholar while he worked in a record shop. A brief experience in the world of design led him to become Luigi Settembrini and Francesca Sorace’s assistant in the year 2000 during their collaboration with the Cosmit for the exhibition “1951-2001, Made in Italy?”. In 2001, he founded Nowhere, the first example of a nomad exhibition space, and organised exhibitions in Milan, Paris, and Florence with this format. In 2003, he opened a permanent office in Milan, thus giving substance to his research activity in the field of contemporary art. During the same year, and until 2006, he worked as an editorial consultant for Skira. From 2007 to 2013 he was the Vice President of Startmilano, a sectorial association for the diffusion of contemporary art and culture. He has been writing about art for the newspaper Il Giorno/QN since 2009.

After his studies at the Accademia di Belle Arti di Brera in Milan, he started producing images that combined classical techniques with modern digital tools. The study of the “sign” allowed him to operate in various fields in communication: he has illustrated monographic books for publishing houses, self-help manuals for De Agostini, and illustrated catalogues for Sharai. Since 2016, he has been collaborating with Mediaset as a visualizer in the creation of storyboards. At the same time, he collaborates with several advertising agencies and publishes his own underground comic books. In 2017, he met Francesco Vezzoli – a meeting which catapulted him into the world of contemporary art as he lent his hand to the artist in the performance “Take my tears” within the itinerating collective performance “Take me I’m yours” staged in the Pirelli Hangar Bicocca in Milan and repeated in 2018 in Villa Medici in Rome.

A graduate of the IED(European Institute of Design) in Turin in 2001, obtained his Masters in Transportation-Interface Design at the IED in Madrid an Turin in 2002. He has collaborated with numerous companies and design studios including Pininfarina, Ferrari, Motorola, Fizik, Frog Design and Flextronics. Since 2006 he has been teaching at the IED in Turin and Milan. In 2011 he opened his own design studio which is involeved in Product and Transportation Design.

Graduated in Architecture at Istituto Universitario di Venezia, she holds a Ph.D. in Design for Cultural Heritage at Design Department of Politecnico di Milano. She carries out multidisciplinary researches on design, art and architecture focusing on the enhancement of the heritage through digital archives and tools, to foster novel learning models. She has been involved in research projects at academic and institutional level, dedicated to curatorship, coordination and organization of exhibitions, workshops, conferences and cultural events. She also writes on design, art and architecture, for blogs and online magazines.