Just how important is the SaloneSatellite to a young designer?

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SaloneSatellite, Salone del Mobile.Milano 2024 - Ph. Ludovica Mangini

We talked about this with the winners of the 2024 edition of the SaloneSatellite Award: designer Zhen Bian of Studio Ololoo, architect Filippo Andrighetto and Studio Egoundesign

This year’s edition was a special event for SaloneSatellite. Under the heading “Connecting Design Since 1998”, the event founded and curated by Marva Griffin Wilshire devoted to students and aspiring designers celebrated its 25th anniversary by welcoming 600 participants from 36 countries and 22 international Design Schools and Universities from 14 countries. In Pavilions 5-7 of Fiera Milano, Rho, for the first time, the participants included Prince Sultan University from Saudi Arabia, Belgrade Business and Arts Academy of Applied Studies from Serbia, Michael Graves College from the United States and Xi’An Jiaotong-Liverpool University from China.

“It seems to me only yesterday that Manlio Armellini – at the time CEO of Cosmit – after our conversations about young designers, entrusted me with the task of organizing an event specially for them in the exhibition center,” said Marva Griffin Wilshire, Founder and Curator of SaloneSatellite.

To celebrate this important milestone, from 16 to 28 April, the Triennale Milano hosted an exhibition retracing the history of this outpost of connections and discoveries. The exhibition was curated by Beppe Finessi and Ricardo Bello Dias, who has designed the exhibition since the first edition. And the graphic design was by studio òbelo (Claude Marzotto and Maia Sambonet).

Like every year, there was also the SaloneSatellite Award, with a jury of experts in the field, as always chaired by Paola Antonelli, Senior Curator in the Department of Architecture and Design of MoMA (New York). It assessed the candidates’ projects and chose the winners, who were awarded a special trophy: a metal sculpture designed by the artist Daniele Basso, who also made his debut at the SaloneSatellite in the past. His project was inspired by the Singer “chair for very short visits” designed by Bruno Munari in 1945.

And if it is true that experimentation, innovation, sustainability, reuse, new aesthetics, new materials and processes are some of the most important keywords for defining the projects presented at the event, it is equally true that the new generations of designers feel it is essential for their prototype to go into production, fulfilling their ambition to contribute with their creative vision to the culture of design.

SaloneSatellite 2024: a word from young designers

This year, together with the special mention given to Mohamed Romani with Chems Eddine Mechri and Ahmed Bssla For Creative Tunisia, who designed the Fibra vegetable fiber floor lamp, the first prize went to Studio Ololoo (China) for the Deformation Under Pressure lamp. About this experience, designer Zhen Bian, the studio’s founder, said: “There’s no doubt that the SaloneSatellite is very important to our career. As young designers we need visibility, and the Satellite is the most influential platform. The result exceeded expectations. We had the opportunity to make contact with specialist magazines and influencers. Last but not least, we met prestigious designers and made new acquaintances from around the world, enabling us to learn from each other.” Zhen Bian then stressed the importance of the increasingly versatile figure of the contemporary designer: “Today we have to not just know how to design, but also how to network. Previously, we had no experience of this, and we were hardly prepared for it. Next time we definitely will be.”

salonemilano, Deformation Under Pressure lamp, Studio Ololoo — Deformation Under Pressure lamp, Studio Ololoo

Filippo Andrighetto, who won second prize for the Veliero bookcase, says: “I felt that taking part in the Salone Satellite was an extraordinary experience. Being an architect by training and having only worked in furniture design for two years, I was completely unfamiliar with the dynamics of the industry. So this was an opportunity to exhibit my work in an environment new to me, to receive positive feedback from international experts and companies, as well as making contacts and expanding my professional network,” says the Italian-Danish designer. “The recognition received was a confirmation of the quality of the work done over the last two years. The SaloneSatellite has not just strengthened my commitment to the world of design. It has also opened up a new parallel path to my career as an architect.” On being asked, what he takes home from participating in the event, Andrighetto explains: “This experience has taught me that perseverance and commitment always bring their rewards. In addition, I fully understood the importance of the Salone Satellite as one of the most outstanding trade fairs in the sector, and how crucial it is to present my work to create the fundamental connections that will power the future development of my career.”

salonesatellite, veliero bookshelf — Veliero Bookshelf, Filippo Andrighetto

On the third step of the podium, with the set of Voronoi cups, printed in 3D brass, is Egoundesign, a design studio and production company based in Bologna. Its members are Luca Marcadent, Tiffany Melchioni, Federico Redaelli and Edoardo Melchioni. For Egoundesign, participating in the SaloneSatellite was fundamental: “For us young designers in search of their future, SaloneSatellite is both a showcase and a megaphone of ideas, passions, methods and forms, so opening up new possibilities for swapping ideas, dialoguing and meeting with other under 35s and beyond, with experts, industrialists, architects and established designers. SaloneSatellite is an opportunity for you to be evaluated, to understand whether your research and efforts are focused in the right direction, to get feedback from the world without fear of making mistakes. This is a tremendous opportunity.” And the most important thing from this experience? “There are four of us in the Egoundesign studio and each of us has been inspired, enriched and spurred to move ahead by a huge variety of factors, the week at SaloneSatellite is so intense. So we came away with a shared and enthusiastic awareness of the effort we make every day to research, develop and deepen the synergies between different disciplines in the conviction that a good project is not enough. It has to be recounted, represented and motivated in its smallest details. We learned this definitively at SaloneSatellite. and we will continue to develop our projects by combining and giving equal importance to all of our Team’s skills, modulating them to attain shared objectives. In any case, every result, every success, like this Award, are always new starting points, a source of new enthusiasm and new possibilities to research innovation... One thing always leads to another.”