In the metaverse for the 100th anniversary of Elio Martinelli’s birth

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martinelli luce, metaverso, salone milano

Metaverso by Diorama for Martinelli Luce

To celebrate the 100 years since Elio Martinelli's birth, Martinelli Luce launched its own metaverse on 19th November. Testament to a vision, propelling the brand towards future embrace and exploration

Elio Martinelli was born 100 years ago, and went on to found one of the brands symbolic of the know-how that characterised Italian design, especially between the mid-1960s and the 1970s. Set up by Elio Martinelli in 1950 in a basement in Lucca, Martinelli Luce forged a part of design history thanks to the insight of its founder, by creating icons that remain contemporary and full of design passion and innovation.

Elio Martinelli’s birthday marks an important anniversary for this family company, now led by his daughter Emiliana and grandson Marco Ghilarducci. Martinelli Luce decided to celebrate this anniversary by creating a space in the metaverse in which to narrate and commemorate the company's history and its founder.

Designed by the Diorama studio, with which Martinelli Luce has previously collaborated, this digital space is the most appropriate tool with which to celebrate the founder's birth and represent the innovative spirit underpinning the products, materials and production technologies that have always distinguished Martinelli Luce.

Martinelli Luce's metaverse is conceived as a grand metaphor for the company and its founder. Through spaces characterised by shafts of light and areas of shadow, ephemeral architecture, nature and magnified products, the metaverse traces the life of Elio Martinelli and the history of the company he founded.

Albert Einstein’s quote “I never think of the future. It comes soon enough,” is just one of those that greet those browsing martinelliluce.it. A new quote always welcomes those entering the digital space, all with a common theme, the future.

The first space we encounter after clicking on ‘Start’ is The Laboratory, an empty space marked by a staircase illuminated by a beam of light. Here the text introduces the start of Elio Martinelli’s adventure. Elio set up his company in a basement in the centre of Lucca, accessed by a small staircase, where some of the most exciting ideas for the products we know today were born. As we get to the stairs, the beam of light projects us towards The Academy. This atmospheric and theatrical space bears witness to Elio Martinelli's academic training.

He did not study to be a designer, but graduated in scenography in Florence. When his father died, he decided to take over the family lighting business in Lucca. He applied his studies and then-recent interior work to the design of light and lighting fixtures. In this area, the metaverse displays some of the sketches made by Elio Martinelli during his early career as a set designer. We are taken through spectacular spaces, almost metaphysical architectures in which light and shadow play a leading role. Information points scattered around narrate and illustrate Elio's formative period through some of his drawings and sketches for theatrical sets.

Next is a space that explores the birth of the Martinelli Luce brand and its logo. We learn that the very first logo was a monogram representing the letters M and P, his father's initials, Plinio Martinelli. The redesigned black and white logo still identifies the company today.

On leaving this room, with a sound accompaniment, we come to some of Martinelli Luce's earliest creations, produced in 1962 using a light bulb designed by the Finnish designer Tapio Wirkkala. After this digital installation, a light passage leads to an exterior. We are literally catapulted into a gigantic green meadow that has to be crossed to continue our journey through the company's most famous products. This section, called Nature, is a symbolic passage. The meadow becomes a metaphoric union between the former, which sees Elio Martinelli as a set designer, and the latter, which sees Elio Martinelli as a light and design entrepreneur.

The green meadow represents nature, which has always inspired Martinelli Luce products, starting with the names of some of its most famous products - Serpente (1965), Cobra (1968), Nuvole Vagabonde (1992) - nature in all its forms and laws was a source of inspiration for Elio Martinelli. The room we then enter is given over to the contemplation of magnified products on huge pedestals, which light up when approached. In this room we find Poliedro (1962), Gomito (1967), Flex (1969), Stivale (1970), Elmetto (1979) and Biconica (1987).

This brings us to the last space in the metaverse, a room dedicated to a 100-piece special edition of Cobra, produced in shiny yellow, each numbered and signed. This lamp, which perhaps best encapsulates Elio Martinelli's entire design philosophy, with its purity of form, geometry, innovation and technological experimentation, is accompanied by a family history that explains the choice of yellow for this special edition.

Next to the exit, another luminous portal informs us that Martinelli Luce's metaverse is not destined to end here. A second floor is yet to come and is already in the works. Martinelli Luce's experiment marking these 100 years since the birth of Elio Martinelli, is the first example on the national scene of an Italian design company transporting its products and vision into a digital universe to create its own metaverse.

It is an example that leaves one positively surprised, symptomatic of the inherent ability of Italian design companies to be open to change, capable of harnessing and pursuing innovation, and constantly committed to staying in step with the times.