DESIGN WEEK - Key Persons
Job Titles:
- Executive Director of Materially
Anna Pellizzari is Executive Director of Materially, a material innovation consulting firm, and Italian partner of Material ConneXion. She has over 25 years of experience in the study of materials, with a particular focus on sustainability issues. She gained experience through short courses at Domus Academy in Milan, Central St Martins in London, FIT - Fashion Institute of Technology in New York, and Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership. Moreover, has collaborated with many companies from different industries. Finally, she also has given lectures and conferences at Politecnico di Milano, Naba, Domus Academy, Elisava Design School, SADI Samsung Art & Design Institute, IED, La Sapienza, ALTIS, 24Ore Business School.
Job Titles:
- Designer from Milan
- Designer of the Year at Ambiente 2024
Elena Salmistraro, a designer from Milan, is the Designer of the Year at Ambiente 2024.
Product designer and artist born and based in Italy, Elena Salmistraro has been permanently on the list of the 100 most important design personalities of AD Italy, Germany, and France, and Marie Claire Maison for years.
In 2022, she won the Frame Design Award as "Best Designer," and in 2023, Forbes magazine included Elena Salmistraro in its list of 100 successful Italian women.
Elena Salmistraro (photo from Elena Salmistraro website)
After the Brera Academy of Fine Arts, Elena Salmistraro graduated from the Milan Polytechnic in Fashion Design in 2003 and Industrial Design in 2008. In 2009, she founded her professional studio, together with architect Angelo Stoli. The studio focuses on architecture, design, fashion, illustration, and all the visual arts.
Elena Salmistraro has already worked with many big-name international brands, including Disney, Steinway, Apple, Vitra, Nike, Timberland, Ikea, Huawei, Microsoft, Moooi, Scarlet Splendour, Petit Bateau, Moooi Carpets, Tai Ping, La Manufacture Paris, Leblon Delienne, and Houtique. Among the Italian companies, we can mention Alessi, Cappellini, Florim, Cedit, Natuzzi, Bosa, De Castelli, Cc-Tapis, Marella, Lavazza, Driade, Technogym, Replay, Ceramica Flaminia, Cinelli, Alcantara, to name a few. In addition, the designer collaborates with prestigious art and design galleries such as Rossana Orlandi, Antonio Colombo Gallery, Duson Gallery in Seoul, Dilmos, Camp Design Gallery, InterArt Channel, SecondoMe, My Own Gallery, Punta Conterie, and Subalterno1.
To celebrate her nomination as Designer of the Year 2024 at Ambiente, Elena Salmistraro designed The Lounge. We all know these public spaces in hotels or airports: hybrid but fluid meeting spaces, places of transition. When traveling, lounges are places to stop for a short time. You read or work, eat, drink, and spend time in a pleasant environment designed beyond functionality. In short, lounges are curated, multifunctional living spaces, and they will become even more important in the future in our dynamic society with hybrid lifestyles and spaces.
Job Titles:
- Artist and Designer
- Designer of the Year 2025
After Mathieu Lehanneur, Designer of the Year 2024, the Designer of the Year at Maison & Objet 2025 is British designer Faye Toogood. Her Roly-Poly armchair, featuring a soft, embracing shape, was a big hit in 2014, and is the product that gave her great fame as a designer. But her activity is all-around creative, spanning various fields. She explains, "I was born in the UK to a very English family, and we lived in the countryside. My mother was a florist and my father loved ornithology. We didn't have television, so I read, drew, and we got up early to watch birds. Nature was our playground, I would collect all kinds of things and then spend time arranging them. This still influences my work in the way I use materials. My color palette is inspired by those landscapes."
Design, fashion, sculpture, drawing, interior decoration: these are all different ways Faye Toogood expresses her creativity. After studying art, the designer began working for World of Interiors magazine as a stylist, and then as decoration editor. Since then, she has retained the ability to create sets with simple, inexpensive materials. "It's easy to work with gold and marble, but it's more interesting to create something beautiful from a can," she adds.
Faye Toogood has also designed several limited editions, and works with the Friedman Benda Gallery, in New York. The limited edition designs are generally criticized, as expensive and nonfunctional. Instead, the British designer explains that designing pieces on the borderline between art and design allows her to express her art. Arguably, without research free of constraints, Roly-Poly would never have been born.
Faye Toogood will be presenting "Womanifesto", her installation inspired by this year's theme. In a surreal setting, she invites us into her own mind to dissect her creative process. An arty, all- encompassing journey into one woman's brilliant take on today's design.
Job Titles:
- Designer of the Year at Maison & Objet 2024