We spoke to 3 leading Victoria design studios about their experience exhibiting at Milan Design Week
Milan Design Week is considered the benchmark event for the global furnishing and design sector. Each year, the city of Milan welcomes designers, architects, agents, buyers, media and the public to its trade fair, exhibitions, extended pop-up venues, workshops and installations throughout the city.
This year Milan Design Week was held from 15 to 21 April and featured 1,950 exhibitors from 35 different countries plus an extensive cultural programme. It saw a record turnout of over 370,000 attendees, cementing Milan Design Week’s pivotal role in the internationalisation and commercialisation of the design industry, and reinforcing the value of relationships and networks formed there.
Victorian designers exhibiting to a global audience
Victorian designers have been participating in Milan for many years and have garnered a reputation, alongside other Australians, for creating world-class furniture and fixtures that are lauded for their ingenuity, meticulous craftsmanship, quality and skilful use of materials.
We spoke with 3 of Victoria’s most celebrated and respected lighting designers – Christopher Boots, Michael Murray (Rakumba) and Volker Haug – who all exhibited at Milan Design Week this year as part of FuoriSalone – exhibitions held across the city (rather than the Salone del Mobile) – and previously – to gain a firsthand perspective of the event and better understand what it takes to make it on such a high stakes, global platform.
Individually, Christopher Boots, Rakumba and Volker Haug Studio are all leaders in their chosen craft. Collectively, they represent the talent, diversity and breadth of reach of Victoria’s luxury lighting brands. Their combined success brings innovation and beautiful customised and small-batch manufacturing to the world while elevating Victoria’s reputation as an incubator of exceptional design.
Why does Milan matter?
Milan is the epicentre of world-class design and is considered the pinnacle of trade fairs. While it was originally conceived as a platform to promote Italian craftsmanship, it has evolved into a global showcase of the best of established and up-and-coming brands. Most importantly, it provides a level playing field that allows designers from all backgrounds and origins to reach a critical audience of media and decision makers.
Design, and more specifically lighting design, is such a visual industry, so it is vital for people to be able to see and touch the products, form an emotional relationship with them and envisage them in their own spaces. That cannot be achieved online or via photography. The sheer size and scope of the audience in Milan and being able to form personal connections with potential buyers are the key reasons why exhibiting there is the stepping stone to international success.
For Christopher Boots, Milan is ‘cultural oxygen,’ for Volker Haug, ‘it is the gathering of thoughts, ideas and visual expressions that is second to none’ and for Michael Murray it provides ‘the opportunity to actively engage with the best in the global design industry.’
Milan for first-timers
Christopher Boots, Rakumba and Volker Haug Studio have all exhibited in Milan multiple times and in various capacities, but it isn’t as simple as participating in an Australian trade show, paying the fee and showing up.
The challenge of exhibiting in Milan for them is quite extensive. The tyranny of distance means that planning has to be undertaken up to a year in advance to secure the right exhibition space, and often involves multiple reconnaissance trips and/or employing an agent to work on their behalf on the ground.
For their first Milan showing, each of the 3 companies had a slightly different approach – from attending as a visitor to better understand the lay of the land to being part of a larger Australian collective or choosing to partner with a like-minded, complementary brand. The designers all agreed that the best way to embark on a Milan experience is to share the load.
‘A good way to start might be a group exhibition, or a collaboration with another brand. Make sure it’s strategic and that your brand will feature,’ commented Rakumba’s Michael Murray.
‘When you do decide to go ahead, be ready to really work it – social media, personal outreach, events. Do the work to bring your audience in – it will pay off,’ he added.
According to Volker Haug, it takes a while to fully grasp how everything works, so starting off exhibiting as part of a group was a huge advantage and something he would definitely recommend to other designers considering exhibiting in Milan.
‘It took a load off us in terms of organising and media, but it was also a learning experience and really helped us to evolve to our solo shows. Organic growth is the best approach,’ he said.
‘Being so far away in Australia, Milan is all about scale and geography and therein lies the greatest opportunities – so that‘s why you go. It’s a proving ground for your designs and a chance to dip your toe in a bigger pond,’ remarked Christopher Boots.
Choosing the right exhibition space is key. While some designers prefer to remain in the same location so that people know where to find them (Rakumba and Volker Haug), others like Christopher Boots, enjoy the freedom of being able to move around and reinvent their surroundings at each Salone to continually innovate and surprise their audience.
Despite high financial costs, logistical challenges and the massive effort involved, presenting as part of Milan Design Week is the ultimate way to achieve global reach that’s impossible to attain through local Australian trade shows or smaller design fairs.
The rewards far outweigh the challenges
All 3 designers agreed that the benefits of Milan Design Week are enormous. It is the opportunity to have thousands of buyers, agents, dealers and distributors walk through your showroom – something that could never happen at home. The media coverage – both traditional and social – is likewise at a massive scale that can’t be compared to anywhere else.
For each of the 3 designers, exports make up a high percentage of their total sales – sometimes as high as 60%. Their ongoing presence in Milan is the main instigator of international enquiries, generating substantial interest and generating orders.
And perhaps more significant, is the relationships and networks formed and solidified in Milan. Whether that is the formation of new partnerships, catching up with colleagues or meeting future collaborators, doing so in person reinforces existing connections, establishes conversations and opens up pathways towards new ones.
‘Getting positive feedback on the spot from architects, interior designers and specifiers is great. Instant feedback doesn’t happen often in our industry. Normally a new collection takes a while to gain traction. Enquiries can often have lead times of up to 2 years to translate, but after exhibiting in Milan, we’ll start to get orders within a few weeks,’ mentioned Volker Haug.
Ultimately, Milan is about raising a brand’s profile and getting greater exposure, something that each of the Victorian design studios has been able to experience and achieve through their active participation – either as part of group or joint exhibition or as a solo showing.
Personal design philosophies and values
Rakumba’s mantra is ‘Making Beauty.’ It is committed to creating enduring, iconic designs that leave a lasting legacy. Each piece is crafted with care, reflecting the dedication of its people – taking from the past and adding to it to create iconic pieces that will stand the test of time. The studio collaborates with designers worldwide, bringing together a variety of perspectives to create sophisticated, deeply considered and rigorously authentic designs. Rakumba takes its role as a curator of design very seriously, influenced by international design but with a distinctive Australian sensibility.
Volker Haug strives to push design further and explore new techniques, inspired by the colourful diversity of backgrounds, ages and origins of its team members. Its designs are refined and resolved with a playfulness that draws people to them. Because every order is made specifically for the client’s needs and everything is handmade in its workshop, finishes stand out. Its designers like to explore materiality and manufacturing processes to open up new design opportunities. Ultimately its designs are simple, elegant, function and importantly, meet the brief.
‘Excellence’ is the word that Christopher Boots uses to describe his team’s design philosophy. Curious about materials, the studio works directly with them to shape and form sculptural lighting pieces, using craftsmanship to elevate and transform materials to highlight their natural beauty. A personal fascination with the mythology of human stories and archetypal narratives is expressed through objects, spaces and materials. Its design processes explore the relationships between nature, architecture, symbology, geometry and geology, offering contemporary interpretations of structure, symmetry and pattern.
Elevating Victoria’s design reputation on the world’s biggest stage
Victorian lighting designers certainly punch above their weight when it comes to the way their designs are embraced in Milan.
The quality of their work is acknowledged as world-class. Even though it‘s more difficult for them to exhibit in Milan compared to Europeans, that doesn’t translate to what people experience during Milan Design Week. Victorian designs sit comfortably and rightfully on that global stage alongside well-known, established design brands. The international audience is vocal when expressing how it feels about the quality and craftsmanship of Victorian designers and how they fit in perfectly in Milan.
‘The fact that a local Victorian brand presents professionally at a global level really legitimises the way our work is perceived and its value on an international stage,’ said Michael Murray.
‘Ours is an Australian brand that has a European feel, but it’s different. And that difference comes in no short part from being Australian. Melbourne in particular is an international DNA ‘melting pot’ and that is reflected in our work,’ he added.
For Volker Haug, that distinction is defined by the freedom that Victorian designers have to create without constraints.
‘European design is established, it’s usually the same designers, whereas we are relatively new and intriguing,’ mentioned Volker.
‘In Victoria we also have the capability – we’ve never had to say no to a project. With an abundance of local talent and suppliers, plus the fact that the majority of our components are manufactured here, gives us greater control over the entire design process,’ he added,
Christopher Boots sees Victoria as the ideal launching pad with endless possibilities to be innovative, express creativity, branch out and establish a design business – something that is often harder elsewhere in the world.
‘Because we are geographically isolated, we don’t have a lot of historical baggage and can think differently. And while people in Milan may think our work looks a bit European, what they’re really acknowledging is that our techniques and the way we express ourselves has a level of sophistication and refinement,’ he commented.
Next year, Milan Design Week will take place from 7 to 13 April and Victorian designers will continue to represent our creative industries and communities at the world’s most prestigious design event.
For more information, please visit the design studios’ respective websites:
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