The award-winning Italian illustrator has created six posters celebrating the anniversary of the trade fair
After illustrious predecessors such as Massimo Vignelli, Pierluigi Cerri, Guido Scarabottolo, Lorenzo Marini, now it is the turn of Emiliano Ponzi. One of the most internationally acclaimed and awarded Italian illustrators has created the communication campaign image for the sixtieth edition of the Salone del Mobile.Milano, to be held in 2022.
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The artist, famous for his spare, precise style and for his quasi-metaphysical atmospheres, has been commissioned to create six posters – one for each decade in the history of the trade fair. The posters had to illustrate the Salone’s connection with the city and the evolution of design. Thanks to the artist’s unmistakable style, the result is a contemporary tale showing the reasons why the Salone has always been much more than just a trade fair, making Milan the undisputed global capital of design. Emiliano Ponzi has chosen to celebrate and convey a reflection on the Salone through an emotional approach. Exploring the rituals and customs that have defined the identity of Italy and Milan from 1961 to the present day, the result is evocative illustrations that summarize eras in a few strokes.
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The six posters celebrating the 60 years of the Salone del Mobile.Milano
In particular, the first poster depicts a Sixties Milan interior, the second portrays the working-class city of the Seventies; the third focuses on the swinging Milan of the Eighties (Milano da bere), the city of fashion and design; for the Nineties he took inspiration from La Scala Theatre and its relationship with the Salone; for the first decade of 2000, he focused on the new Fiera Milan spaces in Rho, designed by Massimiliano Fuksas. The final poster reflects on the present and ushers in the future, focusing on the concept of sustainability, now one of the trade fair’s priorities.
Emiliano Ponzi’s work has identified the most representative elements of the city and its relationship with the Salone, while maintaining a cross-cutting approach and vision, best suited also to expressing the cross-pollinations bound up in this relationship.
Breaking with the traditional communication style of the Salone del Mobile, augmented reality will usher in a new level of relationship and interaction between illustration and audience. The partnership with Alkanoids, a Milan-based creative studio specializing in 2D/3D animation and filmmaking, has added a new digital component to the images. Scanning the QR code on each of the posters will bring the illustrations to life, ceasing to be static and flat. In each picture, one or more elements will come alive to move the viewer even more.
