Italian Design Day 2024: all about the eighth edition

Entitled “Manufacturing Value - Inclusiveness, Innovation and Sustainability” the eighth edition of Giornata del Design Italiano nel Mondo – Italian Design Day (IDD) is scheduled for Thursday 14 March in more than 100 countries around the world. 

The annual exhibition that celebrates and promotes design and furniture worldwide is promoted and organized by  the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation and the Ministry of Culture – Directorate General for Contemporary Creativity, in collaboration with the Compasso d’Oro Foundation, the Association for Industrial Design, the Triennale di Milano, the Salone del Mobile.Milano, FederlegnoArredo and the ITA – Italian Trade Agency. 

Since its foundation, the initiative has involved more than 580 designers, architects, entrepreneurs and journalists for a total of about 1,370 events. The result is a program that has promoted the culture of the project in the round, focusing on the innovative aspects of this industry and Italian know-how, and engaging with the creative, academic and business community in the host countries. 

After the 2023 edition with a focus on “The Quality that Illuminates”, this year the exhibition centers on the theme of the production process with the stress on Italian leadership in manufacturing and production, with an eye to the contemporary challenges, combining tradition and craftsmanship, technology and environmental sustainability. 

Salone del Mobile.Milano will participate in Italian Design Day 2024 with a series of cultural events bearing witness to the excellence of Italian design worldwide. Among much else, they will involve participation by Ambassadors of Italian Design such as Marva Griffin Wilshire, founder and curator of the SaloneSatellite, which this year is celebrating its 25th anniversary, and Maria Porro, President of the Salone del Mobile.Milano, who after the opening in Rome on 14 March and the stop already made in New Delhi, will be protagonists respectively in Pretoria, Johannesburg and Cape Town in South Africa, Seoul in South Korea (20-21 March), and Osaka (18 March) in Japan. 

On the occasion of Italian Design Day 2024, the Consulate General of Italy in Osaka is hosting an event entitled “ltalian Design Legacy: From Salone del Mobile.Milano Towards EXPO 2025 OSAKA”, with as its central theme the value and design skills of creatives from both countries.  

In South Korea, the program will be spread over two days. On 20 March, at the Hyundai Design Library, the meeting “VIII Italian Design Days: Korea and Italy as Partners on Design Innovation and Sustainability” will be held in the presence of the Ambassador of Italy to Korea, H.E. Emilia Gatto, and the Commissioner for Foreign Trade in Korea, Ferdinando Gueli. 

The appointment on the second day is intended for design students, young professionals, teachers and journalists. Entitled “VIII Italian Design Days: Young Talents”, it will be held in the headquarters of High Street Italia – the showroom of “Made in Italy” in Seoul. Here, the President of the Salone del Mobile.Milano will address topics such as Big Data, the Neurosciences and Artificial Intelligence but also the importance of training young talents.  

Marva Griffin Wilshire, curator and founder of the SaloneSatellite, which this year is celebrating 25 years of its activity, is invited to participate at the Javett Art Center in Pretoria in the meeting organized by the Italian Embassy in Pretoria, the Italian Cultural Institute in Pretoria, the Consulate General of Italy Johannesburg - South Africa in collaboration with Italian Trade Agency-Johannesburg. It will then be the turn of Johannesburg and Cape Town.  

Finally, the studio Lombardini22 will also become an ambassador of Italian design in Saudi Arabia, in Jeddah and Riyadh. It is a leading group on the Italian architecture and engineering scene, which for two years has been collaborating on the evolution and innovation of the exhibition routes and layouts of the biennial events of the Salone del Mobile.Milano to create an increasingly contemporary, efficient and rewarding business platform.