Impressions from Milan Design Week 2018
Narrative. Strategy. Design
Those three words are more connected than ever, and so it was almost natural to go to this years Salone and see what kind of stories companies are attempting to tell.
It was a short trip and I only saw a fraction of the spectacle that is happening in Milan right now, but here are some of the impressions that I took away.
There are two kinds of companies that are exhibiting there. The ones that know what their story is and the ones who are still figuring out what future narrative is expected of them.
In the first category, there is Mini Living for example. They have created a very engaging space that is solely aiming the facilitate a conversation about urban living. Now there is plenty of things that one could and should criticize in their approach of how they think that this conversation should be facilitated (all white futures aren’t an answer to anything, it’s all I’m saying for now), but their willingness to not steer in the product that generates all the profit and pays for the very expensive Design Week engagement, is a good sign of a company that accepted that some conversations need to happen beyond the current product status.
Another example is Pentatonic. It’s a furniture startup from Berlin. They´re buying rubbish from other companies and creating new and interesting products — mainly chairs at this point. There’s a cohesive, relatable story to it that can be extended in digital strategy (they are building a kind of Nike id for their chairs) and serves an identifiable need with the customer. I might be a bit tainted because while getting the tour in Milan I learned that they are our neighbors and the guys responsible for annoying us with the flying of drones in the afternoon.
There are, though, plenty of companies that fall into the second category. One company — and this is almost tragic — stands out: Miele.
In my head, Miele is still this very conservative, expensive German brand that has one brand value above all others: quality. You pay what you get for, and Miele has established over decades the story of the one company that will not disappoint. In a time of over-consumption, when startups are buying rubbish from other companies to build new products, this is a good brand value to have.
But all of that seems discharged for the show in Milan. I don’t know whether or not the new product is any good, but the way something is presented can and is a good measure of a company’s culture. After all, somewhere there was one and more likely many meetings in which people have discussed how to approach and executed the show in Milan. This kind of spending — I assume that cost for this exhibition in Milan has set Miele at least a Million back — doesn’t come without an appropriate process.
They have rented a gigantic space. Just the tunnel to the main exhibition hall of Miele is about six meters wide and 25m long. The central area is huge and tall. It’s dark and there is about a ten-minute “show” happening before they present the new product. It happens through visuals and quotes on the walls surrounding the visitor. A lot of it is incomprehensible and seems like a very cheap copy of Ryōji Ikeda. And this is an artist whose shows usually have a warning sign before them telling people that his work may cause epilepsy and seizures. It’s dark; it’s intense. When this is all over the main product comes down in a cube. All of this is accompanied by a male voice that thunders down onto the customer in a god-like manner. More visuals everywhere. The product is a new type of oven. They call it the Dialog oven, but the voice says dialogue. There are four of those ovens in this cubes. Four chefs emerge carrying trays. On those trays, they have each one big ice cube an lid and a piece of codfish. All of the proceedings are being still narrated by this god-voice. Apparently, the new signature dish is fish in an ice block. Most people, including me, look perplexed because didn’t know that they ever wanted to make something like this. The fish is being placed into the ice cube, the lid is placed on top, and all this goes into this new oven. Everyone has to wait an additional six minutes for the fish being prepared in the oven. While this happens, the voice continues to claim such things like “We have invented a new form of energy.” I’m not a physicist, but this seems implausible.
When the six minutes are over the fish is being taken out of the oven. The fish is hot; the ice cube isn’t melted. It’s apparently a good thing. Why one would attempt something like this or where I’d get such a big ice cube to make this dish myself at home, I do not know.
All of this is plastered with buzzwords (future, innovation, dialogue) and seems like the attempt of a conservative company to present itself as something that it is not. It’s one thing to be disappointing to a potential customer. I genuinely wonder what the people who work for Miele thinking about this. This whole thing can in no way be anything like their daily work environment is or how the company generates the majority of its money.
And Miele is, in many regards, is a good representative of how German companies are willing to chase someone else’s futures just to appear innovative. It’s not a good look, and it’s not innovation.
This is a good reminder that the kind of future a company wants to see for itself, needs to start with the sort of future its employees can believe in. Innovation begins with the people who will build valuable, relatable products that customers would want to buy and use. All of this needs to make sense financially, but right now what most German companies lack isn’t the appropriate financial starting point, it is the ability to tell a story, their own story. And a story that people would like to hear. Starting on this path is a lot harder than throwing money at design shows, but it is a lot more rewarding in the long run.
