From the hand of the young and multi award-winning Italian illustrator come six posters celebrating the anniversary of the trade fair and narrating its relationship with the city, the people and how customs have evolved from 1961 to today

Following in the footsteps of illustrious predecessors such as Massimo Vignelli, Pierluigi Cerri, Guido Scarabottolo and Lorenzo Marini, Emiliano Ponzi, one of Italy’s most esteemed and award-winning illustrators at international level today, has been entrusted with the communication campaign image for the sixtieth edition of the Salone del Mobile.Milano. The artist, famous for his essential, precise style and his quasi-metaphysical atmospheres, has been commissioned to create six posters – one for each decade in the fair’s history – celebrating its heritage and illustrating its deep ties to the city and to the evolution of design, lifestyles, and demands of the social agenda. The artist’s signature is unmistakable and the result is a narration in different episodes that unpicks the reasons why the Salone has always been so much more than just a trade fair, becoming a mouthpiece for the values and skills that have made Milan the undisputed global capital of design.

He decided to steer clear of the information and didactic aspect from the outset, focusing on the concept of celebrating and transmitting a reflection on the Salone by harnessing an emotive approach. He achieved this by delving into the rituals and customs that have shaped the identities of Italy and Milan from 1961 to the present day, condensing the emotion and suspense generated by the unexpected into each illustration.

The first poster depicts a Sixties Milan interior, the second portrays the working-class city of the Seventies; the third focuses on Eighties swinging Milan (Milano da bere), the city of fashion and design; he took his inspiration for the Nineties from La Scala Theatre and its relationship with the Salone, while for the first decade of 2000, he focused on the new Fiera Milan spaces in Rho, designed by Massimiliano Fuksas and inaugurated in 2005. The final poster reflects on the past and ushers in the future, focusing on the concept of sustainability, now one of the trade fair priorities.

Emiliano’s work has therefore involved great synthesis, identifying the most representative elements of the city and its relationship with the Salone, while maintaining a crosscutting approach and vision, best suited also to expressing the cross-pollinations bound up in this relationship.

Salone del Mobile Milano