McFilter

Apologies to anyone eagerly anticipating a blog post about phones, but the "Mobile" in the title is the Italian for furniture. Sunday before last was the last day of the International Furniture Festival, and the only day that the general public were allowed access; so we got up early and drove the hour-and-a-half-or-so over to the Fiera Milano.

There was far too much to get round in a day, so we only had chance to look round the kitchen, design and new designers halls, but they were the ones in which we were most interested - so it wasn't too much of problem.

Given that it won't be a full review of the event, and because the variety of pieces and themes and ideas would make it difficult to pull together a structured arc of narrative, I'm going to re-purpose the "blog all dog-eared pages" review format. I picked up a business card, or catalogue leaflet for any of the exhibits that interested me, and I'll run through them all here with a sentence or two about why I picked up their details. Hopefully there'll be some links to more info about the exhibits, or maybe just to the odd photo we took. All the photos from the trip are up on Rebecca's flickr set Salone Internazionale del Mobile 2008.

Eurocucina and FTK Technology For the Kitchen Halls

No photos taken, or cards collected in the Eurocucina hall. It was a bit like wandering round a huge version of Magnet. From my notes it seems that this year's themes are bling; glossy wood in dark tones - think 1970s piano black and walnut; big lights, preferably chandeliers; cake stands; drawers hidden in drawers (so the front is one big drawer facing to cover the hidden one and give a cleaner look when closed, but more hassle when opening); and overly-elaborate door closing mechanisms.

The FTK Technology For the Kitchen tent was a little more interesting. Electrolux had some concept appliances with an energy efficient and environmentally-friendly slant, including a kitchen composter and a fridge that looked too small to hold anything useful (maybe that's why it was so energy efficient...). Their standard appliances section also featured a pretty heavy-duty shredder so you could mince up any food waste - presumably before you fed it to the kitchen compost machine.

Salone Satellite

This was by far the most interesting part of the show for me. The Salone Satellite hall contained a wealth of interesting stands from new designers. As a result it felt more like a design graduate show than a furniture festival. Most of the leaflets collected came from this one hall:

• taro&Sarah - MyCloud - magnetomorphic light system. This was like a 3-d lighting puzzle kit - the light modules tessellate together so you can reconfigure the shape of your lamp to your heart's content. The join together with magnets, which also provide the power to the lamp, making changing the lamp's shape a cinch.
• d.sign21 - hide_and_seek cool double-sided cupboard - open it one way and choose your shoes... open it the other way and you've got a guitar and PA...
• Katrin Sonnleitner. Two pieces caught my eye here: PuzzlePerser is a jigsaw rug, and Knopfleiste is a coat-rack made from an assorment of big buttons
• Gareth Neal Furniture's George 3. I loved how this looks with an ornate traditionally-styled chest of drawers hidden within a more modern exterior.
• üaut;&böaut;ler had a few good items, but in particular the Kase coffee table (well done - a site where I can actually link to the specific page! No flash that looks pretty but gets in the way of people talking about the items)
• wis design "Not everything has to be brand new. Design can arise out of recycling the past." Rebecca loved their Decades chest of drawers
• Never ending office was an interesting fabric partition-cum-seating system. Unfortunately their website hasn't been updated since last year's Salone, so I can't point you to it.
• The Vanitysss was a piece by a designer from the Catholic University of America, but I haven't been able to track down her online presence.
• qed Design cosy*rocking chair - a nice half-moon chaise longue
• Hommin Design - the Clip Trashcan and the Outlet House. Neither were grand pieces, but both were well thought-out.
• Union Desk by i do design. Could be an interesting design for co-working or maybe even pair programming...

Design Halls

By the time we'd finished poking round the Salone Satellite there wasn't much time left to see anything else. We had a quick dash round some of the Design halls, and then had to head home. The highlights of what we saw in this part of the show are:

• Missoni Home - another half-moon-ish rocking chaise longue. Sadly their website is useless so I can't tell you what it's called.
• Rexite - their Taboo bin has a handy clip in compartment to make separating recycling easier.
• I don't have any details of who makes stool-cum-table, but I like the integrated table and the idea that it could be a side table for your drink, or if you sat astride it you could rest your laptop on the table.