Innovating design communication: the Minotti Pavilion

Italian furniture and design brand Minotti’s holistic approach to ‘atmospheric’ interior design has been developed as a core part of its ethos since Rodolfo Dordoni joined the Minotti family as Art Director and coordinator of collections in 1998. Dordoni formed a joint vision for product and mood – an elegant and timeless atmosphere and a total design language now known as the ‘Minotti code’. Like any language which experiences continued evolution with new cultural and technological shifts, Minotti’s communication of its atmospheric approach to its community of customers and professionals is subject to continued innovation, always adapting to new tools and formats to communicate most passionately, efficiently and cohesively.

The year of 2022 has been a year of innovation for Minotti as a brand. Salone del Mobile.Milano saw the launch of the 2022 Collection inside the Minotti Pavilion; an incarnation of the ‘Minotti code’ to be physically sensed and experienced, where furnishing pieces were contextualised within their own aspirational interior environments of artworks, objects and architecture.

Responding to this, the Minotti Pavilion has now migrated to the virtual; taking the form of a scenographic eponymous video that immerses viewers into its world set within a very carefully conceptualised, universally metropolitan location. The Minotti code is venturing beyond showrooms and design fairs, and into the metasphere, as a virtual vehicle with a wider, more global, more accessible and more efficient reach than ever before.

Seductively immersive, easily shareable and universally accessible, digital video is a format that has dramatically accelerated its reach over the past few years. It’s an ideal medium for the design industry – thanks to its multi-dimensional and sensory form, which Minotti capitalises on. Through its video, the virtual Minotti Pavilion brings interiors to life in the palms of designers' hands, on their meeting room screens, and in client presentations. Useful at many stages of the design process, both designers and customers can better visualise furniture in use, experience the scale of furniture, and view furniture alongside complementary objects and architecture.

The nearly five minute Minotti Pavilion video guides visitors through an atmospheric journey; it builds an ‘architecture of living’ for viewers to roam, explore and imagine. Then, eight additional shorter videos tell stories of specific Minotti pieces in their own unique settings. For example, the Horizonte modular seating system by Marcio Kogan / studio mk27 becomes an anchor of comfort within the generous living space of an international villa; the softly geometric island of padded upholstery fluidly incorporates modular elements such as the built-in coffee table. Meanwhile, the sculptural Twiggy seating system by Rodolfo Dordoni provides an artistically modular salon-style setting at the eclectic home of a collector, it holds its own identity whilst serving as a soft canvas amidst abstract art objects, stainless steel paneling and a green marble fireplace.

Digital communication has become central to the Minotti world; from video interviews with designers that bring the stories of products alive, to the virtual hospitality destinations that envision furniture within imaginary hotels and retreats immersed in nature. 'Digital technologies make our vision more and more concrete: we always wanted to go beyond the single product, telling the idea of ​​an architecture, an increasingly realistic atmosphere that allows professionals and customers to get closer to the philosophy and style of the brand,' says Minotti.

The virtual Minotti Pavilion seeks to narrate a new way of being a brand. Just like the atmospheric design approach itself, digital tools such as video only bring further context and depth to the Minotti world. In this case, video's ability to effortlessly traverse between reality, imagination and design shows that there are no boundaries to the ‘Minotti code’.

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