Since that first moment, in 2001, when for the opening of the first Fuorisalone in Zona Tortona Giulio Cappellini brought to Superstudio the pioneers of the century that had just begun, young people with names like Fabio Novembre, Tom Dixon, Jasper Morrison and Marc Newson, along with many others whose talent he had spotted around the world. Among the gures who have left a mark, with their personality and their work, are Ettore Sottsass, Alessandro Mendini, Fernando and Humberto Campana, Jean Nouvel, Paola Navone, Jai-me Hayon, Massimiliano and Doriana Fuksas, Marcel Wan-ders, Karim Rashid, Marc Sadler, Italo Rota, Oki Sato alias Nendo, Arik Levy, Jasper Morrison, Matteo Thun, Alessandro Guerriero, Patricia Urquiola, Paola Lenti, Piero Lissoni, Nika Zupanc, Ineke Hans, Ilaria Marelli and many other prominent names in the history of design; in short the whole elite among contemporary designers. Now everything is changed. Demo-cratic design, the real revolution/evolution of recent years, has swept away hierarchies and opened new horizons.

The internet, e-commerce, social networks, makers, 3D-printing, the hand-made, start-ups and limited editions have given even small producers and independent designers possibi-lities of exhibition and exposure, and to them Superstudio, with SuperDesign, is also responding and offering opportuni-ties, as Giulio Cappellini has pointed out: “Superstudio was the starting-point of Tortona Design Week, the place where the rst timid but incisive presentations on the fringe of the Milan Furniture Show were made and which in the space of a few years has become a focus of all the design events held in April.
Famous names mix naturally with new talents, on a stage which is always topical and surprising.”In past years other major protagonists have offered a prophe-tic vision of where design is going.

Paola Navone: “It’s important to coltivate with coherence and costancy the company identity. I believe in the designed oriented towards the product rather than the market.”

Renzo Rosso: “The energy that Milan has during the design week is great and for sure should be part of its soul all year long.”

Tom Dixon: “I would hope that trend itself would be re-viewed, and a more honest, less frivolous design for a broa-der section of people might emerge... we can dream!”

Ilaria Marelli: “In the present situation, the only winning strategy consists in investing in research and innovation and developing medium-long term strategies based on environmental sustai-nability and on an intelligent use of the energetic resources.”

Nika Zupanc: “I think that we, as designers, really do not have to realize every single idea that we have, but we should search for new values and a noticeable cultural impact.”

Arik Ben Simhon: “I believe that too much design is dispo-sable nowadays, while good design should be bought for the long-term. It is our responsibility to create pieces that will become part of a collection and, like a piece of art, will pass from generation to generation.”

Jean Nouvel: “Milan as the Capital of Design, more than ever it must remain at the essential.”Michaela Schleypen: “Design has to be free, extraordinary, innovative, pure and sophisticated!”What more is there to say?