Kitchen revolution

People

March, 2018

Industrial designers, strategic consultants, dreamers: Sandro Meneghello, Marco Paolelli and their «lateral thinking».

Sandro Meneghello and Marco Paolelli are more than just product designers. They’re strategic consultants for industrial products with a wide-reaching vision, in which design is never for its own sake but is always aimed at satisfying specific needs related to the user experience, marketing and production. They clearly express this concept when they talk of Design as a Solution.

After graduating from the Politecnico di Milano, they established the firm Meneghello Paolelli Associati in Milan in 2006. They were still young at the time, but their experience abroad (respectively at the Central Saint Martins College in London and the Norwegian University of Science & Technology in Trondheim) had already - functionally and creatively - moulded the way in which they conceive work and the kind of energy they use to achieve results, working in synergy with their clients. That was how their professional adventure began - and continues to this day, more than ten years later. Since then the firm has grown. In addition to the founders, there is now a team of collaborators and an array of partners dedicated to the development of projects and communication, working with Italian and foreign companies to create added value through product design.

In what way is their approach different? To begin with, behind every project is a long, assiduous journey with client companies, from the first briefing to the final version of the product. Every company is a world of its own and must be understood in-depth - from its potential and its productive and technological capacities to its marketing needs. That said, our studio maintains its own unique approach to the projects. To begin with it favours a certain kind of emotional and lateral thinking, which leads to the unconventional development of each design project, e.g. taking aesthetic stimuli or solutions from production areas that, strictly speaking, have nothing to do with the world of design. So here is how the innovation process moves forward - on the one hand working closely with partner companies and, on the other, remaining fully open to all other sectors such as fashion, automotive or transport. However, the drive for innovation - which can be seen in the concept as much as the aesthetics - is never for its own sake. To anchor innovation to the concrete nature of the need for beauty and function - this is our mission, state Marco and Sandro.

In recognition of this commitment and the trueness of its approach, the company has earned many international awards, including ten Red Dot Design Awards (of which one was Best of the Best ), five Design Plus awards, two Good Design Awards, four ADI Design Index awards, two special mentions for the German Design Award and five mentions at the Young&Design competition. The studio’s portfolio can currently boast of collaborations with important companies such as ArtCeram, Arbi, Glass1989, Horm, Fiam, Gibus, Guzzini, Oasiq, Unopiù, Twils, Victoria+Albert. The collaboration with Nobili has been expressed in products that are very important in their technological and formal innovation. The Lamp, Ypsilon and Master sink mixers are destined to become new icons that can perfectly combine aesthetics and function, thanks to an approach in which empathy, a multidisciplinary approach and lateral thinking merge to create a completely new experience for the end user.