What Milan Design Week taught me about branding.

BY RONIKA MARANDI

This past spring, I took a leap into the unknown and spent four months in Italy studying international business. One Monday in April I decided to take a train to Milan and attend the Milan Design Week 2025!

Move aside Fashion week, the new buzz for brands is Design week. A week where the Italian city is filled with creative installations and transforms into a center where creativity, branding, and cultural influence. Brands and designers from all over the world visit to showcase their new designs, products. What I liked the most is: unlike Fashion week, DW is not only luxury clothing brands but also other industries, from car shows, to chandeliers, chairs, glass, to toilets. yes Toilets, we'll get into that a bit later on.

Lexus for example, took a different route by collaborating with Tokyo-based creative agency SIX and design studio STUDEO. They crafting a multi-room exhibit to unveil their electric "A-Un, an immersive installation exploring the future of next-generation human-machine mobility. A-Un is inspired by Lexus’ next-generation cockpit interface for electric vehicles, Black Butterfly... The installation comes to life as visitors approach, responding to their heartbeats to create a unique, immersive experience." - Lexus Europe. Each room you entered unfolded another chapter of their electric car’s story from the initial interaction with the "Black Butterfly, a massive hand-woven screen that emerges within the installation, one room highlighting live data of how much air their electric innovations had already cleaned the air. The anticipation built as you walked through, until the final reveal: the car itself, glowing in a darkened room. THIS IS HOW YOU launch a product.

Next up, Samsung presented The Gentle Room, an immersive installation created with Archiproducts, an immersive installation created with Archiproducts, built around the theme of air as invisible comfort. The space showcased Samsung’s WindFree™ technology, which diffuses air gently and evenly through thousands of micro-holes, creating a still and even airflow. I still remember stepping into Samsung’s model room. It almost felt like you walked into your friends' house with questionable income, neutral colors on the walls and futuristic furniture, the air quality was noticeably cooler, a sharp contrast from the hot bustling streets of Milan outside. There was no salesman trying to show you features of the AC unit. You walked in, felt the difference immediately, and knew. This was environmental marketing at its simplest and strongest: don’t tell me your product works, let me feel it working. Samsung did a great job highlighting how this innovation integrates into everyday life.

Next, drum roll please: the toilet exhibit

I walked into this not knowing what to expect, Geberit had transformed a functional product, their new toilet and gravity sinks into a sensory journey with its “Where Water Meets Design” installation. The multi-room exhibit celebrated the element of water, turning its movement into an immersive almost meditative experience. Very on brand for a bathroom I will say. Though details weren't the main attraction as the product specs showed up on smaller screens on the side walls every now and then, the focus was on the interactive water dynamics clearly elevated a utilitarian item into a moment of pause and reflection tapping into the consumers' sensory system almost immidetly as you stepped into the room with illuminated water displays, ambient water sound, and movement made the familiar feel elevated.

Together, MDW and walking through the city left me with so much inspiration and a new vision I’ll carry into my own career in marketing, the strongest brands don’t just tell their story, or showcase their products they create experiences and little moments in people's lives. the way we experience design is the way we experience life! Hope you enjoyed my blog and recollections of yet another impulsive trip.

✨ Highly recommend, for photos and videos of the event, check out my LinkedIn post!

Innovation

What Milan Design Week taught me about branding.

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