At the Salone del Mobile 2023, Fantin presents the range extensions of the Giulio Iacchetti and Salvatore Indriolo collections and illuminates its most historic and timeless product fifty years after its creation.
From art to fashion, monochrome has marked the entire 20th century, confirming itself over the years as one of the most appreciated formal solutions, thanks to a minimalism that is in itself synonymous with balance. Fantin makes its debut at the Salone del Mobile and returns to the Milan Design Week precisely with two displays marked by the refinement of colour nuances curated by Salvatore Indriolo, the brand’s Creative Director, in which historical and new collections coexist.
At the Salone – Hall 18, Stand E08 – the space is transformed into a stage – on stage – in which Binaria, Hug and the Frame collection, declined in its multiple elements, are articulated in a colourful play of volumes. Acting as a theatrical backdrop, with its 4-metre height, is Uno, the hook shelving system that celebrates its 50th birthday this year and presents itself for the occasion in a new luminous guise: turn on the light.
It is a tone-on-tone of yellows the presence at the FuoriSalone, undisputed protagonist of two showcases by Pianca & Partners, one of the unmissable stops in the Brera Design District. Protagonists here will be two Frame kitchens with two modules in a Melon Yellow shade, one with a satin-finish steel top, the other monochrome thanks to the new matching etched glass top, and the Uno shelf, presented once again as a set design but here in the Zinc Yellow shade and decorated with a multitude of flowers, thanks to the contribution of stylist Beppe Mangia. In this case, the iconic bookshelf also becomes the entrance portal leading to a backstage, again tone-on-tone, where the Hug collection, with its new round table H 110 cm, is combined with the new stools, flanking a Frame Kitchen also equipped with a glass top and the new Shelf hood by Falmec, both matching the base, as well as the related Frame Tall Units, which closes a complete and flexible composition.
HUG
Stools and extension of the collection Tables – 2023; Tables – 2022, design Giulio Iacchetti – international signature that continues its collaboration with Fantin.
The Hug collection, designed by Giulio Iacchetti and presented with great interest at the last Milano Design Week, is enriched with new stools and new tables, confirming Fantin’s corporate identity, based on functional products of absolute formal cleanliness.
In any type of structure, joints are a crucial element: although not very visible or sometimes hidden, they guarantee stability and solidity. Giulio Iacchetti‘s design reflection focused precisely on them, which began in 2011 on the occasion of his solo exhibition Cruciale at the Museo Diocesano in Milan and now takes shape in the Hug collection by Fantin, a company specialising in metal furniture and accessories. The name of the collection – the word hug in English – derives precisely from the way Iacchetti has resolved the joints between the legs in round tubing, slightly inclined, and the horizontal frame of the same section. A literal embrace, with the legs thus finding themselves grafted into the perimeter curves of the horizontal frame, in a junction that fully fulfils its structural role, giving the table and the new stools a strong aesthetic connotation.
According to Giulio Iacchetti, “the embrace is a symbolic value, as well as a concrete gesture that all people are familiar with. An embrace communicates much more than a thousand words, because it resolves tensions, it brings us closer because it makes us feel equal, part of the same thing. Even a pipe can demonstrate and metaphorically recountthe embrace,and it just so happensthat the embrace istransformed into a static meaning: two people embraced, just as two pipes embraced, can withstand much more thrust, they become more resistant .We have not designed an object, but a system, a new alphabet with which we can write so many things, stories that we cannot even imagine today.”
This year the collection expands with the new stools, with a round seat with a diameter of 35 cm and available in three heights – 42, 65 and 75 cm – and the new round tables with four legs, including one whose dimensions, ø 80 cm by 110 cm in height, are particularly suited to the Ho.Re.Ca context, confirming the great versatility of Fantin solutions, suitable for both residential and contract use. In keeping with a well-established tradition, all the elements in the Hug collection are available in 35 colours, obtained using non-toxic powder paints.
FRAME
Frame Kitchen with new glass top – 2023; Kitchens – Workbench – Tall unit – Sideboard – Cupboard – Bookcase system – Bed – Stools (2018-2022), design Salvatore Indriolo, Creative Director of Fantin
The Frame Kitchen is enriched this year with the refined top in matching etched glass and the suction shelf by Falmec. All customisable in 35 exclusive finishes.
The famous workstation kitchen of the Frame collection, a multi-year programme designed by Salvatore Indriolo, launched in 2018 and since then expanded thanks to multiple typological, chromatic and detail integrations, presents itself in this 2023 in a new guise, with a completely tone-on-tone aesthetic, thanks to the new etched glass top in matching colour . An elegant and refined finish that provides a satin-finished surface that is soft to the touch, easy to clean and resistant. Available for both workstation models (two modules L 128 cm and three modules L 188 cm), the new glass top thus achieves the monochrome that was already inherent in the very idea of the designer, as Salvatore Indriolo confirms:
“Since the beginning of my collaboration with Fantin ten years ago, I have applied monochrome to the aesthetic design of all the collections. Over the years, the broad Fantin palette has therefore become increasingly identifiable and decisive in making each product transversal and suitable for every context. In 2018, the Frame Kitchen with a steel top was presented as an exception to this rule, because it was functional and chromatically neutral, and therefore ideal for any colour variation of the base units. At the time, it was premature to apply monochrome, as a second material with such a wide range – 35 finishes – would have been imprudent. Today, after five years and thanks to the great commercial success, there has been a desire to reunite Frame Kitchen with one of the aesthetic cornerstones of all Fantin collections, thanks to the monochrome dialogue between metal and glass. A new offer, which complements the consolidated offer with steel tops”.
The world of Fantin kitchens is also enriched by thenew Shelfhood by Falmec, also available in the brand’s 35 shades, thus completing the offer of accessories and household appliances signed by prestigious brands in the sector such as Barazza, AEG and Electrolux. The furnishings in the Frame collection stand out for their solid square tube frames, always in view, as if to pay homage to the frame as such and the same metal that composes it, representing thesoul of Fantin, a leading company in the processing of this material for over 50 years. Fantin has traced a strong evolution in recent years thanks to the collaboration with Salvatore Indriolo, Art Director of the brand and designer of the Frame programme, who designed the collection by identifying three simple rules:
- all frames, always made of square tubing, make it possible to design orthogonal structures that give the possibilitỳ of creating any product: from the table to the sideboard, from the kitchen to the mirrors;
- the vertical elements (doors, drawers, sides and backs) are open and flush with the frame;
- the horizontal elements (table tops and kitchen tops) rest on top of the frame, leaving the latter always in view.
All this without forgetting the sustainability that Fantin products guarantee from all points of view: respect for the environment is of primary importance and is achieved thanks to the use of 100% recyclable metal, and cutting-edge production technologies such as the painting plant, which uses only non-toxic paints free of heavy metals and allows a lower consumption of powder paint thanks to an innovative internal recycling system.
UNO 50°
metal hook shelving – 1973-2023, design Dorino Fantin, founder of Fantin
Created in 1973 by Dorino and Ferruccio Fantin, co-founders of the company of the same name in 1968, the historic Fantin shelving system is illuminated for its anniversary.
From the very beginning, the Uno system immediately proved to be the ideal choice because it is flexible, solid and minimalist. Originally conceived as an industrial shelving system for archives and warehouses, over the years it has been used in a wide range of environments, even entering the home, office, retail and prestigious exhibition spaces. Accomplices to its success are its easy disassembly and re-purposing into different configurations without the use of screws or fastening bolts, the introduction over the years of various accessories (doors, hangers, curtain racks, glass holders, sloping shelves…) and the wide palette of 35 highly resistant embossed finishes.
As Dorino Fantin recalls, ‘It’s been 50 years since the Uno shelf was born, and we haven’t stoppedsince. I believed in this project from the very beginning, and so I was certain of the success of this shelf, even though at the time I certainly could not have imagined that it would end up where it actually did, entering homes or showrooms, thanks to its formal cleanliness and the careful workmanship that has always distinguished us”.
On the occasion of its 50th anniversary, the Uno system has been renewed by introducing integrated lighting under the shelves, thanks to LED bars that can be freely hooked under the shelves by means of magnets, which allow each composition to be enhanced and thus exalt the objects and works of art it houses. When the light is switched off, the only element that reveals the lighting is the electric wire, deliberately left free and in view, so as to declare the flexibility of an industrial system that is always modern and perfect for contemporary environments. Each element of the Uno system is characterised by a linear design, including the shelves, which are designed to leave no gap between them, guaranteeing continuous levels between the various spans. Its extensive modularity (5 heights for 16 variants of shelves) is such that it allows for potentially infinite compositions, thanks to the possibility of permanently connecting several units of various sizes. With Fuorisalone 2023, Fantin recounts all its design potential and celebrates a story that began more than half a century ago and continues to evolve and grow with passion and consistency, making itself recognised all over the world.
FANTIN
Since 1968, Fantin has been passionately creating metal furniture and solutions, recognised by the market for an essential value: quality, understood as a synthesis of beauty, solidity and eco-sustainability. All Fantin furniture, with painstaking attention to technical and aesthetic details, is suitable for the most diverse contexts: from the home to the office, to the community and industry. This transversality, due to the possibility of customising the single product as the most complex request, is the key that has allowed us to obtain prestigious partnerships all over the world, adding to the ingenuity of the project the sartorial quality of the offer. fantin.com
SALVATORE INDRIOLO – INDUSTRIAL DESIGNER – FANTIN CREATIVE DIRECTOR
Salvatore Indriolo holds a degree in Industrial Design from the IUAV in Venice. He works in design and product development, as well as in consulting and art direction. He works for prestigious companies, including: Bosa Ceramiche, Capodopera, Falper, Dorsal, Horm, Manfrotto Group, Minotti Cucine, Metalco, Zanotta. He has been Creative Director of Fantin since 2013. indriolo.it
GIULIO IACCHETTI – INDUSTRIAL DESIGNER
Giulio Iacchetti, industrial designer since 1992, designs for several brands. His distinguishing features include the research and definition of new object typologies such as the Moscardino, a multi-purpose biodegradable cutlery, designed with Matteo Ragni for Pandora Design and awarded the Compasso d’Oro in 2001. In 2009, he was awarded the Premio dei Premi for innovation by the President of the Italian Republic for the Eureka Coop project, with which he brought design into the large-scale retail trade. In May 2009, the Milan Triennale hosted a solo exhibition of his work entitled ‘Giulio Iacchetti. Disobedient Objects’. He has continued his personal research into new design themes such as the cross, which led to the exhibition ‘Cruciale’, held at the Museo Diocesano in Milan, the Basilica of Santo Stefano Rotondo in Rome and the Castello di Lombardia in Enna. In 2014 he won his second Compasso d’Oro award for the Sfera series of manhole covers, designed with Matteo Ragni for Montini. giulioiacchetti.com
