This year, in addition to our annual coverage of Milan’s Design Week, we’ve teamed up with Heineken to hold a series of Designer Master Classes on 9, 10 and 11 April 2013 at The Heineken Magazzini in Milan’s Zona Tortona. In order to give our readers access to some of the design world’s most influential figures, we’re inviting a select few students and lesser-known designers attending the fairs to present their work for critique by one of three design world luminaries—Yves Béhar of fuseproject, Alex Mustonen of Snarkitecture and Luca Nichetto of Nichetto & Partners—and a local professor from one of Milan’s acclaimed design schools. Each day four designers will have the opportunity to present their work.
Designers can apply for a chance to present their work by visiting our dedicated Designer Master Classes page. Please submit new work not currently in your portfolio by 1 April 2013. Cool Hunting editors will select the lucky designers. Interested in attending the sessions? Visit the page to RSVP or to get more information on the series.
Yves Béhar | fuseproject
Yves Béhar is the founder of fuseproject, the San Francisco-based design agency responsible for innovations spanning the world’s first $100 “XO” laptop for the One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) organization, a partnership with Jawbone and a recycling project with Coca Cola. Born in Switzerland, Béhar studied industrial design before landing at the forefront of tech development in California 15 years ago. Under his philosophy of “Design for Good” Béhar’s work has garnered more than 150 awards and lives in the permanent collections of Musée Nationale d’Art Moderne/Centre Pompidou, MoMA, Munich Museum of Applied Arts and the Chicago Art Institute.
Alex Mustonen | Snarkitecture
After graduating from the Irwin S. Chanin School of Architecture at The Cooper Union, Alex Mustonen went on to found Intramural, a design consultancy firm offering conceptual and developmental services to artists and designers across many mediums. Mustonen is best known for Snarkitecture, a collaborative design practice operating within the blurred realm of art and architecture which he founded along with artist and designer Daniel Arsham. The innovative practice mainly works within the confines of existing structures to investigate and manipulate structure, material and imagination.
Luca Nichetto | Nichetto & Partners
An industrial designer by trade, Milan-based Luca Nichetto began his career in the late 1990s designing for Murano glass. In 2006 Nichetto left to launch Nichetto & Partners, which he expanded to Stockholm in 2011 and is currently acting head. With a long list of professional awards, accolades and exhibitions under his belt, Nichetto has risen to the top levels of industrial design in recent years, specializing in interiors.