Croatian innovation wows in Italy.
”It was interesting to see the level of cooperation and the follow-up of the market trends by the educational institutions themselves, which would very nice to see in our country,” stated Grozdanović.
The winning teams of the creative camp, Modulos Dest and Tilty, have just returned from Milan’s Design Week, where Croatian innovation impressed some of the very best in the industry.
As Poslovni Dnevnik/Ana Marija Filipovic Grcic writes on the 28th of April, 2018, the creative camp was launched with the aim of linking companies from the traditional wood and cultural-creative sector to jointly develop new project ideas, or to enhance existing products, and the solutions which came out of that were presented at one of the most important European fairs when it comes to product design. Modulos Desk is widely known to the public and is renowned and respected for their innovative work table, and upon their return from Milan, they stated that they have acquired new acquaintances and will connect with people with whom they will surely continue to cooperate in the future.
“Despite the fact that owing to the exceptionally slim schedule, as well as the amount of events in Milan, we didn’t have that much time to do what Design Week offers, what we can absolutely say is that this is the event that represents all of the latest in the design world, as well as announcements about future trends. It’s obvious that the Italian design scene is extremely developed, which is generally known anyway. What is certainly interesting to see is the level of cooperation and market trends monitored by the educational institutions themselves, such as the Politecnico di Milano, which, in its programs, is following the demands of the market and thus supporting the entire industry. This is something that we’d very much like to see in Croatia, and it’s certainly the foundation of promoting a culture of design in society itself, which is a must in Croatia,” stated Modulos founder Matej Grozdanović.
Along with him, communication strategist Srđan Laterza, in charge of market expansion and the strengthening of the interior, and Katarina Galić from public relations, worked on product development. They went to Milan, continued Grozdanović, officially announcing the introduction of a new line of Modulos Aeon coated with Fenix’s modern material, based on nanotechnology, as well as a new website, their desire was also to hear feedback from the audience. They stated that after the presentation, they received excellent reactions and a lot of interest. Among those to praise them were professors from the renowned Milan Polytechnic of Milan and representatives of Italian industry associations, with whom they talked about potential future co-operation.
“Modulos Aeon was created in response to the wishes of our potential customers who wanted a different look for their table, as well as numerous interesting features that modern materials can offer. That’s why we decided to offer ultramodern material, interesting visual properties, as well as physical features such as wear resistance. Given that we’ve conceptualised the product as upgradable, and as we’ve decided to never disable our existing customers from using our new products, the Aeon and Heritage lines are fully compatible, meaning that these materials can be combined together,” added Grozdanović.
Another innovative product, Tilty, which is made by Marko Filo of the Cakovec-based company Filo Logic and Ana Armano Linta of the Armanto Linta company, who met during the Co-Create project and designed with a children’s product at the initial workshop – a Tilty table labyrinth.
“Ana and I clicked very well, so we have great expectations about future cooperation. We work together really well, it’s as if we’ve always known each other, and we’ve further confirmed that by going to Milan for Design Week. We’d like to continue working beyond the current project on developing similar stuff for kids. We’ve both got a few ideas waiting for a real opportunity for development up our sleeves. With the fact that there are currently several application projects for the subsidising of the development of new products by the European Union and the Ministry of Agriculture, we hope to achieve at least another one of those in the next year,” Filo told Poslovni Dnevnik.
Poslovni Dnevnik also learned that they could count on the development of products to help Mark’s father, who has been dealing with wood and wood products for over thirty years and has the necessary machinery and technical knowledge for the target market for the EU. For children’s furniture, they say, there is great interest and market potential, the only thing necessary is to offer a quality-molded, innovative and functional product. At Milan’s fair, they managed to obtain very many quality contacts from around the world, and they plan to use this base of potential distributors for the placement of their products.
“The audiences’ reactions to projects from Croatia have been excellent so far, we’ve got the experience of presenting two quality projects that the audience has reacted to with enthusiasm, Tilty is for example, different from other products because of its multifunctionality. It’s a simple toy which promotes the development of various skills when it comes to kids,” the interlocutor added.
