On February 22, Product Placement 2.1: Explorations in Italian Tile Design took place in front of a standing room only audience at Nemo Tile Company in Manhattan. In a slight variation on the usual format, Julie Taraska and I took over as presenters, and highlighted four trends in tile design, with a featured tile for each trend. The first trend was “Texture”, with a product highlight on Patricia Urquiola’s Dechirer for Mutina. Texture was followed by “Size Matters”, which encompassed the increased availability of tiles in massive and micro sizes, as well as ever-decreasing thickness. The highlight in this category was the colorful micro-tile Anthologia, designed by Davide Pizzigoni for Appiani. Tiles that look like snakeskin, cork, horn, linen, sisal and wood illustrated the trend of “Material Trompe L’Oeil”, with the featured tile being Emilio Mussini’s Bioessenze for LEA. The last trend was “Shades of Green”, referring to increased sustainability in tile design, and the highlighted design was Area’s photovoltaic tile Tegolasolare (the design team consisted of experts in solar energy, ceramics, and engineering, but they credit the 19th-century Italian architect Corinto Corintini with the shape of the tile).

Corinto Corintini's Castle of Acquabella in Vallombrosa - the inspiration for Tegolasolare.

Area's Tegolasolare tiles installed.

The teams from Product Placement, Nemo Tile, and Novita PR.

Our thanks go out again to our sponsors, Nemo Tile Company and Ceramic Tiles of Italy, and to the entire team at Novita PR for their help with coordinating the evening (including translation services from the Italian designers).

Look for our next installment in May!