How luxury furniture brand Minotti became one of Italy’s historic trademarks

They established Minotti Studio in 1996, solidifying design and creativity as the heart and soul of the company. The department is a hive of various talents and skills that oversees the development of a project, from concept to production and marketing. In 1997, spurred by a desire to forge a stronger brand image through the creation of entire settings that harmonise with each collection, the brothers found a kindred spirit in the Milanese architect and designer Rodolfo Dordoni who would later be appointed as the company’s art director and under whose supervision and coordination, Minotti’s product range grew to encompass a complete collection for the home.

The past 32 years are a testament to their gumption, having taken the brand far beyond Europe and into the international markets with a global presence in 80 countries through 320 authorised dealers and 52 mono-brand stores. Today, Minotti’s strong brand identity is known the world over as a paragon of understated elegance and craftsmanship with a uniquely Italian eye for beauty.

It has also, in recent years, ventured into cross-cultural design collaborations with a coterie of international architects and designers such as Christophe Delcourt (France), Oki Sato of Nendo (Japan) and Studio MK27 (Brazil) which has spawned wildly popular collections such as Fil Noir, Torii, and Quadrado.

“It’s always a very nice process to see how different design cultures interpret the Minotti ‘code’,” says Alessandro, who, along with his brother Alessio and their cousins Susanna and Leonardo, joined the family business and are actively involved in its day-to-day running, stewarding the company with their unique strengths, and bound by the same love and ambition that galvanised their forefathers to bring Italian design to the world. We asked Roberto Minotti and Alessandro Minotti to shed more light on what makes the brand so exceptional.

How would you describe Minotti's design DNA?

Roberto Minotti (RM) The perfect balance between modernity and classicism. We adopt a contemporary approach and sensibility to ambience and style whilst adhering to very classical principles like meticulous attention to detailing. We never think about the collection on its own, but always in conjunction with the architecture and interior decoration that surrounds it. This is all built around a very singular and universal design language made up of very specific materials, colours and forms that thrive in a diverse range of markets.

To achieve this, we have the Minotti Studio, a supply chain of creativity made up of 50 people with skills ranging from engineering to interior decoration, product development, materials research, graphic design, communications, and marketing which allows us to move very quickly and realise our ideas punctually for the annual Salone del Mobile Milano.

The concept of the family company is also very important. Minotti is our family name. As owners and operators of the company, we feel like we’re raising a child where we put in love, passion and attention every day. Furthermore, because of our direct involvement, we speak and interact with the market directly; if there is a suggestion or a complaint, we hear it first-hand. That’s a crucial difference between a large corporation and a family company.

The library of materials used in Minotti's designs and the quality of their finishings are exquisite. Could you elaborate on how you go about selecting and sourcing materials?

Alessandro Minotti (AM) If we take fabrics for example, my brother Alessio is a specialist in fabrics and leather and spends a lot of time researching and developing new textile collections. Being in Brianza, we are also able to form exclusive partnerships with very specific suppliers and design the fabrics in concert with them. This design process runs in parallel with the development of new furniture collections so clients are able to purchase not only furniture from Minotti but also exclusive fabrics designed by us. This is very important, as the fabrics are a major component of the style and final effect of the sofa. 

RM: We invest a lot of time and energy in the matching of materials, mixing matte with shine, lacquered surfaces with metals, there is a very important balance that needs to be achieved and you need to have a planimetric vision of all the elements. It’s like an interior decoration project, to maintain the balance between all the various chromatic sensations to achieve a very sophisticated combination of materials and colours. This is one of our strengths.

In 2022, Minotti was registered as a Historic Trademark of National Interest by the Italian Ministry of Economic Development. What would you say are the hallmarks of a “made-in-Italy” product?

AM: All design and production is carried out in Italy. We have our own prototyping department and we work closely with our technical teams, utilising Italian craftsmanship, technology and innovation. For example, the sofa we’re sitting on utilises box-springs and memory foam which is more akin to mattress construction but tailored to suit the design of the sofa. When you sit down, you experience comfort.

RM: Materials, people, passion. Some of the suppliers we work with are small production entities of about five to seven people who love their work and focus on quality. They share the same passion and attention to detail as [we do], and because they are in close proximity [to the Minotti office], we can easily have face-to-face discussions and come up with technical solutions quickly. The heart that goes into the product is 100 per cent Italian, especially in Brianza.

Tell us more about Brianza. Was it always a community of furniture designers or is this a more recent development? What special qualities does it possess that attracts so much talent?

RM: It started after the second world war, when Italy experienced a period of rapid industrialisation and economic expansion. People needed to rebuild, and the heart of the furniture world in Italy was born there. Perhaps it’s due to geography – materials and skills were close by. We are a 2 hours drive away from an important marble quarry in Tuscany.

AM: It’s interesting how Italy’s provinces grew into hubs for different industries in a very organic way. For example, Maserati, Ferrari and Lamborghini are all based in Emilia-Romagna. As for Brianza, maybe it’s our proximity to Milan which has a very strong design culture, combined with our closeness to Lake Como and Lake Maggiore where many families have holiday homes, which in turn creates a pool of clients for entrepreneurs in the furniture business. There is a lot of healthy competition. 

Since 2018, you've collaborated with a wide range of international designers such as Christophe Delcourt, Nendo and Studio MK27, to name a few. As much as these collaborations have allowed the brand to explore new frontiers of design, what systems and processes have you put in place to prevent the dilution of the brand's identity?

RM: We spent 20 years in partnership with Rodolfo Dordoni formulating and defining a very clear and distinct identity. It was only after we arrived at that stage of growth and clarity in 2018 that we opened our doors to new creative talents. From the outset, our studio sets the Design Brief which lays down the guidelines of a concept and a direction, after which we invite the designers to enter our project and to provide their interpretation of the Minotti Code and style. Minotti Studio is involved throughout the whole development of the project. At every stage, we work closely with the designers and make adjustments to find the right balance between their creativity and our identity and know-how. It’s like conducting a symphony, everyone plays one instrument, but all are reading the same musical score and we make sure everything comes together harmoniously. 

AM: I remember our meetings with Oki Sato. We asked him to design a collection for hospitality with very refined forms. After the briefing, he came back with very professional 3D printed miniatures. We added many ‘Made in Italy’ ingredients in terms of detailing and craftsmanship, and it became a fusion of his vision and our identity. It was a step-by-step process, out of which we arrived at the Torii collection, our bestselling armchair. The secret was to work closely as a team, putting all the ideas on the table to create the perfect product that integrates very well with the existing Minotti collections, and to see how the Japanese culture of design could match our Italian Minotti soul and expertise.

The Minotti Pavilion debuted in 2022, during the 60th edition of the Salone del Mobile Milano. How was the pavilion re-purposed in 2023 to showcase this year’s collection?

AM: We enlarged the pavilion this year, almost 5,000 sq m (53,819 sq ft) split across two floors, and gave it a new architectural ambience by creating an indoor boulevard lined with greenery reminiscent of the Mediterranean scrub so visitors were able to enter from this more public space and turn left and right into the more private exhibition areas to appreciate the 2023 collection. Everything was all linked by a single rooftop, so you experience a homogeneous style and environment.

In a way the pavilion is a culmination of the evolution of our 20-year collaboration with Rodolfo Dordoni, from the first armchair he designed for the 1997 fair, it has grown to the level of sophistication of designing and presenting the whole collection in a proper space.

RM: Why this big stand? We used the term “space and soul” when we were designing this year’s pavilion. We wanted to expose our soul, the story and consistency of the brand, to show a wide-ranging collection in the best possible way and to communicate the strength and focus of our vision to our clients and partners.

What was the motivation behind creating “The Grand Tour” video?

RM: We’ve been publishing videos every year to showcase how our collections sit within a particular context. This year, we decided to expand the range of contextual settings from one to five, namely, an apartment in the city, a chalet in the mountains, a tropical villa, a hotel, and a yacht, different situations where our collections sit very comfortably. The video is a hybrid between virtual animation and real life acting. We strive to be modern in the way we communicate and may even explore the production of short films in the future. We are making important investments in social media.

AM: It is one of the best ways to communicate with our audience in terms of marketing, considering that you can divide a 6-minute video like ‘The Grand Tour’ into different parts and package it for release on social media as various clips. In China, we discovered that it’s the market where we have our youngest clients, and the company needs to communicate with them in a fresh, digital way. We are fans of print magazines but it’s important for the company to evolve. After we’ve created the 3D models for the films, we store them in our online library for architects and designers to download and use in their own 3D models. 

RM: We strive to be on the ball and ever ready.

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