The names of a hundred talents that have left a special mark in the design world and reflected its various facets: a new project of the new issue of Icon Design, which presents a special edition called Icon Design 100, out Friday 3 March.

The Mondadori Group’s upscale design and decor, edited by Michele Lupi, presents the protagonists of the design world, including established figures and surprising choices, with a selection of essential contemporary work, from architecture to visual communication, with great masters, influencers and young turks to follow in 2017.

It is an ambitious task, which Icon Design intends repeat every year, involving the identification of those who – and how – are generating ideas of value in the world of design and beyond.

The new project for the international mapping and selection of Icon Design 100 was overseen by seven jurors who are themselves leading figures in different areas of the design world: Alexandra Midal (lecturer at HEAD in Geneva and the Federal Polytechnic in Lausanne), Jan Boelen (artistic director of Z33 House for Contemporary Art in Hasselt and the Atelier LUMA in Arles, and head of the Master Department of Social Design at the Design Academy in Eindhoven), Domitilla Dardi (curator for the design of MAXXI Architecture in Rome and since 2007 lecturer at IED Rome), Greg Lynn (winner of the Golden Lion at the Venice Architecture Biennale and Chief Creative Officer of Piaggio Fast Forward), Michael Rock (Associate Professor of Design at the Harvard University Graduate School of Design), Penny Martin (the award-winning editor of the women’s magazine The Gentlewoman).

The seventh juror is the editor of Icon Design, Michele Lupi, who explains the genesis of the project: “It took seven months of continuous work to build an authoritative international jury. The result is an extremely varied – and in some senses unexpected – “database”, which will certainly be appreciated by both curious readers and well-prepared professionals. In fact, we achieved our objective of drawing a map of the territory, i.e. of design, within a clearly defined temporal scope (the 2016/17 season), to produce a detailed picture of the contemporary scene.”

The seven critics and designers were invited to express their views on ten categories: Architecture, Art, Furniture, Interior Design, Visual Communication, Food, Mobility, High Tech & Innovation, Fashion and Thinking. Ten categories and free reflection: not so much a ranking, as an invitation to look with curiosity at the different universes of contemporary design given that on the pages of Icon Design 100 a big name in contemporary art such as Philippe Parreno can fall into the same category as the young Helen Marten.

Seven is also the number of the graphic design and art direction studios that asked to create the cover for Icon Design 100, which will be distributed on newsstands in seven different versions, with a distribution logic in 2017 that will feature an extra issue.

The seven jurors, in addition to the seven art directors, as well as all of the other 100 nominated in the list, are now the first “members” of the Icon Design Club, which officially takes shape with the project.

The Icon Design 100 special opens the way for the brand’s commitment for the upcoming Milan Design Week (Salone del Mobile), during which, from 5 to 9 April a series of events open to the public will take place featuring the best of world design and architecture.

Also the figures the magazine’s advertising revenues, managed by Mediamond, are very positive, with an increase for this issue of Icon Design of 27.5% compared with last year.

Tv Sorrisi e Canzoni, the Mondadori Group brand that is a reference point in the world of entertainment, continues its positive performance thanks to a unique offer and initiatives that accompany readers and users every day.

On newsstands, where the magazine is the leading weekly with a readership of 2.6 million (source: Audipress 2016/III) and a circulation of 531,999 copies (source: Ads, December 2016), sales of the three issues dedicated to the Sanermo Festival – with the much anticipated covers featuring the singers, presenters and winners – were up by +15% compared with January. Also the official compilation “Sanremo 2017”, on newsstands with Sorrisi, saw a rise of more than 20% in sales compared with last year.

And there are excellent results for Sorrisi online, too. Having more than doubled the number of unique users compared with last year, reaching, in the Sanremo Festival period from 1 to 15 February, more than 2.5 million unique browsers (source: censuaria), two weeks after the Festival the title continues to see its numbers growing. Thanks to a quality editorial offer, combined with an increasingly effective user experience following the optimisation of the mobile format AMP (Accelerated Mobile Pages), the site has recorded a constantly growing trend that has seen visits to Sorrisi.com rise by +40% (source: censuaria).

In particular, Sunday 12 February saw a record number of over 550,000 unique browsers per day, with more than 1 million page views (source: censuaria). The special dedicated to the Festival on the site brought together a range of content,  such as the video-diaries of the singers, interviews, photos, live video, news and curiosities from behind the scenes. Among the most popular were the features on the looks of guests, presenters and singers, as well as the lyrics to the songs, especially Occidentali’s karma by the winner Francesco Gabbani. The video-tutorial of the champion’s dance at Sanremo, produced together with the editorial staff of Sorrisi, became an authentic viral phenomenon, generating over 300,000 views on the site and on social media.

The colour of the steel of a modern dairy, the natural tones of oak, fodder and earth and, finally, that of mozzarella, white are the chromatic characteristics of the Fattorie Garofalo Mozzarella Bistrot which opened today – 23 February 2017 – in the Mondadori Megastore in Via Marghera in Milan.

The bistro also extends outside the Mondadori store with two large terraces, and representing  a company history marked by tradition and innovation, as well as the promotion of the values ​​of freshness, naturalness and craftsmanship of buffalo mozzarella in the essential language of a clean design while seeking a balance between the past, present and future, developed by Antonio Zagaria and the Costa Group. And all for a future in which the production of cultural events will be presented in the key of food.

Fattorie Garofalo, now in its third generation, is located in Capua where it leads the entire chain: 10 thousand buffalo, reared in the Caserta area and with a turnover of €70 million generated from the sale of buffalo mozzarella, buffalo meat and salami and green electricity generated from biogas and photovoltaic. Today the company is focused on an ambitious expansion plan in direct food retailing, with investments of around €6 million euro per year.

As part of this expansion the Fattorie Garofalo Mozzarella Bistrot in Via Marghera in Milan will be a strategic hub and become a place for cultural events, facilitated by being located within the Mondadori Megastore, and closely identified with the culinary excellence of Made in Italy.

The guest of honour of the inaugural event will be the chef Rosanna Marziale, who, especially for the occasion, has created the recipe “Mozzarella Marghera”, a show cooking event made possible by the innovative open kitchen with a social table, from where the audience can observe the work of the famous chef while sitting around the table.

Raffaele Garofalo, the chairman of Fattorie Garofalo, said: “This Mozzarella Bistrot, in the middle of a store that draws its strength from the diffusion of culture, will become a place dedicated to the production of cultural events that will have as its theme and central line the typical excellence of food that is ‘Made in Italy’, and which are well represented in the Mediterranean Diet, recognised as an intangible heritage by UNESCO.” “The strength of our products – he added – is also in the often fascinating history that generated them and, like our monumental heritage, every year attracts millions to Italy of tourists from all over the world.”

“Thanks to this collaboration the Mondadori Megastore in Via Marghera will be enhanced with a new space for meeting and conviviality focusing on the excellence of Italy’s culinary tradition. We are delighted to be able to offer visitors to our store in the heart of Milan an even more rewarding cultural offer that can satisfy different needs during the day,” said Mario Resca, the chairman of Mondadori Retail.

Once again this year Tv Sorrisi e Canzoni confirms its role as the point of reference for all fans of the Festival della Canzone italiana with a unique offer of exclusive content and initiatives to accompany the magazine’s readers during the most eagerly anticipated musical and television event of the year.

After having celebrated with the artists the beginning of the latest edition of the Sanremo Festival competition at the exclusive party “Stasera tutti a casa” – held at the Casa Sanremo with Radio 105 and Radio Monte Carlo – Sorrisi will be live from the Ariston Theatre until 11 February with a video station, to cover all of the excitement of the Festival from a privileged outlook.

There will be a daily appointment with the protagonists on Sorrisi.com as well as on the social networks Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, with live video, interviews, photos, news and the scenes curiosities. This year it will be the competing champions Gigi D’Alessio and Clementino who will present exclusively for Sorrisi their video-diaries, online every day along with daily snapshots from Oblivion and Michele Bravi.

Also the pages of Tv Sorrisi e Canzoni will highlight features and special content in the three issues dedicated to the Festival in the weeks before, during and after the competition, with all of the words to the songs and three exciting covers featuring the singers, the presenters and the winner.

Sorrisi will also bring to newsstands the Festival’s official compilation: a double CD with 40 tracks with unreleased songs by the big names, all of the new songs, as well as the best covers by the champions from the evening of Thursday 9 February and the bonus track Tutta la vita questa vita by La Rua. “Sanremo 2017” will be on newsstands on 10 February with TV Sorrisi e Canzoni at a cost of €14.90, excluding the price of the magazine.

Finally, Tv Sorrisi e Canzoni has given 10 luck readers the opportunity to experience the Festival live with the “Vinci Sanremo” competition. As well as renewing its close association with the city of Sanremo which, like every year, will host the traditional posters and life-sized cut-outs of the presenters and artists in competition, along the main streets of the city, photographed exclusively by Sorrisi, and an authentic symbol of the festival week.

Stolen from the Van Gogh Musem in Amsterdam in 2002, recovered in Italy from a camorra hideout in September 2016 thanks to the work of the Financial Police and the Prosecutor of Naples, the two paintings by Vincent Van Gogh will be exhibited exclusively at the Museo e Real Bosco di Capodimonte in Naples for only 20 days before their return to the Netherlands.

From Tuesday, 7^th until Sunday 26^th of February The Congregation Leaving the Reformed Church at Nuenen (1884-85) and Seascape at Scheveningen before a Storm (1882) – are key works for understanding the artist’s early development – will be exhibited on the second floor of the museum, next to the Caravaggio Room.

Seascape at Scheveningen before a Storm is one of only two seascapes of Scheveningen painted by the artist at that time, the other being kept at the Minnesota Marine Art Musem. The Congregation Leaving the Reformed Church of Nuenen is a work of sorrowful and intimate memory and family affection. It depicts the church of Nuenen village, where Van Gogh’s father was the pastor.

The exhibition is promoted by the Ministry of Cultural Assets, Activities and Tourism, the Museo e Real Bosco di Capodimonte, and financed by the Campania Region. The project is implemented by Scabec Spa. Organization and catalogue by Electa.

Starbene, to coincide with the title’s 40^th anniversary, the Mondadori Group brand, that is a point of reference in the health and wellbeing segment, a new look has been given to its media system with increased attention to diet, health and fitness.

Thanks to an even more positive approach, the new Starbene will offer even easier to use solutions, making it – thanks to both the print and digital content – “personal wellbeing coach”, an authoritative and accessible consultant to guide the readers towards a healthier day-to-day life.

«The authoritativeness comes from the professionalism of the journalistic staff, the network of over 100 experts and 40 years of experience, making Starbene a safe haven in a time of disinformation and post-truth. An authentic point of reference to help you make the right choices, concerning health and wellbeing», declared Annalisa Monfreda, the magazine’e editor.

WHAT’S NEW IN THE STARBENE SYSTEM

With a view to further expanding the multichannel nature of its system – which comprises the magazine, web, TV, radio, events and social media – Starbene has launched a number of new features offering new services to an increasingly broad total audience, which already accounts for over 3.6 million total contacts per month (source: Audiweb November 2016 + Audipress 2016/II print and/or replicas).

The magazine will change in a number of ways, starting from the way in which content is presented. The issue on newsstands from tomorrow, Tuesday 17 January, will include articulated dossiers with background information and a focus on  news, diet, health, fitness, beauty and psychology, with the reliability and guaranteed competence of a range of experts that have long been a hallmark of the brand.

Moreover, for the first time, the brand is also launching the Starbene Podcast, short audio clips, produced by the staff in collaboration with MyVoxes, that can be accessed on smartphones, tablets and PCs from the web site Starbene.it: with news, every day, about diet, health and wellbeing. While, every Tuesday, there will be a closer look at one of the articles in the magazine with the voices of experts on issues of greater interest to the Starbene community.

Every morning Starbene users will receive a daily newsletter con with brief news items, updates and links to the podcast.

Finally, also the collaboration with Radio Monte Carlo continues on Mondays to Fridays, at 12.15, as part of the section RMC DOC providing daily health tips and suggestion from the experts of Starbene.

The system is also active with a series of events around the country. For example, Starbene is the media partner of “Winter Village”, the first of its kind organised in Milano, from 18 to 22 January in the area around Via Pagano. The magazine is present every day with a showcooking demo, during which the chefs, assisted by the title’s nutritionists, put together a menu that combines taste with wellbeing. There is also a desk where visitors can seek personalised advice, offered for free, about diet and nutrition, food allergies and healthy eating in general.

The first issue of the new Starbene will be on newsstands from 17 January with a cut price of €1. The launch is supported by a media campaign developed by Hi! Comunicazione in the press, on TV, radio, the web and at large-scale retail outlets.

Starbene is part of the Mediamond health hub, a multi-brand and multi-channel network that reaches some 6.7 million contacts every month (total audience print + digital, source: Audiweb November 2016 + Audipress 2016/II print and/or replicas).

The new year starts with much that is new for Casabella,
the architectural magazine of the Mondadori Group. In fact, from this month the magazine, edited by Francesco Dal Co, will appear with a new look and new content, while remaining faithful to the character that has made it successful since 1928, as, for example,  the unusual 28 by 31 centimetre format.

“From 1996 the design of Casabella has been updated on a number of occasions,” the editor Francesco Dal Co explained. “After some twenty years we decided it was time for a more marked update. However, redesigning the magazine without taking a new look at the content wouldn’t have made much sense. Consequently, the changes that we decided to make should be clear from the issue that readers now have in their hands. Only a single section of the magazine has remained essentially the same. These are the pages dedicated to the presentation and discussion of books, until now introduced by a celebrated photograph of and great architect who was also an assiduous reader, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe. In place of this photograph readers will now find an impassioned plea on behalf of reading written at the beginning of the 16^th century by one of the greatest publishers of all time, Aldo Manuzio, an exhortation that remains surprisingly apt, also today,” the editor concluded.

The changes to the other parts of the magazine can be seen right from the first pages, in which information for professionals about what the industry is making available and what is happening in the profession itself, will be progressively refined in order to provide and effective and critically oriented service.

The inside pages will also be changed to make Casabella a printed magazine (but not only) that pays attention to the design, the writing and particular attention to the way in which architectural works takes form, in other words, to the drawings and design plans. Even more attention will be given to the combinations and quality of images, as well as a tighter critical approach, in order to live up to the expectations of readers.

In addition to news, there will be a new focus also on history, given that “without looking at the past design is an incomplete activity: a weak exercise conducted in a state of illusory lightness, just as it is an illusion to discuss current affairs without reference to the past,”  the editor Dal Co explained.

But Casabella is not just a highly prestigious national and international magazine. It is also a web site casabellaweb.eu, and is also present on a range of social media that integrate the content in an increasingly refined and functional way also for those who interested in talking about production, products and the realisation of designs.  The brand also lives through a space in the heart of Milan, the Casabella Laboratorio, that hosts exhibitions, meetings and events.

And, finally, Casabella, in collaboration with ProViaggiArchitettura, a company that specialises in organising architectural tours and itineraries, has developed the “Casabella Formazione” project. Conferences, tours, visits to construction sites and factories, exhibitions, courses and meetings, are just some of the activities organised by Casabella and ProViaggiArchitettura, and aimed at extending the magazine’s cultural offer and responding to the needs of readers and the obligations of keeping up to speed with professional requirements.

28×31 Casabella 2017 will be available on newsstands from 14 January at a cost of €12.

On the anniversary of the death of David Bowie and 40 from the release of the film “The Man Who Fell to Earth”, Mondadori Store celebrates the great artist with a special event and exhibition, entitled “DAVID BOWIE – THE REAL FACE”.

On 10 January 2017 at 6.30 pm in the Events Space on the 3^rd floor of the Mondadori Megastore in Piazza Duomo in Milan there will be an exceptional display of the original cast of the face of David Bowie made in 1975 during the shooting of “The Man Who Fell to Earth” (1976): the film in which Bowie wore a number of masks and the cast was used by costume designers to ensure a perfect fit. An extraordinary piece that Red Ronnie, after buying it at Sotheby’s in the 1990s, had autographed by David Bowie during a Roxy Bar interview.

A unique event with the extraordinary participation of Red Ronnie and the screening of extracts from “The Man Who Fell to Earth”, a musical performance by Andy Fluon from the Bluvertigo and contributions from the protagonists of the exclusive exhibition “DAVID BOWIE THE REAL FACE” in which artists Andy Fluon, Giovanna Fra, Bianca Lodola, Marco Lodola and Sergio Pappalettera interpret Bowie each in their own style.

The exhibition, part of the St-Art, artist of the month cycle (the cultural project created and promoted by Mondadori Store in collaboration with Milo Goj’s Art Relation), will run until 5 February before continuing at the Teatro Ariston during the Sanremo Festival.

Icon’s new “Classic Style Issue”, is published on 10 January with a special focus on fashion and tailoring, and coinciding with the 91^st edition of Pitti Immagine Uomo in Florence (from 9 to 13 January) and the Milan shows.

A special issue, published for the first time in the month of January to mark the two essential appointments for male fashion which will feature Mondadori Group’s up-scale male title, edited by Michele Lupi, among the protagonists.

This brings to 8 the number of issues of Icon during the year, reinforcing its role in the segment of reference with excellent results in terms of advertising,  up by 8% (print and digital) in 2016 compared with the previous year, confirming the positive trend of the last 3 years.

The new issue includes important fashion features, interviews and services celebrating, as never before, the style of the contemporary man and the whole universe of trends and details surrounding it. “We have chosen an authoritative approach for a fashion that is too often depicted in terms of pure habit, rather than as one of the drivers of our country, from the fashion houses to the catwalks and retail,” declared the editor, Michele Lupi.

THE CONTENT

The content of the new issue incudes a detailed examination of the role of the shop of the future, thanks also to Tommy Hilfiger who opened the doors to their Digital Room: a concrete evolution of the classic boutique formula formula in which there is a dialogue between the real and the virtual in close contact with the needs of the consumer where made-to-measure style becomes available at a click.

On the cover is Ewan McGregor, who returns to the big screen in early 2017 in the sequel to the film that made him a star: Trainspotting 2. He talks to Icon about twenty years in cinema and his debut as a director with American Pastoral, based on the novel by Philip Roth. Another leading protagonist of this special issue is the astronaut Maurizio Cheli, the first Italian to have travelled on the Space Shuttle as Mission Specialist, who accompanies us into space on an incredible journey to the limits of known reality with highly emotional anecdotes and stories of his adventures.

In an issue dedicated to style, there had to be a big fashion feature produced by the magazine’s fashion director, David St. John-James, who re-interprets the outdoors among the lunar rocks chameleon colours behind the lens of photographer Daniel Riera. As always, of course, there is the fashion portfolio dedicated to the leading designers who in the January issue offer a preview of the spring fashions in a sophisticated mood that recalls the atmosphere of the cinema of the past.

SPECIAL DISTRIBUTION

The role of the magazine is enhanced by the contribution of events and extra-sector initiatives. During the 91^st edition of Pitti Immagine Uomo in Florence, the new issue of Icon will enjoy a special distribution, conducted on 10 January at the Central Station in Milan, on the platform from which the high-speed Frecciarossa leaves for Florence. This is a special initiative that confirms the reinforcement of an increasingly targeted distribution system across the territory.

Special efforts have also been made on the communication front with the use of high-impact visibility formats at the S. Maria Novella station in Florence and the distribution of copies at the city’s 4 and 5 star hotels.

The issue will be presented on 16 January during the Milan Men’s Fashion Week at a lunch in the Armani Hotel. also with the participation of Icon Spain.

The success of the Digital School, the training school of Donna Moderna, CasaFacile and Sale&Pepe continues, the experience with which the three Mondadori Group brands – reference points for the world of women, interiors and food – make their skills and competence in the digital and social media fields available to others. A formula already rewarded with enrolments that  sold out for the basic course of the second edition, which ended in November.

The lessons of the advanced course in content and social media management will start on Saturday 28 January 2017. The programme, which is aimed at people with previous knowledge of the web but who want to become autonomous in online brand development,  is organised in 5 classroom sessions and a concluding workshop. A total of 21 hours dedicated to content design, data analysis and the business management of the activity, through first-hand testimony by the editors and digital professionals of the three magazines, classroom tutoring and case histories.

Collaboration will also continue with Piano C, the social innovation laboratory that brings together women and work and that hosts the lessons of the course in a space in the centre of Milan where digital and other projects are developed to contrast female unemployment in Italy.

The training offer of the Digital School is also available in e-learning modules, with 14 courses 5 structured programmes designed to meet different needs, such as “Content Strategy”, “Social Media Pro”, “Promoting a business online”.

For information about how to enrol and costs, please go to digitalschool.it or write to  digitalschool.aula@mondadori.it.