3M Further Amplifies Design with Announcement of New 3M Design Center

3M, the global innovation company long recognized for diversified technology and collaboration, announced the development of the 3M Design Center, an incubator for progressive ideation and the creative heartbeat at 3M. 

Underscoring the 3M Design mission that revolves around collaborative creativity, the new facility will be the central hub for design professionals with multi-disciplinary expertise, driving competitive advantage, customer experience and positive global impact.

Rendering: 3M Design Center Exterior (Photo: MSR Design)

"This important initiative will elevate design and propel dynamic opportunity to enhance everything from branding solutions to product innovation to sustainability and social impact," says Eric Quint, Chief Design Officer at 3M, who is at the helm of this design transformation. 

"Design Thinking is about unlocking future value in partnership with research & development and marketing. Our collective goal will be to deliver transformative value for 3M, its partners and customers."

Located at 3M headquarters in St. Paul, MN, the 3M Design Center will stimulate creativity as an open, multi-level studio environment, four times the size of the current design space. The interior architecture will incorporate use of 3M solutions and technologies throughout, as well as energy efficient systems and recycled materials demonstrating that sustainable, smart design supports a better future. 

Flexible spaces - including a fast prototyping lab, materials library, brand labs and an interactive area known as the "Design Hive" - will foster spontaneous connections and ignite cross-functional collaboration among partners, thought leaders, customers and colleagues at 3M headquarters, connected to 3M Design studios around the globe.

Rendering: Interactive area, known as the "Design Hive" at the 3M Design Center (Photo: MSR Design)

As 3M continues to apply science in imaginative ways around the world, design helps translate insights into useful solutions, bringing meaningful experiences to life every day. 

Quint adds, "With our diverse product portfolio, Design represents a critical and strategic platform to define and differentiate 3M, bridging our strong legacy of innovation with creativity toward the future, uniting purpose with partnership."

3M Design applies integrated, creative thinking to identify future customer needs that innovate industries. Ranging from digital applications in the dental business to the migration of safety materials and technologies into the fashion world, 3M products cast a global footprint with design as a catalyst for change. The new Design Center will provide a timely complement to such initiatives, enriching innovation and enhancing new business opportunity.

Development of the new 3M Design Center builds upon recent momentum that is driving design forward at 3M, evident in the elevation of design leadership and governance, which yields business value and impact on a global scale. 

The award-winning design team continues to receive international recognition for design excellence. In 2014, 3M Design received more than 25 awards across multiple creative disciplines, and recently, two 3M products received Red Dot "Best of The Best" design awards for product design among nearly 5,000 entries. The ceremony took place at a gala event attended by international media, design experts and manufacturers in Essen, Germany. Later this week, 3M Design will be presented with a Top Winner International Design Excellence Award (IDEA) by the Industrial Designers Society of America.

About 3M Design

3M Design is the creative engine driving design for brand and innovation at 3M. As a global team of diverse talent that creates meaningful and consistent brand experiences, we stimulate collaborative creativity to translate insights into solutions that inspire and positively impact our customers, our employees, and our world. 3M is a global innovation company with $32 billion in sales, employing 90,000 people worldwide with operations in more than 70 countries. 

For more information about 3M Design, visit www.3M.com/design or follow @3MDesign on Twitter.

Salone Del Mobile.Milano 2015: Furnishing, Lighting and Workspace Excellence

The 54th edition of the Salone del Mobile will fling open its doors from 

Tuesday 14th to Sunday 19th April, at the Rho Milan Fairgrounds. 

Quality and innovation, along with major collateral events and a comprehensive, wide range of goods are the ingredients that make the Salone such an unmissable event.

With over 2,000 exhibitors, more than 200,000 m2 of exhibition space and thousands of products making their market debut, the Salone del Mobile is the acknowledged sectoral international benchmark event year after year, attracting more than 300,000 visitors from over 160 countries.

The Salone is open to operators each day from 9.30am to 6.30pm, and also open to the general public on the Saturday and Sunday.

The Salone Internazionale del Mobile, split into three style categories: 
Classic, Modern and Design, the International Furnishing Accessories Exhibition and SaloneSatellite, will be flanked by the biennial Euroluce / International Lighting Exhibition in Pavilions 9-11 and 13-15 and Workplace3.0/SaloneUfficio, dedicated to the workspace, in Pavilions 22- 24.

Euroluce, the exhibition devoted to excellence in the lighting world, will showcase the very latest in outdoor, indoor, industrial, event/show, special use and hospital lighting solutions, lighting systems, light sources and illumination technology software and consulting. To mark the 2015 International Year of Light proclaimed by UNESCO, architect Attilio Stocchi has conceived "FAVILLA. To every light a voice" for the city of Milan - an installation/event telling the story of and exploring the essence of light.

Workplace3.0 is an exhibition with an innovative concept, devoted to design and technology for planning the workspace in the round. Workplace3.0 will bring together the top proposals from the furnishing world for office, banks, insurance offices, post offices and other public spaces, seating for offices and public spaces, acoustics, flooring and coverings, lighting and office accessories as well as audio-video technologies and communication.

"The Walk", a huge installation on exhibit inside the Workplace3.0 pavilions, was conceived by internationally renowned Italian architect Michele De Lucchi as an area for showcasing ideas and design triggers for planning workspaces in their many different contemporary interpretations. New activities and working modes generate new workspaces and new design requisites for "inhabiting them", with offices increasingly becoming a hub for social interface, meetings and living side by side.

Another event - IN ITALY - created by the architectural practice Four in the Morning to a design by architect Dario Curatolo, will feature 64 Italian manufacturers and a select group of designers, planners and architects, who will tackle the theme of products, design and planning. The firms involved will be presented innovatively through the medium of film, with the curator taking the audience through a virtual exploration of Italian know- how and uniqueness and the production processes behind each object. The film will become an installation, which in turn will become an App used to explore five apartments - in Lecce, Milan, Rome, Venice and the Sienese hillside - done up in five completely different styles.

SaloneSatellite will be back in Pavilions 22 and 24 - the same as Workplace3.0 - with free public entry from Cargo 5. Now in its 18th edition, the exhibition is dedicated to the theme "Life Planet", dovetailing with that of EXPO 2015: Feeding the Planet, Energy for Life. SaloneSatellite is an unrivalled meeting point for 700 young designers selected from all over the world, businessmen, architects, interior designers and the press. The exhibition showcases the work of designers under 35, and offers them a chance to be selected for the 6th annual edition of the SaloneSatellite Award for the 3 best prototypes on exhibit, relating to the product categories on show.

The Salone del Mobile can be followed on the social networks and through its website and the online magazine (www.salonemilano.it), its official Facebook and Twitter pages, a dedicated YouTube channel, Flickr gallery and profiles on LinkedIn and Pinterest.

The official hashtags for the 2015 edition on Twitter @iSaloniofficial are:
#iSaloni | #Euroluce | #Workplace | #SaloneUfficio | #SaloneSatellite

For the second year running, the Salone is renewing its ties with the Municipality of Milan, Councillor for Employment, Economic Development, University and Research, Cristina Tajani, and the city's design schools, which led to the setting up of the Welcome Project at the 2014 edition. Salone del Mobile information points at various focal points around the city will be manned by 100 students, on hand to provide visitors with information on how to negotiate the city, on the trade fair itself and the palimpsest of events in Milan organised by the Department.

The Salone del Mobile is also one of the supporters of the exhibition "LEONARDO 1452- 1519" - the greatest Leonardo da Vinci exhibition ever held in Italy - which will launch on 15th April 2015 at Milan's Palazzo Reale, just after the Salone opens. Promoted by the Municipality of Milan, the project was conceived and carried out within the framework of a partnership between Palazzo Reale and Skira going back over more than 15 years, and curated by Pietro C. Marani and Maria Teresa Fiorio - both prominent Renaissance art historians.

For the third year running, an agreement between the Salone del Mobile, Milan Fairgrounds and Milan's transport agency ATM - means that visitors to the Salone will be able to acquire a combined ticket, valid for public transport on Milan's urban network and for entry to the trade fair.

Trenitalia high-speed Frecciarossa, Frecciabianca and EuroCity trains will stop specially at Rho Fiera Expo Milano during the Salone. Frecciarossa and Frecciabianca will make three stops during both the morning and the afternoon, as well as two EuroCity train pairs to and from Switzerland.

Thanks to an agreement with SkyTeam Global Meetings, exhibitors, operators and journalists taking part in the Salone will be eligible for discounts of between 5% and 15% on flights, depending on flight class. Discounts are available on all international and intercontinental return flights to Milan, operated by SkyTeam member airlines between 9th and 24th April.

Negotiations are currently under way with Alitalia for discounted airfares on national flights to and from Milan during the Salone.

The Salone is also making the real-time Salone del Mobile.Milano 2015 App available for free download on iOS and Android devices, enabling people to plan their visits and orientate themselves at the fairgrounds.

Detailed information can be found on the website www.salonemilano.it