DESIGN BLOG: Photos of Milan

It would have been great to get more photos of the show but because it was so massive I didn't get to look round the whole thing. The crowds were huge and I found myself being swept along, everyone there was walking around like they were in a fashion show - including myself, but then Milan is kind of a fashion show, so it was no surprise really, besides the point I was not there to see fashion I was there to see design!! 'Zona Tortona' the area which the (satellite) show was being held in was very characterful, lots of thin windy little allies, a bit like a labyrinth, if you blinked your eye, you'd get lost.

There were some memorable moments, the lights from Selux arrived late which was really annoying, they were delivered to the wrong address then lost in the middle of the busiest city in Europe, eventually when we got hold of them John Miller and I tried to put them up in the middle of the show, we got electrocuted and both of us sprang from the floor and screamed - I don't think John Miller did actually, after this we sheepishly hid them, then Andy put them up the next day.

Whilst walking around with my camera, just an innocent bystander, I got told off by a designer for taking photos of his work - kind of made me laugh as is was a bit naff. Apparently Mr Visachi was spotted outside his shop in Milan with lots of models draped prettily over him.

Got very drunk on free Campari, which initially I drank from a latex cup (!) and it tasted rank, I thought I'd been poisoned, then realised that is actually the taste of Campari, so carried on drinking, it began to taste okay after that.

The camp-site was massive with a full compliment of farm yard animals, goats, horses, chickens, sheep. It filled from five or ten tents when we arrived, to tents as far as the eye could see by the time I left. The Dumo Cathedral was one of the places I really wanted to see before leaving and was determined to visit, it was not disappointing. I got right onto the roof and could see the whole of Milan from above - beautiful.

Then on my last day at the train station arriving just a minute too late I missed the link train the the airport because the ticket machine had broken. This meant that I missed check-in, omg, I thought I would be stranded in Milan, not such a bad fate, but I kind of wanted to get back home. From the train I had to get a taxi to the airport with two others who had also missed the check-in, it was like something out of a movie, telling the taxi driver go as fast as he could, holding on to the seats with white knuckles, we got the airport and the woman who I was in the taxi with gave the driver a 100 euro note, and went charging off for the plane. After letting John know I was going to be late I had to convince security that they should let me through, eventually having run across the whole length of the airport, with my bag on my shoulder, I got to the check-in desk, and the plane was on the tarmac being taxied off, well not quite. That was a first, so nearly missing the plane, sort of funny in hindsight (not).

Zona Tortona, show area.

Chairs made from pulped recycled paper

Some sausage dogs

A home in minature - kind of holiday home, but really compact

Some tiles that I became transfixed by.

This area was just outside the exhibition space we were in, it was build up from nothing over a three day period and by the end it was like a minature street with houses.