One thing that anyone who has ever been to the Milan fair never forgets is the experience of just getting into the show.

Dangerously overcrowded trains that are steaming hot, long queues to buy a ticket, other confused visitors not knowing where to get the registration form and then not knowing what to do with it, security guards yelling in Italian and just general chaos at the many different entrance gates, each one catering for a different type of ticket.

You’d think that after 50 years of the Salone, things would move like clockwork.

But I guess with almost 300,000 visitors descending upon the city, it’s bound to cause some problems.

Salone Internationale del Mobile, Day 1. South Gate after exiting the Metropolitan train
A massive crowd is banked back to the exit coming up from the metro train station leaving nowhere to go for the people streaming up from the escalators.

The award for most interesting signage and display at the Milan fair should be given to Fratelli Boffi.

The sign was constructed using nails and coloured string to create an intericate digital-web pattern leaving negative spaces for the text.

It was very effective, although the positioning of their spotlight could have been better.

The backdrop also featured an image of classic chairs placed in a room setting all created using nails and string.

Jarrod Lim
jarrodlim.com

Stay tuned to Indesignlive for more coverage from the 2012 Milan Furniture Fair