The best new brands launched at the Salone del Mobile

Side tables and vase on display at annual design fair — Pictured: The debut collection of Swiss practice PlueerSmitt

(Image credit: TBC)

Launching a new brand is a daunting business at the best of times, but even more so when debuting at the world's most anticipated annual design fair. Each year at the Salone del Mobile, the industry's most respected designers and brands compete for attention; so standing out from the crowd is no mean feat. Here we highlight six new names that were up to the challenge.

PlueerSmitt

Young Swiss designers Olivier Smitt and Dominic Plueer met while working on the design development team at Alfredo Häberli, where they bonded over their love of minimalism and abstract design. They presented the results of their first ever collaboration, under their studio name of PlueerSmitt, at this year's Salone. The collection comprises an inverted blown glass vase, a wool rug featuring overlapping layers of colour, and two small side tables - one made from CNC-milled slabs of Onyx marble and another cast in three colours of beracryl resin.

Side table cast in black beracryl resin — *Pictured: Side table*

Side and top view of Onyx marble side table — *Pictured: 'Onyx' table*

One red and one black Inverted blown glass vase — *Pictured: 'Vase No.1'*

Wool rug with overlapping layers of cream, brown and purple colours — *Pictured: The studio's debut rug*

Wonderglass

Combining the artisanship of Venetian master glass blowers with the talents of big-name designers, new lighting brand Wonderglass launched with panache during this year's Salone. The Venice- and London-based brand is headed up by Established & Sons' CEO Maurizio Mussati, whose experience as managing director of lighting at Moooi and director at Flos will also come in handy. For the first collection, he called upon design superstars Jamie Hayon, Nendo, Zaha Hadid and Nao Tamura to create chandeliers inspired by the city of Venice. The designs range from Tamura's atmospheric interpretation of floating buoys, to Zaha's spectacular flock of suspended crystals.

Chandelier of floating glass buoys in green and wihite — *Pictured: 'Flow[t]' chandelier by Nao Tamura*

Chandeliers with circles of black cone lights — *Pictured: 'Black Bat' chandelier by Nendo*

Chandelier representing flock of suspended glass blow crystals — *Pictured: 'Swarm' chandelier by Zaha Hadid*

Made in Ratio

London-based Australian designer Brodie Neill launched his new design brand Made in Ratio with Theo Theodorou (formerly of Haunch of Venison Gallery) in Zonca e Zonca gallery. Their first collection comprises five core pieces, including an almost impossibly simple chaise lounge in plywood and a three-legged trestle in aluminium. A celebration of design on the designer's terms, all pieces are highly sculptural and experimental in form while their colourful nature will give the designs a longer shelf life as they can be evolved to suit interior trends.

Blue Citro&euml;n in front of a building — *Pictured: 'Cowrie' chairs*

Round glass tables with three legged colorful aluminum trestle — *Pictured: Installation view at Zonca e Zonca gallery in Milan*

Plywood Chaise lounge chair and red aluminum trestle — *Pictured: 'Cowrie' day bed*

Hinika

Australian designer Jarrod Lim studied furniture and industrial design at Melbourne's RMIT University but got his real design education in Europe, where he cut his teeth working for respected names such as Patricia Urquiola and SCP. Now based in Singapore, Lim has been working closely with a local factory, with whom he has founded Hinika - a new brand that fuses Lim's international design perspective with Singaporean craftsmanship. Using a mix of locally-sourced wood and US hardwoods, their debut collection of tables, chairs and a bird house is the perfect marriage of eastern and western design sensibilities.

Beech coffee tables with aluminum crafted legs,one square and one triangular — *Pictured: 'Bezier' tables*

Set of three stackable beech side tables — *Pictured: 'Kikari' tables*

Beech dining chair and beech bird house — *Pictured: 'Torii' dining chair and 'Tree Ring' birdhouse*

Wooden dresser with log design doors — *Pictured: 'Logg' cabinet*

Vano Alto

Working out of an old hayloft in Tuscany's picturesque Pisan hills, ceramicist Paola Mariani and sculptor Vittorio Cavallini are the founders of new design studio Vano Alto. After realising their combined creative potential while working on a house renovation together, the duo began working with craftspeople from Pisa to Florence to build a collection of furniture, lighting and ceramics. Combining materials such as wood, Plexiglas, steel and leather, their debut collection has a sculptural quality that showcases the pair's artistic talents.

Set of square ceramic jugs with square wooden handles — *Pictured: Vano Alto's debut jugs*

Set of two square leaning ceramic vases — *Pictured: A series of vases*

Wooden bench with green plexiglass side — *Pictured: The brand's sculptural bench*

Side table with black framed glass top and copper tubing legs — *Pictured: A side table*

Officine Tamborrino

Italian company Scaff System has been manufacturing industrial steel shelving since 1957. However, this year the company decided to branch out into new markets with the launch of Officine Tamborrino - a new sub brand that produces steel furniture for the home and office. With a distinctive style that references the company's mid-century heritage, Officine Tamborrino's debut collection includes a bookcase, chest of drawers, desk, chair, floor lamp and task lamp all made using simple folded steel constructions.

White cubicle style steel bookcase — *Pictured: The brand's Salone installation*

Steel desk with blue top and white steel chair and floor and table lamps — *Pictured: 'OT1' floor lamp, 'OT 57' desk, 'OT2' table lamp and 'Lambda' chair*

Steel table lamp on red table — *Pictured: 'OT2' table lamp*

Rosa Bertoli was born in Udine, Italy, and now lives in London. Since 2014, she has been the Design Editor of Wallpaper*, where she oversees design content for the print and online editions, as well as special editorial projects. Through her role at Wallpaper*, she has written extensively about all areas of design. Rosa has been speaker and moderator for various design talks and conferences including London Craft Week, Maison & Objet, The Italian Cultural Institute (London), Clippings, Zaha Hadid Design, Kartell and Frieze Art Fair. Rosa has been on judging panels for the Chart Architecture Award, the Dutch Design Awards and the DesignGuild Marks. She has written for numerous English and Italian language publications, and worked as a content and communication consultant for fashion and design brands.