When Italian designer Rodolfo Dordoni died in 2023, Minotti was a company in mourning. It had lost the visionary who had been its art director for more than 25 years, but it was grieving for an honorary member of the family – the man who had helped shape what the two co-CEOs Renato and Roberto Minotti have called ‘the Minotti style’.
Turning pain into progress, last year Minotti announced two new major collaborators: Hannes Peer and Giampiero Tagliaferri. Both have a deep respect for the brand, but also a desire to do things differently.
Their debuts were nothing short of explosive. In a whirlwind of creativity, Peer, who founded his eponymous design and architecture practice in Milan back in 2009, produced 21 pieces straight out of the gate, a feat he says, ‘has never happened in the history of Minotti’. Meanwhile Tagliaferri, who works between Milan and Los Angeles and was previously creative director at eyewear brand Oliver Peoples, masterminded 11 designs, building a story around his hero piece: the 1970s-inspired ‘Supermoon’ sofa.
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He recalls the moment after he presented the first sketches of this modular design as two minutes of total silence. ‘Two minutes is a long time!’ he attests with a laugh, ‘but after that they were like “OK, we love it. Let’s start working on it.”’ Both men appreciate this openness to fresh perspectives and collaborative spirit. ‘They don’t just go, “You’re the one we’re choosing. Here’s the sword, go and conquer.” It’s a slow process, very meticulous,’ says Peer.
Conquer they have, though, in ways unique to each designer. Tagliaferri, who calls himself a ‘storyteller’, greatly respected how Dordoni, in the early 2000s, had ‘really portrayed the lifestyle aspects of Minotti designs’. It was an approach that he felt was ahead of its time and, with his own designs, he wanted to create a complete ‘new world’ for the brand that took ‘romantic aspects of the 70s and made them relevant for today’.
Similarly intent on testing the status quo, Peer pushed to produce more ‘editorial’ pieces with a stand-out quality – an approach that was a departure from what he calls the ‘total look’ approach Minotti is famous for. As he puts it: ‘You can have both, that’s the real trick. You can have standalone pieces that still work within the brand’s DNA.’ Designs such as his monumental ‘Nico’ table, with its intricate marble base that is seamlessly interlocked, and the memorable ‘Emmi’ armchair, with its equally expressive legs and artfully crumpled leather upholstery, have, as he’d hoped, captured the imagination of design aficionados.
‘Every piece I designed had at least one or two concepts that were out of Minotti’s comfort zone. I enjoyed that tremendously,’ says Peer, ‘because I knew what they would produce would be absolute perfection.’ It’s a sentiment Tagliaferri is keen to echo, adding that, to him, the Minotti touch, that magical element the brand offers, is its ‘expertise and attention to detail’. ‘My designs may be a little different from the past,’ he continues, ‘but the brand has people who have been working there for 40 years or more; to have them driving you in the right direction, to make something more functional or super comfortable, I mean, it’s just incredible.’
‘The beauty is that I’m now part of the Minotti family. When you start working with them, they welcome you in – it feels special,’ says Tagliaferri. ‘Yeah, you know, there is a Minotti story that began 40 years before I was born,’ adds Peer. ‘I’m often asked if I feel overwhelmed working with such a historic brand. My answer is no: I feel blessed.’ minotti.com
