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I t may sound as a cliché, but the first investing heavily in upgrading its manufactur- is the office there that takes care of local cli-
ents,” says Nicola. It must be challenging for
ing sector, it still has a long way to go. Italy’s
thing Italians utterly miss and look
one person working in 3 different time zones,
world leading know-how in industrial machin-
for abroad after just a few days is
ery and additive manufacturing technologies but having different offices doesn’t mean they
“real” coffee. The coffee to sip at the
could help support the realization of Made in work together on same project always, so the
café, perhaps quickly and standing by the count-
China 2025. offices stick to their clients and their unique
er, so as to start the day with the right sprint or
Learning along the way and creating local tastes and demands. Among all countries
to avoid falling asleep after the lunch break. For
friends out of business partners, today Nicola he works in, Nicola believes that Korean taste
Italians the cup of coffee is an inalienable ritual
has offices in 4 countries: Italy, Argentina, is the more specific one and that only local
and an established habit, something that builds
South Korea and China; they all have been designers can satisfy their local taste, while
ties and social relations.
crucial in developing his brand. “China was rest of the world is more used to internation-
This is exactly the case for Nicola Zanetti,
the real big start for me, where I found clients, al designers so the kind of design process and
founder of Segnoinverso Design Studio and T&D
friends, experience. Was in China that I met output is almost the same everywhere. That
Shanghai and creator of many coffee machines.
my Korean partners and everything began to is why, T&D Shanghai holds programs of de-
Being from the north of Italy, he is obviously no
work. Today most of the clients are Chinese signers’ exchange between the offices so they
stranger to coffee; especially since each of Italy’s
but we work with some European and USA also share knowledge, experiences and inspire
20 regions boasts its own unique coffee culture.
brands as well. Korean market is peculiar so each other with local cases.
Espresso may be ubiquitous, but there are many
regional twists to the caffè. In the northern Le
Marche, enjoy a caffè anisette for an anise-fla-
vored espresso; in southern Sicily, try caffè d’un
parrinu, an Arabic-inspired coffee flavored with
cloves, cinnamon, and cocoa.
All these unique coffee flavors and culture
mix, as well as graduate diploma in industrial
design from the prestigious Politecnico di Milano,
led Nicola to start working for such a famous
Italian brand as Bialetti, the brand that is well-
known around the world for its signature Moka
pots. Creating concepts, developing ideas, striv-
China was the ing for innovation and offering specific solutions
real big start for to every-day problems is what he brought to the
brand as a senior designer. And of course, work-
me, where I found ing for such a well-known brand brought Nicola
great experience and connections.
Standing strong professionally, few years
clients, friends, later he started his own studio in Milan and step
experience. by step moved to South Korea and China. “The
reason why I moved to Asia is because my clients
asked me to follow them in project details and I
followed them in China to check prototypes and
discuss face to face with engineers. From that
moment I understood that the business I want to
get into was there and I started coming to exhi-
bitions and meet people,” shares Nicola. And
there are many reasons for this: Italy and China
have strong relationship in collaboration in many
ways and, as one can notice in many industrial
expos, Italy has sectoral expertise that China can
learn from. For example, 40% of Italian manufac- So when measuring a designer’s skill, they should
turers use 3D printers for fast prototyping, and be judged not only by their portfolio, but also by
25% use robots for production. While China is their personality, experience and intelligence.

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