THE FEELING of Design
The beginning of 2020 for us at TRENDS was earmarked by D/code, which we hosted on March 07 and 08. I received the email about the revised dates for Salone in Milan around the same time as we were finalising our Power Talks panellists for D/code. There was a marked sense of relief that we were going to wait for the crisis to pass – up until then, it was still “someone else’s” problem.
During D/code, every one that I’d have ever wanted to meet from the design community was there. Off record, there were discussions of what “they” were going through in Italy, and how “things” were getting out of hand. Of course, soon after, we got news of the deference of the Salone dates until 2021. We barely had time to react before our own PMO announced the lockdown in India. Did that stop us? In a lot of ways, yes – we all had to take the pause. And in a lot of ways, no – we stayed in touch, we continued to think, we evaluated our choices, and most importantly, we came together.
I’ve been in touch with friends from the industry – after 21 years, almost everyone here is a friend – and what I found most heartening is the unshakable sense of brotherhood. As businesses suffered and uncertainty staged its own curtain calls, the design industry chose to stay watchful, hopeful and woke to the responsibility that is now upon us to bring
