Lovethesign / 132

In zona Ventura, the three founder members of e-commerce platform Lovethesign present a review of their extensive range of design objects and take stock of their new business.

We met Laura Angius, Simone Panfilo, Vincenzo Cannata at one of the most popular hangouts for students and young people of the entire Milan Fuorisalone.

It was a chance to take stock of the platform – an e-commerce site as well as blog, social network and community for all fans of Italian design – that they created at the end of 2012 and consider the future of distribution, a matter of great interest for the big manufacturers but also for young designers who are looking for an outlet for their designs.

Lovethesign was born out of the three founders' passion for design and the need they picked up on to create a network particularly for young designers, those with more limited means for launching their products on the market. After a selection procedure that created the operative base for the e-commerce site, the project was begun: six months after the launch, Lovethesign had generated more than a million hits and a month-on-month percentage growth in double figures. The big leap forward for the business came in July 2013: the start-up received funding of a million euros from United Ventures that enabled them to consolidate their presence on the Italian market and expand into the foreign market.

Today there are 7000 products on the catalogue with a total of over 300 of top Italian brands, young designers and small highly-skilled artisan enterprises. In fact the news is that not only young designers are requesting their services but big brands, a trend that consolidates the feeling that marketing strategies are changing fast.

All the young partners are convinced that the strength of Lovethesign lies in the fact that it is not only an e-commerce site but also an observatory for design trends, a database for the sector, a laboratory of exchange between businesses and designers, a place where manufacturers create a system to protect and promote original design and copyright, a platform of real development for self-produced design and Italian artisan excellence that can be sold online, in Italy and abroad. October 2013 saw the launch of www.lovethesign.com/eu/, www.lovethesign.com/uk/ and www.lovethesign.com/pl/ three international sites that open up to the European market.