The human dimension as the origin of every creative act: this is the core of Fuorisalone’s theme, “Essere progetto”, and the lens through which Iris Ceramica Group frames its presence at Milan Design Week 2026. With “The humans behind”, the group builds a narrative that moves from material to people, where ceramics become both expressive medium and tangible imprint of those who conceive and shape them. At the center of this narrative system is the ICG Gallery on Via Santa Margherita, just steps from the Duomo. Here, the latest proposals from the Group – including Diesel Living with Iris Ceramica and Sapienstone – unfold along an exhibition path that transcends the surfaces to explore inspiration and creative process.

The mission that Iris Ceramica Group pursues through material is to contribute to the evolution of contemporary architecture and its language. This research is rooted in the Group’s Italian heritage and finds expression in pushing the interaction between technological performance, aesthetics, and sustainability to its highest potential. Giving shape to this approach, among the key highlights of Design Week, “Reloaded: Diesel Living with Iris Ceramica” marks a new chapter in the collaboration between the two brands, celebrating its tenth anniversary with an even more direct and contemporary language. The project introduces two moodboards of ceramic surfaces that combine large slabs and smaller formats into a dynamic composition, open to multiple interpretations.The new proposals, designed under the creative direction of Glenn Martens in collaboration with Controvento, celebrate craftsmanship and playful creativity. Diesel’s distinctive disruptive spirit translates into bold color palettes and striking, pop-inflected textures, where ceramics become an expressive medium capable of merging design and fashion. The Colorblocks unveiled in preview function as true material moodboards, enhanced by DYS – Design Your Slabs – technology, enabling advanced levels of customization in the pursuit of that sense of uniqueness that runs through fashion design thinking and finds a new voice in the language of surfaces.

Alongside this vision, Sapienstone presents three new surfaces that approach material as narrative: Travessa, Breccia Rosa 4D, and Muschelkalk. Each expresses a distinct character while sharing a deep commitment to aesthetic and technological research. Travessa reinterprets travertine with contemporary sensibility, preserving its depth and warmth while enabling seamless large-scale applications. Breccia Rosa 4D delivers a more dramatic presence, where pink hues and irregular veining gain intensity through 4D technology, extending the pattern through the body of the slab and across its edges. 

Muschelkalk, in contrast, offers a softer, more stratified palette inspired by natural sedimentation, resulting in surfaces that feel both refined and harmonious; as with Travessa large slabs enhance visual continuity, turning space into a coherent, flowing narrative. Within “The humans behind”, the presence of Iris Ceramica Group contributes to a collective vision of Milan Design Week: a dialogue between material, innovation, and design culture. A shared statement where each brand becomes a voice in a larger idea, ceramics as an authentic expression of the human condition, in thinking, making, and shaping the spaces we inhabit.

Opening image: Diesel Living with Iris Ceramica Group, Travertino and Acid Majolica