An inspiring podcast on everything you need to know about color!
Our next episode is with Draga & Aurel, a multidisciplinary studio working across art, collectible design, and product design, based in Como. They will talk about the synergy within their partnership and their materials of choice. Out end of June.
S7E04 The Milan Edit with The Forecast Club
In this episode, the Forecast Club comes together to unpack what really stood out at Milan Design Week 2026. Moving beyond the hype, they share honest reflections on shifting aesthetics, the rise of multi-sensory experiences, and the growing divide between design for the few and design for the many. From material-driven color stories to questions around relevance, affordability, and authenticity, this conversation offers a sharp, insider perspective on where design is heading next.
The Forecast Club is a global collective of leading, award-winning trend experts, one from each country. While each member operates independently, they collaborate periodically on exclusive projects known as “Drops.” This podcast episode features the following team members:
Alina Schartner, based in Austria, is an internationally recognised colour and interior design consultant, trend forecaster, and designer. She creates purposeful strategies, concepts, and collections for major brands. Her futures-focused approach, rooted in longevity, balances relevance, emotional and functional value, profitability, and sustainability. Alongside bespoke services, Alina shares her insights through keynotes, workshops, webinars, trend reports, and expert panels. Since 2021, she has also been the brand ambassador for RAL COLOURS, promoting colour literacy worldwide.
Stefan ”Trendstefan” Nilsson, based in Sweden, is one of Sweden’s and Scandinavia’s most influential trend experts. Constantly on foot, he visits fairs and world cities to scout the latest in design, lifestyle, sustainability, retail and hospitality. He looks for new colours, shapes and objects, but the main driver is to try to analyse new demands regardless of if they are for Gen Z or regular men on the street. These insights are shared in various magazines and at seminars all over the world. He is a regular contributor to magazines like Elle Decoration, Residence, Plaza as well as morning shows on TV and radio. Trendstefan runs his own digital platform Trendstefan.se since 2006 and the trend seminar “Stora Trenddagen” since 2011. On the side he curates exhibitions both at fairs, museums and how own mobile exhibition platform Designgalleriet. Swedish magazine Rum have listed Trendstefan as one of the most influential people in architecture and design in Sweden. Trendstefan is also the founder of The Forecast Club.
Susanna Björklund, based in Finland, is a futures thinker, trend analyst, journalist and a designer. As a Senior Lecturer she teaches emerging talents at LAB Institute of Design, LAB University of Applied Sciences. Susanna is also an international speaker and moderator for panel discussions. Susanna is known for curating and producing SIGNALS, the official trend exhibition of Habitare, the interior fair of Helsinki, 2015-2022, linking visual and societal trends. Her passion is design and to look for changes in everything around us, to analyze and cluster those signals into thinking where the futures might be heading. Societal shifts, design for the planet and changes in consumer behaviour as well as in values are interesting ingredients for her work.
Hyperbolic Color with Serena Confalonieri
Known for her colourful designs, Serena Confalonieri explains what inspires her and the important role that color plays in creating community, safety and change in neighbourhoods. Serena loves to break taboos in the world of design as she talks about controversial topics in our society.
Milan-based designer and art director Serena Confalonieri works in the field of product, interior, graphic, and textile design, collaborating with companies and artisans of excellence both in Italy and abroad. Her strongly distinctive style is built around a graphic, colorful, and emotional vision, mixed with decorative hyperboles and geometric shapes. Unexpected subjects, chromatic and material combinations, together with anthropomorphic and zoomorphic inspirations, give life to projects where design is given an ironic twist and, vice versa, playfulness is at the root of the project.
Each project starts from an accurate research, which investigates the meaning and history of all elements involved while giving them a personal and fresh new interpretation. In particular, in-depth researches on surfaces are very crucial, in order to obtain impeccable results and a strong consistency with patterns, decorations and colors.
After graduating in Interior Design at Politecnico di Milano, Serena Confalonieri spent some time abroad, first in Barcelona and then in Berlin, where she collaborated with interior and graphic design studios. Over the first few years of her career, she also worked with several studios in Milan, plus with the Politecnico Faculty of Interior Design.
In 2013 she made her debut at Milan Design Week with a selection of products born from the collaboration with companies such as cc-tapis, Nodus, and Wall & Decò. Ever since then, she has been working for leading design and furniture companies including: Abate Zanetti, Altreforme, Archiproducts, Arzberg, Azimut Yachts, Carpet Edition, cc-tapis, Coin Casa Design, Comune di Milano, Crate & Barrel USA, .ex- novo, Fondazione Cologni, Gur, Holland & Sherry USA, Houtique, Karpeta, L'Opificio, Maliparmi, Mason Editions, Medulum, Mohebban, My Home Collection, Myyour, Nodus, Porro, Portego, Potocco, Saba Italia, Sambonet, Swatch, Texturae, Vetrofuso, Wall & Decò.
She has been the art director of design brand and realized many site specific set-ups and installations on behalf of the Municipality of Milan, Archiproducts, Marmomac Fair, and the San Siro Milan Hippodrome on the occasion of the "Leonardo Horse Project".
Alongside important institutions such as Triennale Milano, Fondazione Cologni, Michelangelo Foundation, Coin Casa and Elle Decor, Mexico Design Week, she took part in many projects characterized by the aim of guiding small and extraordinary artisanal realities towards more contemporary designs and products, in order to save and bring to light a know-how, otherwise at risk of extinction.
Serena has been selected for several design residencies and workshops both in Italy and abroad (USA, Mexico, Portugal). Her projects have been featured in many important publications and trade magazines (The New York Times, Corriere della Sera, Il Sole 24 ore, Wallpaper, Interni, Ottagono, L'Officiel, Elle Decor ...); also, she has received prestigious awards including two Honorable Mentions at the Young & Design Awards and the German Design Awards. Her works have been exhibited in well-respected design addresses such as the Milan Triennale and the Rossana Orlandi Gallery.
Creating Design Synergies with Certosa Initiative
Founders of Certosa Initiative Margriet Vollenberg and Remi Versteeg will reveal why they are going to be the talk of Milan Design Week in this exclusive podcast interview. How is color influencing this years' Milan Design Week and how did it influence the installations at Certosa? What are the innovations we can expect in materials, design while tapping into our multiple senses? How is combining color ever more so important and what role does the absence of color play in todays' design?
Beyond Space, architects with a distinct focus on delicate interiors and grand-scale transformations, bundle forces with Organisation in Design, makers of Ventura Projects and instrumental in breathing new life into rediscovered districts of Milan. Brought together by a deeply shared passion for design, their complementary track records make them a natural match to move the crowds into the up-and-coming Certosa District. In the face of turbulent times and on such short notice, the team sees itself floated by the sheer energy of the historical moment of resuscitation and is poised to make the Certosa Initiative the Talk of the town during the 2022 Milan Design Week.
Remi Versteeg is equal parts architect and entrepreneur. He founded his first company back in 2002 (many were to follow) and obtained his degree in architecture from Delft University. In 2016, he co-founded office for architecture Space Encounters. In 2021, he co-founded Beyond Space together with Stijn de Weerd. Remi is driven to innovate and always seeks to combine diverse perspectives to forge new connections and lead him down roads less traveled.
Margriet Vollenberg is an entrepreneur and a professional in the global field of design and has over twenty years’ experience in the design industry. Margriet, founder of Organisation in Design and founder & art director of Ventura Projects, has got a grand sense of adventure on the one hand and the prudence to do business wisely on the other. She is a graduate designer who studied at the Design Academy in Eindhoven under Lidewij Edelkoort. Her company Organisation in Design (started 2005) provides clients with services design strategies, consultancy, and art direction. For 11 years she was driving force behind the successful design events Ventura Projects in Milan, Dubai, New York, and many other places all around the world.
“Excellent series about color. It’s a complex topic and Judith approaches it from a variety of angles with her guests. Always entertaining and insightful. I look forward to listening to each episode and learning something new about color and the visionaries in the color world.”
— Review Apple Podcast