Innovation signed ISA

To find out the future of freshly made ice-cream and the way to put it on display and offer it, look at the proposals by ISA, the Umbria-based company that has always combined the concept of innovation with that of functionality.

ISA of Bastia Umbra has been interpreting the trends in the field of professional refrigeration and of interior decoration for ice-cream parlours and confectioners’ shops for over forty years. It chose Milan, and in particular the Host exhibition, to present its new 2006 line of products currently being offered to professional customers at the Sigep in Rimini.

Exactly as was the case in recent years for the shows “Click” and “GelatoShow” (just to recall the most recent successes in the field of ice-cream, but if we were to run through the whole history of this company’s winning ideas, goodness knows how many pages we would have to write), once again ISA has scored a bull’s eye with three projects that aroused a lot of interest among the operators. Terms such as “innovative” are a tight fit for these three projects, also because they were created by three designers of international renown, Claudio Silvestrin, Isao Hosoe and Simone Micheli.

The very top: I Ghiacci
However large and full of ideas a stand may be, there is always, inevitably, one thing that attracts the attention of visitors and arouses their curiosity and interest more than any other. In Milan as in Rimini or Longarone, this “object”, the top of the range of ISA’s offering, was the project “I Ghiacci” designed by the architect Silvestrin. A courageous state-of-the-art choice aimed at exciting and impressing customers, who will see themselves projected into a futuristic, dream-like dimension, very unlike the traditional stereotypes.

During the presentation to the press, the Managing Director of ISA, Carlo Giulietti, expressed his satisfaction and stated that this project is “Even more innovative than expected. We left it up to the architect to express himself without feeling conditioned or having to follow guide lines, and are fully satisfied with the result. The relationship between Claudio Silvestrin and ISA was one of co-operation to the full satisfaction of both sides, and it was never necessary to choose between aesthetic needs and technical requirements”.

Silvestrin himself confirmed that “The company never asked for the shapes or lines to be changed due to technical difficulties in implementing them. The right solutions were always found thanks to professional skill, great experience and passion”.

This is how the project “I Ghiacci” was created. It is capable, on its own, to furnish and characterise the space and the style of the premises, with a strong personality. Its soft and welcoming lines and its airy and magmatic surface immediately give customers an idea of fluidity.

Yes, ice, but hot, is the paradox for this project that stands out due to the continuity of the lines that could be considered even female, and that warm the heart when stopping in front of the counter.

This furnishing line contains all the forces of the elements, in particular of water, that runs as fluidly as the lines of the counters and of the unbroken showcases that give rise to I Ghiacci.

The design is distinguished by a clearly “futurist” vocation that, according to its creator’s own idea, “would also suit a spacecraft”. The format of the furniture is available in two versions, in which the outfitting can be customised, and the colour of which recalls and re-interprets the space-like atmospheres of Star Trek, creating an inimitable setting for the public area.

The project is a perfect alliance between the innovation of the technical solutions and of the materials on the one hand and the shape on the other; the project was developed in step with the search for materials, and just as it is impossible to say which came first, the chicken or the egg, it is equally impossible to define whether it was the shape that demanded certain materials or whether it was the materials that conditioned the shape, but without ever losing sight of functionality.

 “I Ghiacci” uses components of the Show line, that ensure total all-round visibility of the product being displayed. They are not simply showcases but technologically advanced materials for refrigeration and display purposes.

 “Food appeal” is guaranteed by displaying the products at the optimum angle for facilitating visibility and consequently promoting business. The technical area, built-in and made entirely of steel, makes hygiene and cleaning easy.

Frame, Tam Tam and Mediterraneo
Although still amazed by the appeal of Claudio SIlvestrin’s project I Ghiacci, we did not want to lose this opportunity to say that ISA’s 2006 proposals also include other definitely interesting projects. One that should be mentioned is  “Frame”, a collection of furnishings designed by architect Simone Micheli. As he says himself, he has designed, “A range capable, in terms of content and form, of celebrating the products as if they were precious gems”. Indeed Frame does have this great ability to show off the product being displayed. More than that, it lets the operator make his own choices for the lighting. So Frame is not a “static” project. It is extremely dynamic and flexible, a collection capable of adapting to the many different requirements of each and every operator, using light to provide scenarios that can change on the basis of the various times of use.

Then there is Tam Tam (in this case the designer, Isao Hosoe, comes from the Far East). He interprets the contemporary shop, made of different “players” and “moments”: the customers, the shopkeeper,  and the products being displayed on the one hand, and on the other the times of day at which, depending on the specific requirements, the spaces must adapt to today’s frenzied pace.

The spaces, specifically, consist of Tam Tam, a modern version but that brings to mind an ancestral instrument, the drum marking the rhythm, something that is not only part of the furniture. It also plays a part in the rhythm of the day: to create original configurations and new ways of interacting it is sufficient to rotate the components.

With Tam Tam, access to the products is even easier, and communications with customers are never penalised even at the most crowded times, so that no time is wasted.

In addition to the new projects already mentioned, ISA has also proposed once again the “Mediterraneo” collection designed by Gae Aulenti, that caused undisputed admiration for its elegant design.

On a daring parallel with the world of cars and motor shows with their Concept Cars, at Host ISA presented three Concept Bars that, unlike many bold but hardly practical projects, will be included in the catalogue in a few months time, when their production starts.

Bruno Arosio – in the magazine Gelato Artigianale