Last month Mandarina opened a new monobrand store in Edmonton, the capital city of Alberta and Canada’s cultural capital for the year 2007. History and culture play important roles in the arts and lifestyle of this city. You’ll be overwhelmed by all the activity of this year’s “Festival City“. Its extensive cultural and artistic programme will definitely be very interesting but certainly not relaxing.

So, if too much culture stresses you out, then try some shopping therapy at the West Edmonton Mall, where my colleague Andrea got to meet Patrick Swayze! It’s one of the largest shopping and leisure centers in the world. A modern Babylon, where you can shop till you drop amongst 800 stores and more than 100 bars and restaurants.

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Packing and traveling. The seaside, holidays, relaxation. New places to visit, to explore and to love!

Mind you, we should travel in a responsible way. If we were to follow a few guidelines, we could be conscientious tourists so that, rather than just having fun, we could also learn something about other countries and bring their culture home with us thereby preserving it instead of ruining it.
Mandarina has always supported this type of travel and the photos along our corridors remind us of that every day.

Until 13 September 2007, at the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum in New York, you can see an interesting exhibition entitled “Design for the other 90%“. It is a collection of projects by various designers, with a common goal of trying to create low-cost solutions to satisfy the primary needs of 90% of the world’s people. The poorest ones.
Among the projects, there’s “Life Straw“, which presents a type of straw that actually cleans water while it’s being drunk and protects against cholera and other illnesses.

Technorati Tags: Design, Cooper-Hewitt, New York, responsible travel

I love packing my bags. It means that I’ve somewhere new to go, something new to discover or a beloved place to return to.
I promise myself every time that I’ll take only the essentials and I won’t just toss stuff in haphazardly. And then my bag starts overflowing and I start filling up a second one, just for the small things, which always ends up weighing more than my suitcase.
Is there any woman on earth who can actually travel with just a pair of jeans, two tops, two swimsuits, a sarong, an evening dress and maximum two pairs of shoes?
I’ve never met one!

What are you doing for your next vacation?
Why don’t you send me photos of your Mandarina bag on its world travels?

Technorati Tags: travel, packing, suitcase

To dare to fly. This is how I see my job at Mandarina Duck and how I convey my passion for experimenting in my daily life.
I began my journey with Mandarina 15 years ago because I realized that there I could fly high as high as I wanted to. They were open to innovative ideas that went beyond the market. This was clear in their products, which were based on new concepts and new materials.

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At Mandarina, there’s been a lot of fervent web activity lately! Everyone’s talking about websites, e-commerce, html codes, flash technology and databases! After our American landing, our new corporate website is being launched this Friday.

How many of you remember the first Mandarina website? It was so conceptual, meaningful and content-rich that our products were submersed. So, two years ago, we felt that our website should put greater emphasis on our products and our window on the world became a virtual showcase, a sort of electronic catalogue.

However, that’s not enough anymore. It’s essential that mandarinaduck.com has a well-defined, strong personality.

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Innovative communication has always been a priority for Mandarina Duck.
Throughout the past, there have been many examples of this innate attitude and the Eighties were host to many original happenings!
The relationship between Mandarina Duck and Giorgione can only be described as either an erupting volcano or an overflowing river, not just regarding ideas but also facts, events and news.

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I’d like to take you through a typical day of our production manager, Massimo Venturini. He’s always traveling, so I couldn’t shadow him, but I asked him to tell me about his travels the last time we crossed paths.

Waking up in a room at the Shangri-la in Hong Kong or on a Lufthansa flight from Frankfurt to Singapore is as usual as having a cup of tea for Massimo, make that a cup of Asian green tea!

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Karim Rashid is certainly a genius in his field. The Loveseat – two flower petals facing each other – is one of his latest creations that celebrates one of the world’s most famous champagnes.

He is a relentless provoker and has produced more than 2,000 objects. Some of his masterpieces have been shown at MoMa in New York. During the last Salone del Mobile, he was asked by Corriere della Sera, “What colours do you suggest for home decorating?” He replied, “You need to create large, white spaces with strong accent colours such as shocking pink or fluorescent orange.”

The latest creation at Moroso is the simply beautiful Panna Chair. Its name is reminiscent of something sweet and voluptuous. Tokujin Yoshioka  has experimented with unusual materials for this project, creating shapes and using fabrics inspired by the poetry of Japanese culture.

Technorati Tags: Karim Rashid, Loveseat, Moroso, Panna Chair

Hello everybody. My name’s Andrea Signori and I travel around the world as a Visual Merchandiser setting up displays in Mandarina Duck mono-brand stores.

My most recent trip was from Bologna to Edmonton to Panama City and back to Bologna.

Wednesday 30 May: Bologna to Amsterdam to Minneapolis to Edmonton (Canada).
Equipped with a sweatshirt and a scarf, I found myself rethinking two old clichés:
1) it’s cold in Canada: I arrived to 27 ° C above zero, dry weather and an army of mosquitoes the size of blimps;
2) all female flight attendants are young and good-looking: on two Northwest flights, their average age was well over 50.

In my hotel, I was surprised that my room had a Polynesian theme, or rather a beyond kitsch theme. The whirlpool bath was bigger than my entire bathroom back home.

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I’m currently in Detroit to define the last details before launching our new US e-commerce Shop.
The project is really ambitious, we want to establish our brand in a huge market, much more competitive and “mature” than the Italian and European counterparts.

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