Icon by Mara: the (vertical) evolution of an icon
The Icon family welcomes two new chairs designed by Marcello Ziliani. An increasingly versatile and complete proposal, which crosses different furnishing contexts and multiple uses with its impeccable and recognisable style.
It is the ideal representation of a carefully studied, far-sighted and sustainable research and innovation project. In fact, the Icon collection continues to grow and evolve, strong in its identity and recognisable style, but ready to support a plurality of contexts, uses and functions that make it highly transversal and versatile, in line with contemporary interior trends as well as the demands of a more and more demanding contract market.
Launched just over a year ago, the Icon family already embraces a multitude of elements: from the original armchair, it has been meanwhile enriched with an array of versions - high-backed, lounge, stool or with desk, all of them equipped with a plurality of bases, whose common denominator is a technical DNA within an elegantly minimalist beauty. A winning project that immediately gained distinguished positions in the parterre of major international awards: selected for the ADI Design Index 2023 and running for the Compasso d'Oro 2024, it was then a finalist at the Archiproducts Design Awards and the Mixology Awards; the collection also won the renowned German Design Award 2023, by the German Design Council, in the "Excellent Product Design - Furniture" category.
For the Salone del Mobile.Milano, two new models enlarge the collection, creating "a vertical extension," as Marcello Ziliani tells. "For the new proposals in fact we have not simply changed the bases or the colours, but we have conceived real seating options that take up the design of the collection, adapting it to new functions".
Mara then presents the new Icon: the lines are now moulded in a polypropylene shell that makes it ideal for office, contract and outdoor contexts. The detail of the inclined backrest is taken up from the original model to form the armrests, culminating in a moulding that literally embraces the seat. Echoing the armchair, the search for the same ergonomics is concealed in the controlled movement that supports the posture and enhances the comfort of the chair. The new Icon re-proposes the feeling of comfort by making the best use of plastic moulding: Mara has developed a careful articulation between the seat and the backrest through the joint armrest that gives extreme elasticity to the product while maintaining greatest robustness.
A further element of comfort is the calibrated design of the seat, whose volume and thickness create a "padded" effect to the eye and a "softness" in use. The opening between the seat and backrest recalls the aesthetic characteristic of Icon Soft and is functional for the chair stacking– a great advantage in the contract use, as well as in transport and logistics.
The new Icon is completed with a soft seat cushion, removable and washable: a decorative and practical accessory that enriches the chair and makes it even more comfortable. The cushion is available in the wide range of Mara fabrics, that allow cool chromatic matches. The shell, too, comes in a new, delicate palette, in the colours of terracotta, green, light blue, as well as black and white, in combination with the metal bases (for a “ton-sur-ton” effect) or in contrast.
Also making its official debut at the Milan fair is the Icon High-back version: the polypropylene armchair also takes on an evolved expression with a high, padded backrest and seat cushion. The look of Icon thus becomes more sophisticated and the feeling more welcoming thanks to the large, soft thicknesses.
The main feature of the Icon High-back is the balanced material and colour match: the refined combination of plastic solidity and its soft tactility as well as the skilful use of colours for the frame and the upholstery, create chiaroscuro effects or harmonious continuity, drawing from the available, colourful palette. A clever solution for those who seek an everyday comfort, for a long time, whether in a home-office or in office contexts.
Icon is therefore the perfect synthesis of Marcello Ziliani's expertise (he has been designing chairs for over 40 years) and Mara research and development. An informal, dynamic, practical, yet highly sophisticated product in its apparent simplicity.
“We have created a fluid object that crosses different worlds, occupying all of them”, explains the designer. “These two chairs have common features, but take on different formal, expressive connotation as well as typology and functionality. They are related and yet distinct products”.
It is this 'pushing boundaries' approach so unique of the company that fascinated Ziliani and gave rise to this four-handed collaboration. “Mara has proved to be a young and determined company, with a great deal of experience because they have very strong roots and decades of expertise to draw on. But I was attracted then by their research for innovation and materials: there is great responsibility and awareness in every project they create, which must be optimal, researched, long-lasting, improvable, transversal. This collection has been conceived then in a very natural manner”.
