"Handcrafts are going through a stage of great interest. Artisans are dialoguing with designers to create new objects that are different from their usual folkloristic style," Giulio Iacchetti, an industrial designer based in Milan, told Xinhua on Saturday.

In a globalized world which runs fast, big companies with an old history have become sometimes unable to interpret the new needs and desires of consumers, he noted.

"The artisan-designer binomial is rapid and substantial," Iacchetti said, defining artisans as the producers of "happy objects" that are made with quality and are able to communicate "a sense of serenity."

In his view, in order to really be "globalized" a good designer should never give up his cultural identity, of which artisans can be perfect interpreters. Objects of design should arouse from a need of telling new stories and should never be made for marketing reasons, he stressed.

"When someone tells me the market needs no chairs anymore, then I suddenly feel like designing a new chair instead," he said.

"Creativity will never end, because designers are like athletes who never stop after achieving a record," he added.

Iacchetti went on to say that "objects of design are silent but friendly presences, and for this reason the stories they carry are as important as their forms and materials."

Manuel Barbieri, a 24-year-old interior designer based in Milan, also told Xinhua that he has noted a large presence of handcrafted objects of design at the 53rd edition of the Salone del Mobile.

"In Italy it is easy to find very good artisans able to knead a variety of materials including wood, ceramics, marble or metal," noted Barbieri, who, despite his young age, has already made a name in Italy thanks to his strong passion for design combined with the concept of handcrafted production.

He noted that in a highly competitive sector which has difficult access to market, collaboration between designers and artisans to produce furnishing accessories was one of the new tendencies that have emerged especially among young designers.

"Fast-developing markets like Brasil and China are certainly attractive but difficult to approach. Beginning from an object of design, which is easier to produce than kitchens or bathrooms, for example, but also assures high quality, can be a good start," the designer said.

Furthermore, Barbieri added, artisans by nature tended to customize their creations in the present period in which consumers were increasingly seeking unique objects.

Barbieri said he was impressed by the many collections of objects of design presented at the Salone del Mobile which were made to be personalized at different levels, from interchangeable colors and customized forms to user-adjustable details.