What do you expect from a brand that includes designers like Ron Arad, Paola Navone, and Philippe Starck channeling their creative energies for it? Nothing less than spectacular right?

Pip-E Chair. Designed by Philippe Starck. Manufactured by Driade.

Italian furniture company Driade lived up to its prestigious name and certainly didn't disappoint at the Milan Furniture Week 2008. With their ethnic influenced creations, furniture brands are trotting all over the globe to bring us products with multi-cultural references. A common trend we’ve noticed this year was looking towards the East for inspiration.

If Moroso patronizes Nipa Doshi then Driade shows it affinity to Mann Singh and Xie Dong. Hence the striking silver centerpieces by Indian designer Mann Singh and the almost pristine Adelaide collection by Chinese artist Xie Dong. Both creations communicate a certain poetry as they seek to represent an all-encompassing experience of the mystifying Eastern aesthetic heritage.

But it wasn't all about the Exotic East this year as Driade also placed emphasis on the Great Outdoors (so to speak). Philippe Starck and Ron Arad once again established their reputations as Modern Day Gurus by reinventing the usual prosaic outdoor furniture. Thus, we have the ‘Pip-E’ Chair which is Starck's take on consumerism and modern design. Experimental yet constant, the chair uses gas-molded polypropylene monbloc to reinterpret a wooden chair he formerly designed for Driade.

CLOVER. Designed by Ron Arad. Manufactured by Driade.

On the other end of the design spectrum we have the CLOVER, by Ron Arad, which is a quirky haze of whimsical shapes and solid colors. Shaped as a four-leaf clover this sculpture chair utilizes polyethylene monobloc and illustrates how furniture is constantly looking for fresh stimuli and expression.

No matter what your poison is, Driade has something for everyone. Their works displayed at the Salone Internazionale del Mobile 2008 are an impenitent expression that goes beyond the usual clich©s. To me, most of their current creations symbolize subtle contemporary splendor, which carries forward the Driade legacy.