Torino Design Festival 2027: B2B merchandising for design studios, galleries, schools, brands and circuit sponsors

Production briefing before the lab order

Dates

Traditionally in autumn (October), across a window of about one week that opens with the inauguration of the circuit exhibitions and closes with the closing night of the event. The specific dates of each edition are published on the festival direction website before the opening of accreditations.

Venues

Exhibition spaces and galleries of the Turin circuit (Crocetta, San Salvario, Borgo Dora, Aurora), temporary showrooms open during the event, institutional venues and city museums hosting the programme installations, design-school spaces, reception venues for delegates and press.

Audience

Design and architecture public, industry professionals, showroom and distribution-chain buyers, specialised press, institutional delegates, museum and foundation directors, teachers and students of Piedmont design schools.

Operational calendar

Opening of showrooms and exhibitions in the afternoon of the inauguration day, five-six days of opening and programme lectures, weekend of openings and side events, final closing night.

Torino Design Festival — an event that crosses the city with a calendar of exhibitions, lectures, installations, temporary showrooms, talks and presentations of the Turin design circuit — gathers each year design studios and sector professionals, Italian-manufacturing brands, galleries, design schools, cultural institutions, specialised press and a public of industry professionals and design enthusiasts. It is one of the central moments of the Italian design calendar and an opportunity for visibility for the productive districts of Piedmont (Pesaro furniture, lighting, Biella textile, ceramics, glass, wood).

Corp-Merch.IT has worked across several editions with design studios, Italian-manufacturing brands and galleries joining Torino Design Festival, and is familiar with the tight window of the autumn calendar: the October window sits between London Design Biennale, Salone del Mobile in Milan (in spring) and Design Week, and any branded item that needs to be at the studio, the temporary showroom, the gallery or the festival warehouse for the first inauguration day has to be locked well in advance. We work with a network of Italian labs aligned with the design sector: Como textile for the public shoppers, Tuscan organic cotton for the uniforms, Collodi wood for the gift kits of the lecturers, Fabriano paper for the product catalogues, Maniago steel for the metallic pins of the staff. We receive the client's master graphic files (AI, EPS, PDF/X-4 with CMYK images at 300 dpi, FOGRA39 colour profile for print, Pantone for textiles) and adapt them across the various customisation techniques: water-based screen print on GOTS-certified organic cotton for the public shoppers, hot-foil stamping on FSC-certified paper for the product catalogues and monographs, laser engraving on walnut wood for the gift kits of the lecturers, computerised embroidery for the staff uniforms of the galleries and showrooms, UV print on recycled PVC for the inauguration-day passes. Quality control runs at AQL 2.5 on each lot, and delivery to the studio, the temporary showroom, the gallery or the festival warehouse follows slots from the event calendar.

For Italian clients the invoice goes out via the Italian Sistema di Interscambio (SdI) of the Agenzia delle Entrate with 22% VAT in EUR; reverse charge for intra-EU buyers with VIES, split payment for public-sector entities, codice destinatario or PEC for electronic delivery of the invoice. For product catalogues and design monographs the reduced 4% or 5% VAT rate applies under current Italian tax rules. For clients subject to CSRD reporting (D.Lgs. 125/2024, transposing Directive (EU) 2022/2464) we provide a sustainability data sheet per order with Scope 3 CO₂e estimates under the GHG Protocol Corporate Value Chain on the Italian legs and from the named supply chains, aligned with ESRS E1 and E5.

Event calendar and day-by-day logistics

The October window of Torino Design Festival is concentrated and has to be planned with a calendar that includes the gallery set-up day on Monday, the inauguration of exhibitions on Tuesday, the lecture days of Wednesday and Thursday, the openings and talks weekend of Friday and Saturday, and the final closing night on Sunday. For design studios and Italian-manufacturing brands the gap between event graphic confirmation and the opening of exhibitions is usually below ten weeks, and any item that needs to be at the studio, the temporary showroom, the gallery or the festival warehouse for the first inauguration day has to be closed and shipped at least five working days before opening. We work backwards from that moment: production closes two-three weeks before the inauguration; the courier slot to Turin is booked for Tuesday or Wednesday of the previous week; the addressee list (studio, gallery, showroom, warehouse, delegate hotels) is finalised with the event direction at least two weeks before opening; the edition-specific print runs (year, edition number, exhibition titles, brand logos) only add a small reprint on top of a neutral graphic base already produced.

Production and logistics to the Torino Design Festival venues

Before launching production we confirm graphics, quantities per recipient, packing and named delivery point. The final delivery address is defined close to the event weeks against the calendar issued by the direction: the exhibition spaces and galleries of the Turin circuit (Crocetta, San Salvario, Borgo Dora, Aurora) have regulated access in central Turin; the temporary showrooms run their own delivery windows that have to be coordinated with the direction contacts; the institutional venues and city museums require recipient-labelled deliveries. The ZTL of central Turin conditions courier access, which is why most teams opt for early-morning or post-19:30 deliveries, when heavy vehicles are again allowed in the ZTL areas of the centre. For materials requiring climate-controlled conditions (product catalogues, design monographs, installation prints) we coordinate climate-controlled transport with specialised partners.

For Italian programmes routed through Milan, shipments are consolidated at the hub and forwarded by BRT, SDA, GLS or DHL Express Italy with 24-hour windows across most Italian postcodes, with dedicated slots for direct deliveries to the studio, the temporary showroom, the gallery or the festival warehouse. For programmes above 1,000 pieces we offer appointment delivery with phone pre-notice and, on request, on-site set-up by our staff. For clients subject to CSRD (D.Lgs. 125/2024) we integrate a Scope 3 CO₂e sheet under the GHG Protocol on the Italian legs and on the provenances from the named districts, aligned with ESRS E1 and E5. Goods travel with DDT, packing list and origin declaration, and split deliveries between studio, gallery, showroom, festival warehouse and delegate hotels are managed with separate packing lists per destination and dedicated on-site labelling.

For programmes that also include gala dinners, programme talks, lectures or temporary-showroom inaugurations we prepare a separate logistical calendar with dedicated slots for each moment of the event, and we integrate transport coverage to the institutional venues and city museums hosting the installations. For extra-EU buyers based outside the EU the invoice goes out without Italian VAT citing the relevant regulatory exemption; for intra-EU buyers with a valid VIES number reverse charge applies with the relevant article cited. For representation programmes that call for dedicated venue reception (lectures, talks, institutional dinners) we handle the time-sensitive delivery of kits to the hall, the speaker hotel or the design studio.

Frequently asked questions