The first Moleskine Café has recently been opened at Corso Garibaldi 65 in the Brera Design District of Milan, ready to be replicated in global cities worldwide. Developed in collaboration with international brand agency Interbrand, the Moleskine Café is a new format that mixes elements of a café, art gallery, store, and library. This is a contemporary reinterpretation of the historical café littéraire, a place for inspiration where the generation of ideas and stories is accompanied by the ritual of morning and afternoon coffee.
The interior is designed à la Moleskine: essential, clean aesthetics and a contemporary color palette of neutral colors, just like the ivory color of a Moleskine notebook, for a tranquil mood that enables privacy as well as conversation. The two-level layout reflects the purpose of the café: somewhere to be energized and stimulated by coffee, culture and conversation (ground floor) while at the same time finding relaxation and silence to unplug, read and create (the mezzanine).
A special section of the café is dedicated to exhibitions, focusing especially on the early stages of the creative process. Sketches, notes and doodles created by established and emerging architects, designers, illustrators, business innovators and film directors are the starting point for a series of on-site exhibitions, where the creative process is revealed as it develops, as if browsing through the pages of a notebook. There is also a store section with a specially designed boutique-like display-deck that allows hands-on contact with the objects in Moleskine collections.
It is planned that a program of talks, breakfast learning sessions, and workshops will take place in the Moleskine Café all the year round. Creative professionals from different backgrounds will be sharing their learnings on topics as diverse as visual thinking, idea generation, smart productivity, sketching, travel writing and photography. The Moleskine-supported magazine The Towner also contributes to enriching the space with shows, galleries, and live interviews.