Attaccabottone: when creativity becomes manifest

Let’s start with a simple truth: striking up a conversation is never so easy.
Whether it’s work, a new conversation, or a casual encounter, the first exchange always brings with it a small leap into the unknown. We wonder if it’s the right time, if what we’ll say will make sense, if we’ll be perceived as too pushy or too shy.

In short, the beginning is the most delicate point.
And the same thing happens in communication.

Now, let’s try to increase the complexity:
How do you start a conversation when you’re at a trade show, inside a stand, surrounded by thousands of stimuli?
And, similarly, how do you open a dialogue with a “cold” contact, someone who doesn’t yet know us, but who could become something more?

This is where Attaccabottone was born:
from the idea that communication isn’t just “what we say,” but how we invite someone to start talking to us.
Whether offline at a desk or online behind a screen, the heart of the matter is the same: finding a kind and intelligent way to build relationships.

Not a push, not a lever, not a “technique.”
But a gesture: small, human, everyday.
A button that, when pressed, truly opens a conversation.

At WMF 2025, we wanted to create a space that wasn’t just a stand, but a meeting place.
We designed a large, empty panel: a wall that didn’t exhibit, but waited.
It waited for people to approach, choose a button, and decide where to hang it. A simple, almost instinctive gesture, yet full of meaning: “I’m here, and I leave my mark.”

With each button added, the wall changed shape.
It wasn’t a “finished” display, but something we built together, dialogue after dialogue.
At the end of the fair, that panel didn’t represent us: it represented all the conversations we’d started, the curiosities we’d shared, the glances we’d exchanged, the hands that chose that button over another.

It was alive.
And it moved like a community moves when it finds a common language.

Buttons were the heart of the campaign: we chose to represent them with pins.

Not just “gadgets,” but small identity signs: illustrated by hand, one by one, each with a different character, tone, and nuance.
We chose to design, produce, and finish them by hand with packaging that we literally handcrafted, because we wanted them to be objects you can touch, feel, and carry.

In an age where everything is serialized, we preferred care:
the human touch, the time dedicated, the attention to detail.

And then there was the Mentarossa Bag Mania.
Over 2,000 bags requested and taken away, used, worn.
Not as a “fair bag,” but as an object that continues to speak even outside the stand.

Buttons and bags have become recognizable symbols: things that aren’t thrown away, that are kept, that are collected.
Because there’s more than just a logo behind them.
There’s an invitation: Shall we start a conversation?

At the WMF, Martina Pescioli took the stage to discuss a topic that often remains in the background, yet determines the real life of organizations: internal communication.
Not the kind you see on the outside, not the campaigns that win awards or likes, but the kind people experience every day, in the hallways, in chats, in the silent and invisible rituals that build a company’s culture.

The speech began with a simple, yet far from banal, idea:
communication that truly works is the kind that starts from within, to reach within.
A brilliant message isn’t enough if those who work inside don’t really feel it.
A grand slogan isn’t enough if there’s a lack of attention to gestures, words, and details that make people feel seen, heard, and involved.

The heart of the reflection was this:
It’s not just what we communicate, but how we allow people to recognize themselves in what we communicate.

Creativity isn’t decoration: it’s relationship.
It’s what transforms information into belonging, a message into a shared identity.