Today's New York Times has a comprehensive overview of this year's Salone written by Alice Rawsthorn. Identifying trends of survivalism, escapism, and environmentalism, Rawsthorn does a good job intellectualizing the state of design today:

The dominant theme at the fair might best be described as survivalist: in piece after piece, designers explored how they can help us (and themselves) navigate the perils of contemporary life - in particular, the big problems of recession, environmental crisis and designs neurosis about its role in a saturated consumer culture.

Great observation, but perhaps ironic when a piece like Nacho Carbonell's cocoon chair made of recycled paper mache from old newspapers sells for thousands. With those price points it's hard to understand how design is helping us "survive".