WHAT MAKES AWARD WINNING DESIGN
Updated: Aug 19
The Compasso d’Oro, established in 1954, is the oldest and most prestigious award in Italian design. Created by the prestigious Italian department store chain, La Rinascente, and inspired by two of the most influential figures in 20th-century Italian design and architecture, Gio Ponti and Alberto Rosselli, it recognises outstanding industrial products that combine function and aesthetics, celebrating both the designer and the manufacturer.
Today, the Compasso d’Oro Collection, preserved and showcased at the ADI Design Museum in Milan, includes over 2,300 products and projects that have received the award or an honourable mention in the various editions. It represents a unique heritage for understanding the evolution of both Italian and international design. Although the collection is too extensive to attempt to document here I have tried to present an overview of some of the most important areas of design that were on display.
Furniture
Furniture is one of the areas of design with which we, often unknowingly, have the most interaction. The collection at the museum contains many pieces which not only have the highest quality of aesthetics but also bring together the material and process innovations of the day.
Automotive
If there is one area of design, other than fashion, that we might associate with Italy surely it is that of the automotive sector. From the world renowned companies such as Ferrari, Alfa Romeo, and Ducati to the individuals such as Nuccio Bertone, Giorgetto Giugiaro, and Battista “Pinin” Farina that styled some of the most iconic vehicles of the 20th and 21st centuries.
Cooking & Camping
As two of my own passions it was a pleasure to see some classic designs that stretched back to my childhood and covered a diverse range of product areas from cookers and stoves to tents and crockery.
Electronics
Whether in the consumer or industrial sectors the ever expanding need for integration of electrical and electronic systems into products during the 20th century created new challenges and opportunities for designers, particularly with regard to the interfaces through which the user would interact with them, whether they were working on television sets, automated vending machines, or diagnostic equipment.
Spanning the advent of consumer electronics and the switch over from die-cast metal to injection-moulded plastic casings, these two typewriters from the iconic Italian brand Olivetti show how a design language evolved without losing its core identity. The spacing, proportions, and overall layout feel familiar, despite the transition from mechanical to electromechanical functionality, even as details become more refined and integrated. Other exhibitions
Alongside the Compasso d’Oro exhibition the eighty-year history of Oluce lighting was celebrated through a visual narrative that retraces the creative and cultural heritage of this historic company.
Founded in Milan in 1945 by Giuseppe Ostuni, and widely regarded as the oldest Italian design company still active in the lighting sector, Oluce became famous for combining innovative technology with high-end industrial design.
The exhibition only contained a limited number of their pieces but browsing through their website, you realize how many iconic designs they have been responsible for.
And the fascinating work of Japanese artist Haruka Misawa who's paper based pieces managed to be both precise and calming at the same time.
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