Compasso d'Oro is the name of an industrial design award originated in Italy in 1954. The award was first sponsored by the La Rinascente, a Milanese department store. It has been organised and managed by the Associazione per il Disegno Industriale (ADI) since 1958. It is the first, and among the most recognized and respected awards in its field. The Compasso d'Oro aims to acknowledge and promote quality in the field of industrial design in Italy and internationally. It has been called both the "Nobel" and the "Oscar" of design.
Achille Castiglioni was an Italian architect and designer of furniture, lighting, radiograms and other objects. As a professor of design, he advised his students "If you are not curious, forget it. If you are not interested in others, what they do and how they act, then being a designer is not the right job for you."
Technogym is a company selling equipment and digital technologies for fitness, sport and health based in Cesena, Italy. Technogym has been Official Supplier to eight Olympic Games including the Tokyo 2020 games. The company was founded in 1983 by Nerio Alessandri.
Angelo Mangiarotti was an Italian architect and industrial designer. His designs were mostly for industrial buildings and railway stations. In 1994 he received the Compasso d'Oro award of the Associazione per il Disegno Industriale for his lifetime of achievement.
Giulio Cappellini is the founder and art director of the eponymous Italian furniture company Cappellini based in Milan. In 2004 the Company became part of the Poltrona Frau Group. In 2021, it was acquired by the American office furnisher Haworth Inc.
Roberto Pezzetta is an Italian artist and industrial designer.
The Scuola Politecnica di Design (SPD) is a Milan-based postgraduate training institution focused on project disciplines in the areas of design and visual communication. The postgrad offering of SPD includes yearly masters in industrial design, interior design, transportation and car design, visual design, "Web Design and Multimedia". Teaching is organized in intensive workshops, labs, theoretical study, seminars and activities in the field; courses end with a professional internship.
Piero Lissoni is an Italian architect, art director and designer. For over thirty years, he has developed projects the world over in the fields of architecture, landscape and interior, as well as in product and graphic design. He is also art director for Alpi, B&B Italia, Boffi, Living Divani, Lema, Lualdi, Porro and Sanlorenzo.
Flexform SpA is an Italian company with its head office in Meda, Italy, at the centre of the furniture production district of La Brianza. Founded in 1959 by the Galimberti brothers, the company designs, produces and markets furniture and furnishing accessories for residential and public use.
Margherita "Mara" Servetto, is an Italian architect and designer. She is the co-founder of Migliore + Servetto Architects.
Pier Giacomo Castiglioni was an Italian architect and designer.
Salvatori is an Italian design brand specialising in natural stone such as marble, limestone and sandstone.
Studio Alchimia was a post-radical avant-garde group founded in Milan in 1976 by Alessandro Guerriero and his sister Adriana with the stated mission of "materializing a non-existent thing into being."
Zanotta is an Italian furniture company particularly known for the iconic pieces of Italian design it produced in the 1960s, 70s, and 80s. These include the "Sacco" bean bag chair and "Blow", the first mass-produced inflatable chair. The company was founded in 1954 and has its main plant in Nova Milanese. In 1984 Zanotta established its experimental division, Zabro, headed by Alessandro Guerriero, with Alessandro Mendini and Stefano Casciani. Since the death of its founder, Aurelio Zanotta, in 1991, it has been run by members of his family. Zanotta's products were awarded the Compasso d'Oro in 1967, 1979, 1987 and 2020.
Sergio Asti was an Italian designer and architect, primarily known for his industrial designs for firms such as Artemide, Brionvega, FontanaArte, Gabbianelli, Heller, Knoll, Salviati, and Zanotta.
Andrea Branzi was an Italian architect, designer, and academic. He was born and raised in Florence, though he lived and worked in Milan for much of his career. He was a professor and chairman of the School of Interior Design at the Polytechnic University of Milan until 2009.
Ernesto Gismondi was an Italian designer, founder of Artemide. Gismondi was best known for designing light fixtures.
Livio Castiglioni was an Italian architect and designer. He made a significant contribution to twentieth-century Italian lighting design and was an early proponent of the practice of industrial design in Italy.
Marva Griffin is an arts administrator, curator, and founder of the SaloneSatellite exhibition at the annual Milan Furniture Fair in Italy. She has been described as, "the mastermind behind the world’s largest design fair [and] an outspoken friend to undiscovered designers."
The ADI Design Museum is a museum in Milan, Italy, which houses the historical collection of the ADI Compasso d'Oro Foundation, as well as temporary exhibitions, public talks and initiatives. It is dedicated to the understanding and promotion of design in Italy and abroad.
