The Compasso d'Oro is an industrial design award originated in Italy in 1954. Initially sponsored by the La Rinascente, a Milanese department store, the award has been organised and managed by the Associazione per il Disegno Industriale (ADI) since 1964. The Compasso d'Oro is the first, and among the most recognized and respected design awards. It aims to acknowledge and promote quality in its field in Italy and internationally, and has been called both the "Nobel" and the "Oscar" of design.
Associazione per il Disegno Industriale 'Industrial Design Association' (ADI), is an Italian professional organisation of about 1,100 architects, designers, manufacturers, trade journalists, academics, and design universities. Its primary purpose is the promotion of good design in Italy and abroad. The ADI is responsible for the administration of the Compasso d'Oro design awards and an associated museum.
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."
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.
Gianfranco Frattini was an Italian architect and designer. He is a member of the generation that created the Italian design movement in the late 1950s through the 1960s and is considered to have played a major role in shaping it.
ISIA - Istituto Superiore per le Industrie Artistiche, is the name of four Italian universities, which train students in the field of design. The ISIAs are in Rome, Florence, Faenza and Urbino. They are public institutions under the umbrella of the Italian Ministry of Education, University and Research, AFAM division.
Roberto Pezzetta is an Italian artist and industrial designer.
Enzo Mari was an Italian modernist artist and furniture designer who is known to have influenced many generations of industrial designers.
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.
Margherita "Mara" Servetto, is an Italian architect and designer. She is the co-founder of Migliore + Servetto Architects.
Vito Noto is a born Italian, naturalized Swiss industrial 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."
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.
Pino Grimaldi, born Giuseppe Grimaldi, was an Italian designer and academic.
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.
Italo Lupi was an Italian graphic designer and writer.
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.
