Compasso d'Oro

Compasso d'Oro
	Compasso d'Oro logo
Awarded for	Industrial design award
Country	Italy
Presented by	Associazione per il Disegno Industriale
First awarded	1954
Website	www.adi-design.org

Compasso d'Oro (Italian pronunciation: [komˈpasso ˈdɔːro]; Golden Compass) is the name of an industrial design award originated in Italy in 1954 by the La Rinascente company from an original idea of Gio Ponti and Alberto Rosselli. From 1964 it has been hosted exclusively by Associazione per il Disegno Industriale (ADI). It is the first and most recognized award in its field. The prize aims to acknowledge and promote quality in the field of industrial designs made in Italy and is awarded by ADI.

La Rinascente Compasso d'Oro award for the product aesthetics, 3rd edition, Milan 1956. Exhibition of object in contest. Photo by Paolo Monti (Fondo Paolo Monti, BEIC).

History

The Compasso d′Oro was set up in 1954, and now it is the highest honor in the industrial designing circle in Italy, as famous as the first grade international awards like the Red Dot Award. It was the first award of its kind in Europe and soon took on an international dimension and relevance, multiplying the occasions on which the exhibitions of award-winning objects were held in Europe, the United States, Canada and Japan. The Castiglioni brothers contributed to establish the ADI and the Compasso d’Oro awards. Enzo Mari was president of the ADI from 1976 to 1979. At present the management department of the Compasso d'Oro is Italy Industrial Designing Association, and it is also the members of the International Industrial Designing Committee and the European Designing Bureau.

Since its inception, approximately 300 designs have been honored the Award, covering a wide range of products such as racing bikes, portable sewing machines, desks, sofas, vases, clothes hangers, drawers, clocks, desk lamps, telephones, electric fans and coffee machines. Some of the awarded designs are exposed in Milan, in the Collection of the Premio Compasso d'Oro ADI. On 22 April 2004, the Ministry of Cultural Heritage and Activities and Tourism – through its Superintendency for Lombardy – declared the collection of "exceptional artistic and historical interest", thus making it part of the national cultural heritage.[1]

List of Compasso d'Oro Awards

	Year	Jury	Entries	ADI president	Winners
1st	1954	Aldo Bassetti, Cesare Brustio, Gio Ponti, Alberto Rosselli, Marco Zanuso	5700		15
2nd	1955	Aldo Bassetti, Cesare Brustio, E. N. Rogers, Alberto Rosselli, Marco Zanuso	1300		12
3rd	1956	Aldo Bassetti, Cesare Brustio, Franco Albini, Pier Giacomo Castiglioni, Alberto Rosselli	1450	Alberto Rosselli (Birth of the ADI)	9
4th	1957	Aldo Bassetti, Cesare Brustio, Franco Albini, Pier Giacomo Castiglioni, Ignazio Gardella	1200	Giulio Castelli	5
5th	1959	Bruno Alfieri, Vico Magistretti, Giulio Minoletti, Augusto Morello, Giovanni Romano	1200	Livio Castiglioni	6
6th	1960	Ludovico Belgiojoso, Vico Magistretti, Augusto Magnaghi, Augusto Morello, Marco Zanuso	800	Franco Albini	10
7th	1962	Giulio Castelli, Franco Momigliano, Augusto Morello, Bruno Munari, Gian Battista Pininfarina		Roberto Olivetti	9
8th	1964	Massimo Vignelli, Dante Giacosa, Vittorio Gregotti, Augusto Morello, Bruno Munari, Gino Valle		Aldo Basetti	6
9th	1967	Aldo Basetti, Felice Dessi, Gillo Dorfles, Tomás Maldonado, Edoardo Vittoria		Marco Zanuso	13
10th	1970	Francesco Mazzucca, Franco Albini, Jean Baudrillard, Achille Castiglioni, Federico Correa, Vittorio Gregotti, Roberto Guiducci, Albe Steiner		Anna Castelli Ferrieri	10
11th	1979	Andrea Branzi, Clino Trini Castelli, Massimo Morozzi, Angelo Cortesi, Gillo Dorfles, Augusto Morello, Arthur Pulos, Yuri Soloviev, Nanni Strada	1167	Enzo Mari	39
12th	1981	François Barrè, Cesare De Seta, Martin Kelm, Ugo La Pietra, Pierluigi Spadolini		Rodolfo Bonetto	16
13th	1984	Cino Boeri, Douglas Kelley, Antti Nurmesniemi, Giotto Stoppino, Bruno Zevi		Giotto Stoppino	11
14th	1987	Angelo Cortesi, Rodolfo Bonetto, Marino Marini, Cara Mc Carty, Philippe Starck		Angelo Cortesi	16
15th	1989	Pierliugi Molinari, Fredrik Wildhagen, Hans Wichmann, Cesare Stevan, Tomás Maldonado		Pierluigi Molinari	12
16th	1991	Silvio Ceccato, Marcello Inghilesi, Victor Margolin, Pierluigi Molinari, Antti Nurmesniemi, Vito Noto		Angelo Cortesi	14
17th	1994	Dante Giacosa, Vittoriano Viganò, Giovanni Anceschi, Paola Antonelli, Uta Brandes, Jacob Gantenbein, Marja Heemskerk, Vittorio Magnago Lampugnani, Marco Migliari, Gianemiglio Monti, Mario Trimarchi, Vito Noto		Augusto Morello	13
18th	1998	Achille Castiglioni, Giuseppe De Rita, Marianne Frandsen, Fritz Frenkler, Sadik Karamustafa, Tomás Maldonado, Marco Zanuso		Augusto Morello	15
19th	2001	Marie-Laure Jousset, Filippo Alison, François Burkhardt, Omar Calabrese, Francisco Jarauta, Maurizio Morgantini, Erik Spiekermann		Giancarlo Iliprandi	17
20th	2004	Tomas Maldonado, Fulya Erdemci, Robert Fitzpatrick, Yutaka Mino, Pietro Petraroia, Richard Sapper, Angela Schönberger, Tomàš Vlček		Carlo Forcolini	15
21st	2008	Mario Bellini, Moh-Jin Chew, Lieven Daenens, Carla Di Francesco, Carlo Forcolini, Norbert Linke, Emanuele Pirella, Richard R. Whitaker, Miguel Milá			12
22nd	2011	Arturo Dell'Acqua Bellavitis, Chantal Clavier Hamaide, Umberto Croppi, Guto Indio Da Costa, Pierre Keller, Cecilie Manz, Clive Roux, Shiling Zheng			22
23rd	2014	Anders Byriel, Vivian Cheng, Giorgio De Ferrari, Stefan Diez, Defne Koz, Mario Gagnon, Paolo Lomazzi, Laura Traldi			23[2]

Some of the winning products 1956-1960. Photo by Paolo Monti
Super-automatic sewing machine model 1102 designed by Marco Zanuso (Fratelli Borletti)
Valigia arcata in vitellone scamosciato della ditta Beretta.
In the shelf: electro-mechanic clock "Cifra 5" (R.E.C. Solari, Udine)
Sewing machine Mirella designed by Marcello Nizzoli for V. Necchi Spa.
Franco Albini photographed by Paolo Monti at Compasso d'Oro Award, Milan, circa 1960.