Compasso d’oro Carrier Award

Born in Munich in 1932, he began his career in the Daimler-Benz Style Centre in Stuttgart, then moved to Milan where he opened a studio in 1959. His collaboration with Marco Zanuso, which began in the 1960s, continued for many years with the design of a series of televisions and radios for Brionvega. From 1980 he was the principal design consultant for IBM and Lenovo, for which he oversaw the design of personal computers worldwide. He designed the first ThinkPad laptop in 1992, the Leapfrog laptop (winner of the Compasso d’Oro in 1994) and numerous subsequent models. He oversaw the design and development of a wide range of products, from boats to vehicles, from electronics to information technology and from furniture to kitchen appliances. He taught at universities around the world and received numerous awards. He was an honorary member of the Royal Society of Arts in London and a member of the Akademie der Künste in Berlin. In 2010 he received an honoris causa degree from the University of North Carolina and in 2012 he received Cross of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany from the President of the Federal Republic of Germany.

 

The SaloneSatellite was started in 1998, when Cosmit asked Marva Griffin Wilshire to create an event to help the most promising young designers in their careers, putting them in direct contact with the exhibitors at the Salone del Mobile. It immediately became an unparalleled observatory of international youth creativity. Since then, more than 9,000 young people and 253 international design schools have met every April on this stage where Lorenzo Damiani, Patrick Jouin, Nendo, Satyendra Pakhalé, Harri Koskinen and Xavier Lust made their debut. The Selection Committee was also excellent and has seen all the major international players in the world of design. Since 2005, the event has also been held as part of the World Wide Salons in Moscow. In 2007, the tenth anniversary was celebrated with the Avverati exhibition: 450 objects put on the market by the best Italian and foreign companies. In order to constantly support young people, in 2010 the SaloneSatellite launched the I Saloni – SaloneSatellite Award competition.

 

Born in 1932, he studied Architecture and Interior Design at the Werkkunstschule in Wiesbaden, interrupting his studies from 1948 to 1951 for an apprenticeship as a furniture carpenter. He resumed his university studies in 1953 and obtained a specialization diploma with honours. From 1953 to 1955 he worked in Otto Apel’s architecture studio, collaborating among other things with the Skidmore, Owings and Merril studio (designers of the American Embassy in the Federal Republic of Germany). In 1955 he joined Braun as an architect and interior designer, creating his first project in 1956, followed in 1957 by furniture projects for Otto Zapf. In 1961 he was appointed head of the Braun Product Design Department, of which he became director in 1968. Professor of Industrial Design at the Hochschule für Bildende Künste in Hamburg in 1981, in 1988 he was appointed executive director of Braun and then, in 1995, Executive Director for Corporate Identity. He retired from corporate and academic positions in 1997. Since 1980 he has held various exhibitions of his work and has received, among many international awards, an honorary degree from the Royal College of Art in London. In 2002 he received the Commander’s Cross of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany.

An architect who also created objects, furniture, environments, paintings, installations as well as architecture. He edited the magazines Casabella, Modo and Domus and collaborated with international companies such as Alessi, Bisazza, Philips, Cartier, Swatch, Hermès and Venini and was an image and design consultant for various companies, including in the Far East. He was an honorary member of the Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design in Jerusalem and honorary professor at the Academic Council of Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts in China. He won the Compasso d’Oro in 1979 and 1981, is Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres in France, received tributes from the Architectural League of New York and an honorary degree from the Milan Polytechnic and the École Normale Supérieure de Cachan in France. He was Professor of Design at the Hochschule für Angewandte Kunst in Vienna and in 1989 he opened the Atelier Mendini in Milan with his brother Francesco, also an architect, designing buildings, structures and infrastructures built all over the world.

 

Graduated in Architecture at the Politecnico di Milano, he dedicated himself to installation architecture, coordinated graphic design projects and editorial graphics. He was the art director of Domus and for sixteen years the managing director and art director of Abitare. He has designed large exhibitions and museums and his graphic design projects have constantly featured in museum and exhibition interventions by Mario Bellini, Achille Castiglioni and Guido Canali. With Migliore and Servetto he designed the Look of the City in Turin for the 2006 Olympics and the celebrations of the 150th anniversary of the unification of Italy, summarized by the large light installation on the Mole Antonelliana. He is an honorary Royal Designer at the London RSA and among his many awards are two Compasso d’Oro (1998, 2008) and the German Design Award 2011.

 

Born in Tokyo in 1929 and graduated in 1955 in Design from the Tokyo State University of Fine Arts and Music, in 1956 he attended the Art Centre College of Design in Los Angeles, expanding his knowledge about the meaning of industrial design and its social impact. In 1957 he founded the GK Industrial Design Associates studio, then GK Design Group Inc., of which he has held the position of president since 1991. The group has formed eleven organizations since 1966 and has since then designed objects in various sectors, from motorcycles to signage and architecture. Kenji Ekuan has played a fundamental role on the MITI committee of the Forum of Life Culture and Industry, and has put his experience and knowledge at the service of promoting Japanese design, fostering contacts between designers and the general public.  He was responsible for the decision to hold the ICSID World Design Congress and the ICSID General Assembly of 1973 in Asia (in Kyoto and Tokyo) for the first time with the general title The spirit and material things. President of ICSID in 1975, Kenji Ekuan was appointed Senator in 1981. He was responsible for the establishment of Design for the World in Barcelona. He is the author of numerous books dedicated to the relationship between Japanese design and culture, including Thoughts on everyday utensils (1969) and The aesthetics of the Japanese lunch box (1970).

 

After graduating in Economics and Commerce, he worked in Milan in the editorial offices of the periodicals of Etas Kompass (including Architettura by Bruno Zevi), then at Henraux di Querceta, where he followed, among other things, the work of the Chiesa dell’Autostrada by Michelucci and the Mandarin Hotel in Hong Kong, in addition to the restoration of the frontals of the Abbey at Montecassino. In 1970, involved with marketing for Poltronova, he came into contact with design and the Florentine groups Archizoom and Superstudio. In 1972 he took over the management of the Poltronova store in Florence with Paolo Stefani. From the meeting with Cesare Cassina and Dino Gavina, the idea of ​​a large shop in Florence was born (which Carlo Scarpa was commissioned to set up) and in 1973 International Design was founded, destined to become a reference point for design in Italy. In 1977 the Selfhabitat store opened in Florence – designed to cover the market segment competing against Habitat and Ikea in Europe – with offices in Milan, Livorno and Parma. Even today it is the most important design shop in Florence. He is one of the founders of ADI’s Distribution and Services Department, which in 2012 made him an honorary member.

 

Born in Valdagno (Vicenza), until 1955 he ran the family craft business there. He then moved to Milan where, with Franco Meneguzzo, artist and ceramist, he founded DEM (Danese e Meneguzzo), a ceramic workshop for the creation of both mass-produced objects and unique hand-modelled pieces. In 1957, together with Jacqueline Vodoz, he set up the Danese company and began the partnership with Bruno Munari and Enzo Mari. He continued ceramic production with Meneguzzo and then on his own, and collaborated with Giovanni Belgrano, Achille Castiglioni, Michel Fadat, Marco Ferreri, the IARD Group, Angelo Mangiarotti and Kuno Prey. Having sold the company in 1992, he established the Jacqueline Vodoz et Bruno Danese Association in Paris, with operational headquarters in Milan, which held exhibitions and organised research projects. In 2004 the association ceased its activity and the Jacqueline Vodoz and Bruno Danese Foundation was established, which manages the Danese historical archives and art collections.

 

Born in Potenza on 1 May 1931, Riccardo Dalisi held the chair of Design at the Faculty of Architecture in Naples, where he was also director of the School of Specialization in Industrial Design.

In the seventies, together with Ettore Sottsass, Alessandro Mendini, Andrea Branzi and others, he was one of the founders of Global Tools, a counter-school of architecture and design that brought together the groups that in Italy covered the most advanced area of ​​ so-called “radical architecture “. Always engaged in social work (his neighbourhood work with the children of the Rione Traiano, the elderly of the Casa del Popolo in Ponticelli and, in recent years, a commitment to the young people of the Rione Sanità and Scampia in Naples was outstanding), he has combined research and teaching, developing a unique artistic expression as the common thread throughout his life and work. In 1981 he won the Compasso d’Oro for research on the Neapolitan coffee maker. In the last thirty years he has dedicated himself to creating a relationship between university research, architecture and design, sculpture and painting, art and craftsmanship, keeping at the centre the objective of human development through dialogue and the potential for creativity that it releases. In 2012 his book Acqua dueO, published by H2o new scenarios for survival, won one of the Los Angeles Green Dot Awards for environmental sustainability.

 

79 years old, he is the President and CEO of the Armani Group, a leading company in the fashion and luxury sector and among the few with a single owner directly involved in all strategic, style and design choices. In 1957, having abandoned his medical studies, he moved from Piacenza, where he grew up, to Milan, where he worked as a buyer for the La Rinascente department stores. Later he collaborated with Nino Cerruti and, as a freelance stylist, with various companies. In 1975, at the suggestion of his partner Sergio Galeotti, he decided to create his own brand and Giorgio Armani S.p.A. was created on 24th July with a prêt-à-porter line for men and women with immediate success. In 1980 he made the costumes for the film American Gigolo and the success of the film marked the rise of Armani style in the collective imagination. He is Grand Officer of the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic and in 2008, in Paris, he was awarded the Légion d ‘Honneur. Celebrated in 2000 with an exhibition at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York, Giorgio Armani has always been involved in humanitarian activities for, among others, Green Cross International. In 2005, the designer presented his first Giorgio Armani Privé Haute Couture collection while in 2010 he inaugurated the first Armani Hotel in Dubai, followed in 2011, by one in Milan.

 

The company designed the Macs, the best personal computers in the world, along with OS X, iLife, iWork and professional software. Apple is leading the digital music revolution with its iPods and iTunes online store. It has reinvented mobile telephony with its revolutionary iPhones and App Stores, and with the iPad it is defining the future of portable devices and mobile media.