ADI Design Index
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Project Description
Since 2000 the ADI Design Index has represented the best in Italian design, chosen by the Permanent Design Observatory which comprises over 100 experts (designers, entrepreneurs, University researchers and specialized journalists).The selected products are published every year in a volume and on the Internet with images, detailed information and commentaries/articles and are presented to the general public in an exhibition at the ADI Design Museum in Milan and in institutional locations in Rome.
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Urban or rural issues
Physical or other transformations
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Description of the project
Summary
Since 2000 the ADI Design Index has represented the best in Italian design, chosen by the Permanent Design Observatory which comprises over 100 experts (designers, entrepreneurs, University researchers and specialized journalists). The selected products are published every year in a volume and on the Internet with images, detailed information and commentaries/articles and are presented to the general public in an exhibition at the ADI Design Museum in Milan and in institutional locations in Rome, with excellent communication results through the Press, television and the Internet. In addition to the traditional values of functionality and aesthetics the selection criteria are based on innovation, sustainability and responsibility in terms of the social impact of the items selected. The selection is repeated every year for products and services released onto the market the previous year; the latest edition was presented in October 2021. This is the pre-selection for the ADI Compasso d'Oro award, the most authoritative design prize created in 1954. The last two editions of the ADI Design Index (2020 and 2021) selected the products that will be able to participate in the 27th edition of the award and had "sustainable and responsible development" as their main theme. The fourteen categories, one for each sector of daily life, underline the importance of the strategic role of design in improving all aspects of life and in supporting policies of changes.
Key objectives for sustainability
Sustainability has been one of the basic selection criteria for many years. Today the ADI Design Index is an annual collection of virtuous examples of products that respect current manufacturing conditions that save on resources, prefer recycled materials, respond to the needs of users with the best environmental solutions in every production chain. This also covers coatings and building materials from industrial waste, electric and alternative mobility, tools for non-intensive agriculture, sea cleaning and environmental hygiene. This is why the selection represents a leading example for all manufacturing companies and pushes them to adapt to the best concepts for respecting the environment.
Key objectives for aesthetics and quality
The ADI Design Index emerged from the Italian tradition that has always combined functionality and beauty. In more recent years, the enhancement of the user experience has been added to these qualities as a measure of the actual impact of the product in society. For some time now, service design and social design have been among the categories of the selection, in the belief that attention to intangible elements and social values is an essential part of design.
Key objectives for inclusion
The concept of "design for all" (the design of objects that can be used with equal ease by all users, whatever their degree of physical and mental ability) is an integral part of the principles of design. The ADI Design Index has accepted this concept by eliminating Design for all as a specific category, adopting it instead as a basic criterion for all categories without distinction. Among the projects selected there are constantly numerous virtuous examples of street furniture, inclusive workshops and objects for the integration of the disabled. Awarding the quality of these projects on an equal footing with all the others is in itself an affirmation of principle and an example for those who practice design.
Results in relation to category
The ADI Design Museum, the venue for the presentation of the annual ADI Design Index exhibition, had 45,000 visitors in the first 6 months of its opening. The adi-design.org and adidesignmuseum.org sites had a total of 146,100 visitors in 2021. The circulation of the ADI Design Index catalogue and the related catalogue was 10,500 readers. There were 6,500 references in the press and 55,300 followers on social networks. ADI Design Index is thus one of the major Italian tools for spreading and popularising the culture of good design among businesses and the general public. Companies are encouraged to conceive and produce their objects and services according to their possible inclusion in the selection.
How Citizens benefit
With its quality proposal, selection for the ADI Design Index constitutes a positive communication tool between industrial manufacturing and the general public/users. Thanks to the attention that public institutions also bring to this project, we are witnessing a solid return, along with the widespread distribution in public places of quality objects that are combined with the objects found and used in homes and offices, improving the living and working conditions of all.
Physical or other transformations
Innovative character
Compared to other selections, the ADI Design Index covers the whole country (the Permanent Design Observatory is active all year long throughout the country), is inclusive (the Observatory commissions include designers, researchers and entrepreneurs), selective (three levels of selection have to be overcome before the final acceptance of a product) and transparent (the make-up of the commissions and the selection criteria are public). Access to selection is economically sustainable for each candidate/product/service involved.
Learning transferred to other parties
ADI intends to extend the ADI Design Index selection criteria to cover the international dimension. A first step was taken with two international editions of the Compasso d'Oro award, for which the ADI Design Index constitutes the preselection. At the basis of this expansion is the desire to extend the selection criteria that have proved so positive in the evolution of Italian design to other design systems around the world.
