The opening of the new ADI Design Museum in Milan is an opportunity to celebrate a unique legacy which has generated a universe of objects and symbols and through which today it is possible to tell the story of Italian genius in the fields of design, graphics and architecture. Businesses, institutions, authors and products are all represented by the 139 Compasso d’Oro Career Awards which this dedicated and wide-ranging narrative describes.
The aim is to pay homage to the finest names in 20th Century Italian design and highlight their theoretical, visionary and social action.
The exhibition project presents the world of Italian design from both a transversal and a democratic point of view. On the one hand, it is a tribute to the history of well-informed and cultured Italian professionalism and the noblest of design awards while on the other it is an opportunity to present a virtuous snapshot of the state of the art of contemporary Italian graphics. It is the result of a curatorial choice which has seen the participation of some of the finest authors and names from the ADI Design Index, together with a careful selection from the new generation. Each invited designer has developed, interpreted and translated a Compasso d’Oro Career award while enjoying complete freedom of expression, thereby giving rise to a multifaceted and heterogeneous result consisting of drawings, illustrations, collages and typographical posters in which contents and narrative strands are either transcribed in a manner faithful to the vision of the relevant Compasso Award or reinterpreted and subverted with subtle irony.
The collective celebration of these exceptional talents has been further enhanced by the installation designed by the architect Massimo Curzi for the ADI Design Museum, who through a reinterpretation of the tradition of Renaissance libraries, has designed a space which is both monumental and at the same time domestic. With this exhibition, ADI confirms its institutional and community role as the active memory for the heritage and knowledge of Italian Industrial Design while safeguarding it and becoming a meeting place open to dialogue between contemporaneity and past masters.
The intention was to create a participatory experience between the institution and the many communities that come into contact with it, allowing each visitor to take their most appreciated manifesto away with them in order to bring the soul and beauty of Italian Design into all our houses.

With graphic design projects by

100km Studio / Politecnico di Milano
AAAHHHAAA / Eugenio Perazza
Antonella Abbatiello – Facce / Edizioni di Comunità
Gianluca Alla / Fantoni
Alvvino / Ugo La Pietra
Silvana Amato / Renato De Fusco
Chiara Andreatti / Piera Gandini – Stile
Cinzia Anguissola d’Altoe’/ Francois Burkhardt
Valerio Aprigliano / Kartell
art-bit | Paolo Buonaiuto / Gruppo Aziende Guzzini
Atto / Terence Conran
Irene Bacchi / Antonia Campi
Roberto Bagatti / nome designer
Luca Ballarini + Barbara Villanova / ICE (Istituto Commercio Estero)
Violetta Barba / Andrea Branzi
Matteo Bartoli / Pino Tovaglia
Arsen Benda / Abet Laminati
Thomas Berloffa / Carlo Forcolini
Federica Biasi / Fabio Lenci
Laura Bortoloni / Augusto Morello
Alessandro Boscarino / Editoriale Domus
BRH+ | Barbara Brondi & Marco Rainò / Makio Hasuike
b-r-u-n-o / SaloneSatellite
Mauro Bubbico / Zeev Aram
Burro Studio / Giuliano Molineri
Valentina Cameranesi – Adrianna Glaviano / Roberto Pezzetta
Marco Campardo Studio / Gruppo Fontana Arte
Giorgio Camuffo / Alessandro Mendini
Marco Camuffo / Bruno Danese
Elio Carmi / Carmi e Ubertis / Adriano Olivetti
Gaetano Cassini / Studiofluo / Zanussi
Francesco Ceccarelli (Bunker) / Giorgetto Giugiaro
Maurizio Ceccato / Ron Arad
Pierluigi Cerri / Giovanni Sacchi
CH RO MO / Carlo e Piero Molteni
Chiarelinee / Nargis e Nasir Kassamali
Francesco Cibati / Rodolfo Bonetto
Antonello Colaps – dopolavoro / Dieter Rams
Gianluigi Colin / Nanda Vigo
Alessandro Colombo / COSMIT
GARCIACUMINI (Cinzia Cumini – Vicente Garcia Jimenez) / Puccio Duni
Dario Curatolo / Triennale di Milano
Alessio D’Ellena / Vanni Pasca Raymondi
Francesco Delrosso / Tecno
Filiberti Design / Centrokappa
Francesco Dondina / Angelo Mangiarotti
Maxim Dosca / Luciano Benetton
Bianca Fabbri / Flos
Perla Gianni Falvo / Carla Adamoli
Davide Falzone e Silva Rotelli / Apple
Cinzia Ferrara / Giovanna Mazzocchi
Damiano Fraccaro | Otium / Ekuan Kenji
Francesco Franchi / Giancarlo Iliprandi
Monica Fumagalli Iliprandi / Driade
Luciano Galimberti + Chiara Tricarico / Angelo Cortesi
Ghigos ideas / Rodrigo Rodriquez
Giga Design Studio / Ernesto Gismondi
Sebastiano Girardi Studio / Den Permanente
Francesco Maria Giuli / Renzo Piano
Salvatore Gregorietti / Bob Noorda
GTower Studio / Domus Academy
Gumdesign / Bruno Munari
Heads Collective / Emilio Ambasz
Giulio Iacchetti / Officina Alessi
Jekyll & Hyde / Braun
LaTigre / Marco Zanuso
Leftloft / Italo Lupi
Paola Lenarduzzi / Roberto Sambonet
Francesco Librizzi / Gio Ponti
LS graphic design / Artemide
Francesco Lucchese – Lucchesedesign / Miguel Milà
Italo Lupi / Franco Albini
Lucio LuZo Lazzara Zetalab / Kaj Franck
Carlo Malerba / Nanni Strada
Alessio Filippo Manna / Brionvega
Ilaria Marelli / B&B Italia
Lorenzo Mason Studio / Milton Glaser
Fulvia Mendini / Gilda Bojardi
Francesco Meneghini / Tomàs Maldonado
Metodo Studio (Paolo Palma, Alessio Romandini) / G.Anzani, A.Spinelli, A.Spinelli
Armando Milani / Kaj Franck
MM Company / Walter de Silva
Andrea Mongia / MIT – Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Marialuisa Montanari / Gino Valle
Studio Laura Moretti / Flou
Multiplo / ISIA Roma – Diagramma didattico
Muttnik / Maddalena De Padova
Monica Nannini / Riccardo Dalisi
NAPO PEOPLE (Régis Tosetti, Simon Palmieri) + Davide Fornari
NEO [Narrative Environments Operas] / Marco Ferreri
Claudia Neri / Cini Boeri
Paffi (Giulia Peretti e Silvia Recalcati) / Guido Jannon
Mauro Panzeri / Rossella Bertolazzi
Parasite 2.0 / Giotto Stoppino
Parco Studio / Ezio Manzini
Gio Pastori / Albe Steiner
Pc-|< Paolo Cesaretti + Claudia Astarita / Tobia Scarpa
Mario Piazza / Michele Provinciali
Massimo Pigliapoco – Giacomo Delfini (Tonidigrigio) – Barbara Ermeti / Alberto Rosselli
Piovenefabi / Luigi Caccia Dominioni
Daniela Piscitelli / Dino Gavina
Massimo Pitis / Giorgio Armani
Nick Pitscheider / Fiam Italia
Roberto Priori e Daniele Rossi / Slow Food
Angelo & Giovanni Rinaldi / Giulio Castelli
Paul Henry Robb / James Dyson
Antonio Romano – Niccolò Desii / Sergio Pininfarina
RossodiGrana / Roberta Manzotti – Enrico Mosconi / The Council of Industrial Design
Andrea Rovatti / Enzo Mari
Mario Rullo / Gruppo Editoriale Electa
Elena Salmistraro / Ingo Maurer
Francesco Scarponi / Scuola Politecnica di Design
Benedetta Signaroldi – Francesco Pontiroli / Ferrari
Gianni Sinni / Olivetti – Promozione del design
SMV – Studio Moretti Visani / Flou
Leonardo Sonnoli / Jasper Morrison
Sovrappensiero Design Studio / La Rinascente
Claudio Spuri / Chris Bangle
Studio FM Milano / Achille Castiglioni
Studio Folder / Rolf Fehlbaum
Studio Irvine / Molteni & C.
Studiomartino.5 / Boffi
Studio Mistaker / Richard Sapper
Studio Origoni Steiner / Gillo Dorfles
Studio Tapiro / Pinin Farina
Tellurico / Donato D’Urbino, Paolo Lomazzi
Studio Temp / Unifor
Tassinari/Vetta / Giulio Carlo Argan
Stefania Toro – Cristiano Ghirlanda / Piaggio & C.
Tomomot / Carlo Bartoli
Marco Tortoioli Ricci / Toshiyuki Kita
Davide Trabucco / Antonio Macchi Cassia
Chiara Tricarico / Olivetti
Mario Trimarchi / Marcel Breuer
Susanna Vallebona / Anty Pansera
Francesco Valtolina / MoMA – The Museum Of Moder Art
Ettore Vitale / Vortice Elettrosociali
Elena Xausa / Ettore Sottsass jr.
Ascanio Zocchi / Franco Moschini

Exhibition curated by
Luca Molinari
assistant curator and scientific coordination
Maria Antonietta Santangelo – Luca Molinari Studio
graphic design of the exhibition
Andrea Rovatti
exhibition design
Massimo Curzi Architetto with Marco Belloni
work supervision
Matteo Vercelloni
set up by
Exibiz

ph. Martina Bonetti