Compasso d'Oro (; Golden Compass) is the name of an industrial design award originated in Italy in 1954. The award was first sponsored by the La Rinascente, a Milanese department store. It has been organised and managed by the Associazione per il Disegno Industriale (ADI) since 1958. It is the first, and among the most recognized and respected awards in its field. The Compasso d'Oro aims to acknowledge and promote quality in the field of industrial design in Italy and internationally.
History
The Compasso d′Oro was established in 1954, and now it is the highest honour in the field of industrial design in Italy, comparable to other prestigious international awards such as the Good Design award, iF Design Award, Red Dot Award, the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Awards, and the Good Design Award (Japan). 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 original idea for the award is credited to Gio Ponti and . Many other leading architects and designers of the era including the Castiglioni brothers (Livio, Pier Giacomo, and Achille), (whose logo design was inspired by Adalbert Goeringer's golden section compass), Enzo Mari and Marco Zanuso were involved in its inception.
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 350 designers have been honoured 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.
The ADI Design Museum in Milan houses the historical collection of the ADI Compasso d’Oro Foundation, as well as temporary exhibitions, public talks and initiatives. 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.
List of Compasso d'Oro Awards
Trivia
The award is given as a Compass, the one invented by Adalbert Goeringer in 1893 to measure the Golden Section.
See also
Industrial design
List of industrial designers
List of Compasso d'Oro recipients by year (in Italian)