Compasso d'Oro


The Compasso d'Oro is an industrial design award which originated in Italy in 1954. Initially sponsored by Milanese department store La Rinascente, the award has been organised and managed by the Associazione per il Disegno Industriale since 1964. The Compasso d'Oro is the first and among the most recognized and respected design awards. It aims to acknowledge and promote quality in industrial design in Italy and internationally, and has been called both the "Nobel" and the "Oscar" of design.

History

The Compasso d′Oro was established in 1954, and 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. It was the first award of its kind in Europe and became internationally significant.
The original idea for the award is credited to designer Gio Ponti and. Many other leading architects and designers of the era, including the Castiglioni brothers,, Enzo Mari and Marco Zanuso, were involved in aspects of its inception and early development. The Compasso d'Oro logo and award trophy invoke the drafting compass invented by Adalbert Göringer in 1893 to measure the Golden Section.
The Italy Industrial Designing Association manages the Compasso d'Oro, and it is also a member of the International Industrial Designing Committee and the European Designing Bureau.
Since its inception, approximately 350 designers have been honoured with the award, for designs covering a wide range – from automobiles and bicycles to furniture and household objects, portable sewing machines, typewriters, calculators, clocks, lighting as well as concepts and systems, technical equipment, and yachts.
For the first time, the 2020 Compasso d'Oro included a "Products Career Award" which was given to three historical designs that have proven to be highly successful over time but were not awarded at the time of their inception: a 1962 floor lamp, Arco, by Pier Giacomo and Achille Castiglioni; a 1978 bed design, Nahalie, by Vico Magistretti; and the now famous 1968 Sacco bean-bag chair designed by Piero Gatti, Cesare Paolini, and Franco Teodoro.
The ADI Design Museum in Milan houses the historical collection of the ADI Compasso d'Oro Foundation, as well as temporary exhibitions. 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. In 2020, the Milan square where the ADI Design Museum is situated was renamed "Piazza Compasso d'Oro" to honour the cultural and historical significance of the award.
The inaugural ADI "Compasso d'Oro International Award" will be held at the Expo 2025 in Osaka, Japan. The winning entries will be exhibited in the Italian pavilion.
In 2025, Treccani published a comprehensive history of the Compasso d'Oro. The volume is over 1,000 pages and includes 2,275 images that document the ADI museum's collection dating from its 1954 inception through to 2022. It is published in both Italian and English versions.

List of Compasso d'Oro Awards

YearJuryPresidentEntriesWinners
1st1954Aldo Bassetti, Cesare Brustio, Gio Ponti,, Marco Zanuso570015
2nd1955Aldo Bassetti, Cesare Brustio, E. N. Rogers, Alberto Rosselli, Marco Zanuso130012
3rd1956Aldo Bassetti, Cesare Brustio, Franco Albini, Pier Giacomo Castiglioni, Alberto RosselliAlberto Rosselli 14509
4th1957Aldo Bassetti, Cesare Brustio, Franco Albini, Pier Giacomo Castiglioni, Ignazio GardellaGiulio Castelli12005
5th1959Bruno Alfieri, Vico Magistretti,, Augusto Morello, Giovanni RomanoLivio Castiglioni12006
6th1960Ludovico Belgiojoso, Vico Magistretti, Augusto Magnaghi, Augusto Morello, Marco ZanusoFranco Albini80010
7th1962Giulio Castelli, Franco Momigliano, Augusto Morello, Bruno Munari, Battista PininfarinaRoberto Olivetti9
8th1964Massimo Vignelli, Dante Giacosa, Vittorio Gregotti, Augusto Morello, Bruno Munari, Gino ValleAldo Basetti6
9th1967Aldo Basetti, Felice Dessi, Gillo Dorfles, Tomás Maldonado, Edoardo VittoriaMarco Zanuso13
10th1970Francesco Mazzucca, Franco Albini, Jean Baudrillard, Achille Castiglioni, Federico Correa, Vittorio Gregotti, Roberto Guiducci, Albe SteinerAnna Castelli Ferrieri10
11th1979Andrea Branzi, Clino Trini Castelli, Massimo Morozzi, Angelo Cortesi, Gillo Dorfles, Augusto Morello, Arthur Pulos, Yuri Soloviev, Nanni StradaEnzo Mari116739
12th1981François Barrè, Cesare De Seta, Martin Kelm, Ugo La Pietra, Pierluigi SpadoliniRodolfo Bonetto16
13th1984Cino Boeri, Douglas Kelley, Antti Nurmesniemi, Giotto Stoppino, Bruno ZeviGiotto Stoppino11
14th1987Angelo Cortesi, Rodolfo Bonetto, Marino Marini, Cara Mc Carty, Philippe StarckAngelo Cortesi16
15th1989Pierliugi Molinari, Fredrik Wildhagen, Hans Wichmann, Cesare Stevan, Tomás MaldonadoPierluigi Molinari12
16th1991Silvio Ceccato, Marcello Inghilesi, Victor Margolin, Pierluigi Molinari, Antti Nurmesniemi, Vito NotoAngelo Cortesi14
17th1994Dante Giacosa, Vittoriano Viganò, Giovanni Anceschi, Paola Antonelli, Uta Brandes, Jacob Gantenbein, Marja Heemskerk, Vittorio Magnago Lampugnani, Marco Migliari, Gianemiglio Monti, Mario Trimarchi, Vito NotoAugusto Morello13
18th1998Achille Castiglioni, Giuseppe De Rita, Marianne Frandsen, Fritz Frenkler, Sadik Karamustafa, Tomás Maldonado, Marco ZanusoAugusto Morello15
19th2001Marie-Laure Jousset, Filippo Alison, François Burkhardt, Omar Calabrese, Francisco Jarauta, Maurizio Morgantini, Erik SpiekermannGiancarlo Iliprandi17
20th2004Tomas Maldonado, Fulya Erdemci, Robert Fitzpatrick, Yutaka Mino, Pietro Petraroia, Richard Sapper, Angela Schönberger, Tomàš VlčekCarlo Forcolini15
21st2008Mario Bellini, Moh-Jin Chew, Lieven Daenens, Carla Di Francesco, Carlo Forcolini, Norbert Linke, Emanuele Pirella, Richard R. Whitaker,Miguel Milá12
22nd2011Arturo Dell'Acqua Bellavitis, Chantal Clavier Hamaide, Umberto Croppi, Guto Indio Da Costa,, Cecilie Manz, Clive Roux, Shiling Zheng22
23rd2014Anders Byriel, Vivian Cheng, Giorgio De Ferrari, Stefan Diez, Defne Koz, Mario Gagnon, Paolo Lomazzi, Laura Traldi23
24th2016Gabriella Bottini, Toshiyuki Kita, Mugendi K. M'Rithaa, Marc Sadler, Cinzia Anguissola d'Altoè Scacchetti, Yossef Schvetz, Walter Maria de Silva
25th2018Carlo Galimberti, Nevio Di Giusto, Yongqi Lu, Francesco Trabucco, Motoki YoshioFrancesco Trabucco
26th2020Luca Bressan, Virginio Briatore, Jin Kuramoto,, Päivi TahkokallioDenis Santachiara18
27th2022,, Cloe Piccoli, Annachiara Sacchi, Mirko ZardiniAnnachiara Sacchi29220
28th2024Maria Cristina Didero, Luciano Galimberti,, Renata Cristina Mazzantini, Toshiyuki KitaLuciano Galimberti20