PORADA INTERNATIONAL DESIGN AWARD: NEW EDITION!
At the last Salone del Mobile, the winners of the last edition of the competition were awarded with their prizes and the 2016 call for entries was launched, this time focusing on coat hangers and hooks
The prestigious Porada International Design Award returns: the 2016 edition of the international competition is dedicated to different types of coat hangers and hooks. Promoted by Porada Arredi, leading company in the production of furniture and accessories for furnishing, and POLI.design, Consorzio del Politecnico di Milano, with the patronage of ADI, Association for Industrial Design, the competition is open to Italian and foreign designers and creative minds, both individually and in groups, students or professionals. It challenges them to design innovative concepts for coat hangers and wall-mounted and free-standing coat hooks, equipped or equippable. The new call for entries was officially launched during Milano Design Week 2016, at the award ceremony for the winning designs of the fourth edition of the competition, dedicated to Media Units, which took place at the Porada stand in the Salone Internazionale del Mobile in Rho last 13 April. The 2015 edition attracted no less than 156 entries from all over the world: Italy, Iran, Ukraine, Greece, Brazil, Mexico, Peru, Indonesia and Japan are some of the countries that took part. Awards were assigned to six designs that stood out for their high quality.
But who are the winners of the 2015 edition of the Porada International Design Award? The winner of the competition for the Professionals category was the HI‐FI, TV and multimedia products unit "Concept Balcony", presented by German designer Philipp Schaake. Instead, the winner of the Students category was an Italian: Luca Nodari, of Milan Polytechnic University, who won first prize for his design “Orbita”.
The designs for the 2016 edition, to be presented by 30 November 2016, must be original, unpublished and designed to enhance the use of the production technologies and processing and finishing methods typically used when working with solid wood. Entrants must design coat hangers and hooks in natural or lacquered wood, preferably one of those commonly used by the company, and it can be combined with metal, mirrors, glass, leather, skin, or fabrics. The designs must also aim to fulfil the specific functional and ergonomic requirements and comply with the current safety standards in force, as well as environmental and sustainable design characteristics.
The winning designs will be judged and selected by a jury of well-known experts in the sector: when evaluating the entries received, consideration will be given to the level of originality, the degree of innovation and research on new design solutions specific to the typical processing methods used for solid wood, the experimental use of materials and surface finishes. Finally, the ability of the designs to define and anticipate innovative user scenarios and concepts for using wooden and contemporary furniture will also be assessed, focusing in particular on the decisions made regarding the type of object to be created, the technologies used and how the shape of the design has been developed. The Jury will choose three winners for each of the two competition categories, Students and Professionals, who will receive their awards during a special event. The total prize money on offer is 10,000 euro and it will be shared out equally.
The winning designs may also be produced by Porada at a later stage.