REWARDING TALENT
Scouting and innovation: the Porada International Design Award. Now in its 3rd edition
Porada is not only a great design brand which has managed to build up a core business based on wood craftsmanship over the years, but is also a company that constantly seeks to renew itself, always looking for new sources of inspiration and setting itself ambitious goals for the future.
With this intention, for the last three years, the company has organised a prestigious competition: the Porada International Design Award, in collaboration with POLI.design - Consortium of Milan Polytechnic University - and with the patronage of ADI (the Italian Association for Industrial Design). The objective of the award is to scout for emerging talents and take up the challenges that the future brings in the world of design.
The competition is open both to trade professionals and to young students, and over the years, it has collected more than 1000 designs from throughout Italy and indeed all four corners of the world.
It is a way with which Porada can always stay up‑to‑date with new trends, and fresh, young innovative designs and forms, without ever losing sight of its own true identity. An opportunity for designers and up‑and‑coming talents to put themselves to the test in a concrete, stimulating project that offers them a chance to see their idea produced in the future.
The heart of the award is the request to develop ideas that fit in with the Porada image, producing designs that use and craft wood, and perhaps also combining it with other materials.
To date, three editions of the award have been held. All with tremendous success. In 2012 contestants were asked to develop new concepts for the living area, while in 2013 their task was to design a table, of any shape or form. In the last edition, which has just ended, the request involved developing new types of mirrors.
In the award ceremony held at the beginning of 2015, the judges assigned the top prize in the professionals’ category to Double Loop, the mirror holder designed by Libero Rutilo (Canada) while the winners of the students’ category included Federica Eleonora Belli (Italy) with a wooden mirror in black walnut and leather. Second and third prizes went to Gemma di Tommaso Gecchelin (Italy) and Ekaterina Shchetina (Russia), in the professionals’ category, and to Kyle Dawney (England) and Elisabetta Donati de Conti (Italy) in the students’ category.