On 6 November at the ADI Design Museum in Milan, the ADI Design Index 2023, the volume highlighting the best of contemporary Italian design, was presented. 

219 products and services were selected in addition to 19 projects by design students from Italian universities: overall, a picture that focuses on the development of new proposals, both theoretical and practical, and on the ability to disseminate their quality.

Quality as recognition of a method 

Quality is the key word that inspires this edition of the ADI Design Index. As the president of ADI Luciano Galimberti writes in the catalogue: "Quality is a connective element for all Italian design", "The quality of design proposals linked to production quality; manufacturing quality, to arrive at process quality; quality as a distinctive and structural factor of sustainable and responsible development; quality as a connector present in the entire Italian design supply chain: the core around which innovative ideas are conceived and developed to combine functionality and wellbeing. Quality no longer as an end goal, but as recognition of a method'.

ADI Permanent Design Observatory 

Present at the Milan event, in addition to ADI President Luciano Galimberti, were the President of the ADI Collezione Compasso d'Oro Foundation Umberto Cabini and Laura Traldi and Francesco Zurlo, from the Scientific Committee of the ADI Permanent Design Observatory, the body that conducts the selection throughout Italy through three selection phases, to guarantee an in-depth reflection on the qualities of each candidate product. Again in response to the contemporary idea of the quality of objects, the Permanent Design Observatory ADI is also partially renewed from year to year, welcoming new competences. This year, the Scientific Committee that coordinates the Observatory's activities was formed by Laura Badalucco, Makio Hasuike, Domenico Sturabotti, Laura Traldi and Francesco Zurlo.

The projects on show at the ADI Design Museum 

A total of 219 projects were selected for the ADI Design Index 2023, broken down as follows: Design for Living (46 products); Design for Lighting (18); Design for Work (23), Design of Materials and Technological Systems (17); Design for Communication and Exhibition Design (with 16 selected each); Research Design for Business (14 products); Design for the Person (15); Design for Social (12); Theoretical, Historical, Critical Research and Editorial Projects (17); Design for Mobility (10); Food Design (7) and Service Design (8). 

The selection of ADI Design Index 2023 completes with that of 2022 the shortlist of candidates for the XXVIII edition of the biennial Compasso d'Oro award, which will be held in 2024 and will celebrate the 70th anniversary of the founding of the award, which was established in 1954. 

It is difficult to mention all the selected projects, we will only mention a few. Among the furnishings there is the Za:za sofa by Zaven for Zanotta, Shaal, the first collection of Arper sofas designed by Doshi Levien; for lighting, To Tie by Guglielmo Poletti for Flos and Sfera W by Catellani & Smith; for the Design of materials and technological systems, we find Mathera by Diego Grandi for Saib Egger Group. 

Also in the ADI Design Index 2023 volume is the high-tech faucet Aline, designed by Marco Piva for Fratelli Frattini and the Angie Wall hanging system by Toscanini, designed by Giulio Iacchetti.

Abet Laminati has been selected with AlphAbet, the rebranding project - curated by about studio (Alessandro Boscarino and Valerio Aprigliano), with the support of design curators Giulio Iacchetti and Matteo Ragni. 

All the projects selected for the ADI Design Index 2023 are on show until 19 November at the ADI Design Museum in Piazza Compasso d'Oro 1 in Milan, and then in Rome, from 27 November to 2 December in the Spazio WeGil Cultural Hub of the Lazio Region managed by LAZIOcrea in Largo Ascianghi 5.