There are 340 projects selected in the new edition of ADI Design Index, the annual publication of ADI, Associazione per il Disegno Industriale, presented on October 1 at the ADI Design Museum in Milan.

The ADI Design Index aims to serve as a map of Italian design and its transformations, a very important tool that allows us to observe how products, processes, services and languages change across the different fields of application of the design.

ADI Design Index 2026: an observatory on the world of contemporary design practice

The selection is the result of the work of the ADI Permanent Design Observatory, a structured body that brings together expertise, territories and different disciplinary fields. The Scientific Committee this year was made up of Alessandro Colombo, Maite García Sanchis, Valentina Fisichella, Fabrizio Pierandrei and Francesco Zurlo, supported by the fourteen territorial Commissions and the fourteen thematic Commissions.

The 340 selected projects are divided into 14 categories: Design for living (84); Lighting design (17); Design for mobility (11); Design for work (17); Design for the person (31); Food design (11); Design of materials and technological systems (22); Service design (19); Design for the social sphere (27); Research for business (8); Design for communication (28); Exhibition design (26); Theoretical, historical and critical research (18); Targa Giovani (21).

The selection does not concern only the formal dimension of the project, but also examines the relationship with the context in which the project is born, evaluating innovation, function, materials and technologies, production processes, sustainability, accessibility, relationships with users and the ability to interpret emerging needs.

“Analyzing the results that the ADI Permanent Design Observatory presents to us today, we can confirm the idea of design as a unified method, capable of relating to every technological activity without thereby being indebted to it for meaning,” says Luciano Galimberti, president of ADI. “A picture, which I have often described as not exhaustive but certainly plausible, of the state of the art of Italian design: a photograph that, year after year, returns to us an evolving portrait of the design system and of its relationship with society.”

Second edition of the ADI Research Center Report

ADI Design Index 2026 presents the second edition of the Report of the ADI Research Center, created to complement the observation of projects with analytical tools capable of placing design within the economic, productive and social transformations of the country. The Report indeed considers the impact of the project as a phenomenon that concerns not only the economy, but also the social, demographic and energy dimensions.

Coordinated by Carlo Branzaglia, the 2026 Report also offers in-depth studies on the relationship between design and innovation in socio-economic data, an analysis of the Made in Italy design system, a focus dedicated to food design and a section aimed at scenarios and areas where new design issues are emerging.

The ADI Design Index 2026 exhibition in Milan and L’Aquila

The exhibition  ADI Design Index 2026, staged at the ADI Design Museum in Milan, displays the selected projects until October 15. 

From October 30 to November 17, 2026 the exhibition will move to L’Aquila, Italian Capital of Culture 2026, at Palazzo ex OMNI, and will be inaugurated on October 29. 

All photos: Courtesy of ADI, ph. Roberto De Riccardis