Here are the winners of the Product Design category of MM Award 2021, the International creative award curated by the creative consultancy agency MM Company to honour and promote the most promising talents and brands in Fashion Design, Product Design and Interior Design.
gold prize – students/creatives
Seghizzi Michele with the project “Ova”
OVA is a coffee machine for domestic use, consisting of a support structure with a body inside that includes the water tank, the coffee holder seat, an upper cap with a piston and the spout for dispensing the drink. OVA’s innovation lies in the tank, which contains zeolite, a stone of volcanic origin that heats water quickly without the use of cables or electrical sockets, reaching the ideal temperature (90°). Operation is by manual pressure (15 bar) through a piston. The water descends from the tank, comes into contact with the zeolite and quickly reaches the temperature required to brew coffee.
silver prize – students/creatives
Panciera Gabriele with the project “Gertrude”
The Gertrude table lamp is a synthesis of the geometric approach of 1970s Italian design and the world of 19th century literature. The main inspiration for the design is the character of Gertrude, the nun of Monza from Alessandro Manzoni’s “I Promessi Sposi” novel. The lamp consists of a sphere joined by a triangular shape and an inclined plane that provides directional light towards the top where the lamp is placed. The sphere is divided into two parts: the main 3D printed body is made of PETG and contains the bulb while the other is made of translucent PLA.
bronze prize – students/creatives
Lanciotti Francesca with the project “Rea”
Symbol of a territorial reality, Rea is sound lamp. The project narrates the identity of the city of Rieti (Italy). The values expressed are the sacred, the seismic nature of the place and mythology. Legend has it that the goddess Rea Silvia, mother of Romulus and Remus, founded the ancient city of Reate and gave it her name. These values were represented with a sound lamp. Through the percussion of the brass tubes, Rea emits musicality, symbolising the seismicity of the territory and at the same time generating an atmosphere of sacredness, a moment of reflection, accompanied by light.
gold prize – professionals/freelancers
Maschio Elia with the project “Segmento”
Segmento is a changeable and versatile wall lamp. The user can choose the favourite shape by fixing the object according to his/her needs. The idea comes from the fact that more and more people change house during the course of their lives. In a new home the amount of light required by the room may be different than the previous one. The lighting technology is LED, rolled up in coils, which thus promotes a flexible side of it. “I worked to make sure that the flexibility related to the interaction between user and object was exploited to the maximum.” The lamp is made entirely of aluminum, a material chosen for its ability to be easily recycled.
silver prize – professionals/freelancers
Caselli Chiara with the project “CCONTINUA”
A collection of handmade ceramics by Chiara Caselli, inspired by domestic rituals. The first one inspires the “talking plates” Mangiatutto, decorated by Francesco Carrasso. The drawings illustrated on the bottom of the plates “speak” to those who are eating: the food leaves room for a secret message. The second is “Tales around the fire”, a teapot that blends the high bamboo handles of Japanese-style teapots with the neutral tones and minimalist shapes of Nordic design. The lid, if turned upside down, turns into an incense holder, thus becoming a small fireplace around which to tell stories. The third is the “the five o’clock tea”: cups characterized by an “exasperated” out of scale that gives rise to a dialogue of shapes and full/empty.
bronze prize – professionals/freelancers
Mallardo Roberto with the project “Tubella”
Scandinavian design suggestions inspire the Tubella project. A style that combines the essentiality of organic forms with structural functionality. Tubella is an essential collection of birch chairs, available in two models: chair and armchair. The peculiarity lies in the nesting processing, an organizing technique aimed at minimizing the waste of raw materials. The material used is birch plywood, FSC® certified, which identifies products containing wood from forests managed in a correct and responsible way. “A design piece for contemporary and eclectic spaces.”
gold prize – companies/studios/collectives
FIBRA research
The research project curated by Caterina Fumagalli and Adriana Fortunato, to design a way to recover waste: a new language of transformation of valuable materials such as cottons, wools, linens, silks. Their free gestures create an “improving recovery” in textiles, representing an innovative interpretation of the artifact. The aim is to give vent to creativity and translate the manual work of women as an element of memory of the textile tradition, one of the key sectors of Italian design. A collection that is the result of a dialogue between two different generations and cultures, to promote an innovative creative process.
silver prize – companies/studios/collectives
Fucina Frammenti
Fucina Frammenti is the result of the work of Alessandro Zannoni, Clara Accebbi, Elia Venturini and Michele Perissinotto. The project aims at finding applications for noble glass scraps (such as the galotta, the upper part of the blown glass product) resulting from production processes. A collection of glass incense and candle holders was created, combined by marble, metal, wood and ceramic bases (derived from inert waste from other processes) and 3D printing. “The wide variety of colors and textures of glass from Nasonmoretti (supplier of the glass scraps), allowed us to structure our approach to “noble waste” with a view to seriality and reproducibility.”
bronze prize – companies/studios/collectives
Gio Aio
“Cinque” (Five) is a “nomadic” sofa produced by the brand Gio Aio by Giovanni Agliottone composed of 5 elements: two sides, a crosspiece, a top and a back. The result is a 3-seater sofa extremely essential, comfortable and durable, with clean lines and impeccable workmanship. Thanks to the design, the presence of metals and plastic materials has been eliminated. Cinque has some accessories that make it customizable and multitasking. In the back of the backrest there is the possibility to create a personal library. “A sofa that will follow you wherever you go thanks to its easy assembly system and its small footprint when disassembled.”
special mention – “made in italy is”
Fucina Frammenti
Recontextualization and valorization of production waste to give life to new industrial productions. This is one of the challenges that Made in Italy product companies should win, just like in the Fucina Frammenti project. The recovery of scraps from companies and workshops (possibly local, to reduce the environmental impact caused by logistics) should be transformed into new raw material, ready to be used to produce new quality objects, maintaining the same dignity and value even once reused.
