The names of a hundred talents that have left a special mark in the design world and reflected its various facets: a new project of the new issue of Icon Design, which presents a special edition called Icon Design 100, out Friday 3 March.
The Mondadori Group’s upscale design and decor, edited by Michele Lupi, presents the protagonists of the design world, including established figures and surprising choices, with a selection of essential contemporary work, from architecture to visual communication, with great masters, influencers and young turks to follow in 2017.
It is an ambitious task, which Icon Design intends repeat every year, involving the identification of those who – and how – are generating ideas of value in the world of design and beyond.
The new project for the international mapping and selection of Icon Design 100 was overseen by seven jurors who are themselves leading figures in different areas of the design world: Alexandra Midal (lecturer at HEAD in Geneva and the Federal Polytechnic in Lausanne), Jan Boelen (artistic director of Z33 House for Contemporary Art in Hasselt and the Atelier LUMA in Arles, and head of the Master Department of Social Design at the Design Academy in Eindhoven), Domitilla Dardi (curator for the design of MAXXI Architecture in Rome and since 2007 lecturer at IED Rome), Greg Lynn (winner of the Golden Lion at the Venice Architecture Biennale and Chief Creative Officer of Piaggio Fast Forward), Michael Rock (Associate Professor of Design at the Harvard University Graduate School of Design), Penny Martin (the award-winning editor of the women’s magazine The Gentlewoman).
The seventh juror is the editor of Icon Design, Michele Lupi, who explains the genesis of the project: “It took seven months of continuous work to build an authoritative international jury. The result is an extremely varied – and in some senses unexpected – “database”, which will certainly be appreciated by both curious readers and well-prepared professionals. In fact, we achieved our objective of drawing a map of the territory, i.e. of design, within a clearly defined temporal scope (the 2016/17 season), to produce a detailed picture of the contemporary scene.”
The seven critics and designers were invited to express their views on ten categories: Architecture, Art, Furniture, Interior Design, Visual Communication, Food, Mobility, High Tech & Innovation, Fashion and Thinking. Ten categories and free reflection: not so much a ranking, as an invitation to look with curiosity at the different universes of contemporary design given that on the pages of Icon Design 100 a big name in contemporary art such as Philippe Parreno can fall into the same category as the young Helen Marten.
Seven is also the number of the graphic design and art direction studios that asked to create the cover for Icon Design 100, which will be distributed on newsstands in seven different versions, with a distribution logic in 2017 that will feature an extra issue.
The seven jurors, in addition to the seven art directors, as well as all of the other 100 nominated in the list, are now the first “members” of the Icon Design Club, which officially takes shape with the project.
The Icon Design 100 special opens the way for the brand’s commitment for the upcoming Milan Design Week (Salone del Mobile), during which, from 5 to 9 April a series of events open to the public will take place featuring the best of world design and architecture.
Also the figures the magazine’s advertising revenues, managed by Mediamond, are very positive, with an increase for this issue of Icon Design of 27.5% compared with last year.