Project stories
How products take shape
Every project begins with real-world constraints. Working with the client, we turn those constraints into solutions that can be made and tested.
- A constraint that was never written into the briefHow an unspoken wish to use a single mould shaped the design of a one-piece citrus juicer, reissued twenty years later in recycled material.Fratelli Guzzini LaTina · 2003 · ADI Compasso d’Oro 2004
- A constraint that could not be changedA fixed technical envelope becomes a well-proportioned product rather than a bulky block.Aermec AGH 171 New · 1990 · ADI Compasso d’Oro 1991
- A brief that changes halfway throughHow a commercial objection transformed an integrated kitchen unit into a modular appliance rack for Whirlpool.Whirlpool Minimaxxi · 2006
- The prototype worked, but that was not enoughHow switching on a working prototype at Italamp revealed the need to rethink Ligea’s blown-glass design from scratch.Italamp Ligea · 2022
- The calculated risk an entrepreneur must get rightHow a last-minute hand-drawn proposal displaced a production-ready design and ushered in a new era of technical lighting at iGuzzini illuminazione.iGuzzini illuminazione Virgola · 1981
- Evaluating designs through models, not drawingsHow three cardboard models at 1:10 scale enabled Kelvin Italy to choose between alternatives that were equivalent on paper.Kelvin Italy Chiller KRA/KRO · 2008
- A handle to be judged by gripping itHow a grater handle, refined using foam models rather than drawings, gave rise to Fratelli Guzzini’s entire Chef Line collection.Fratelli Guzzini Chef Line · 1981-1984
- A solution from photography applied to lightingHow the principle of a camera body with interchangeable lenses gave iGuzzini a coordinated spotlight system instead of a catalogue of unrelated products.iGuzzini illuminazione Shuttle · 1987 · ADI Compasso d’Oro 1989
- What endures as manufacturers changeHow a lamp designed in 1974 has retained its identity through four manufacturers and two radically different reissues.Skipper Mezzaluna · 1974
- Manufacturing processes that open up new possibilitiesHow roll bending, already used elsewhere but never on this type of product, gave Aermec a fan coil unit that architects readily specified for settings ranging from homes to hotels.Aermec FCX · 1989
- A project stopped just before becoming a productHow an outdoor billiard table, developed in both technical and aesthetic detail, stalled before detailed engineering because the company’s engineers were missing from the discussion.Italian billiard maker Biliardo outdoor Breeze · 2024
- Technologies borrowed from other sectorsHow a series of identical fins used as spacers made an extremely hot halogen light source borrowed from automotive lighting manageable and suitable for repeatable manufacture.Oluce Wing · 1973
- The difference between what is wanted and what is actually chosenHow iGuzzini responded to the race for slimmer linear lighting systems by reducing perceived bulk rather than actual size, using folded sheet metal instead of an aluminium extrusion.iGuzzini illuminazione Light Air · 2000 · Selected for the ADI Compasso d’Oro 2001
