members: Davide Adriano, Gabriele Adriano. Both Italians.

studio location: Turin, Italy

Adriano Design is the brand name used by Davide and Gabriele Adriano to promote their industrial projects and products design. The Italian brothers were born in Piedmont and are both architects.  Davide Adriano was born 1968 in Cuneo graduated in Architecture at the Turin Polytechnic. Gabriele Adriano was born in Turin in 1971 and graduated in Architecture. He went on to master in Ergonomics at the Turin Polytechnic where he now teaches Industrial Design. Ever since university, their design projects have been awarded Italian and international prizes and honors, among which many ADI Design Index selections.

They opened their Turin studio in 1999, after two years collaboration together with Giugiaro Design.  Since then, they have jointly created innovative products.
 

Our works have received important recognitions and awards like the Osaka International Design Competition, Koizumi International Lighting Design Competition '96, Cosmopack '94' 95 '96, the International Forniture Design Competition (Valencia '96), Young Design '01, '02, '03, '04, ADI Design Index 2004 and 2006, Cafè Design EPAT, Talents Francoforte '02, Talents Tokio '03, Sasmil Satellite, Grandesign 04, Scgf '04 Korea Talents, VIA Parigi '04, Avverati 2007, Torino Piemonte Design, and has been published in the most important international magazines in the field. Among the most recent ones, the December 2006 issue of Interni has dedicated 4 pages to us, in its "design project" survey, and the american magazine I.D. has selected our wheel "Rotola" among the 150 best products of 2007. The magazine Ottagono, in its special issue Turin World Design Capital, dedicates one page to our studio. 
 

Design everything and always accept the challenges, because everything can be designed in a different and better way... be outside the norms, break the rules and invent new rules so that all that we design can be unique, unmistakable and more functional than what we already have.The rational craziness of designers

the rational craziness of designers

What draws them together is a deep passion in innovation, the two brothers Gabriele and Davide Adriano are now sharing a design studio for the research and development of new things. Since they were child, the two brothers shared the attraction for construction and conceiving. "When we were child our hobby was building cars... we spend days inventing braking systems. We used to build prototypes that we systematically destroy, always trying to improve the products".

They realized their first ideas while students at the Polytechnic of Turin, but they were already working as external consultants at Giugiaro Design. "We had two years of intensive collaborations. We had to design extremely flexible products for big companies, sometimes multinationals, working in different fields: telephones, pneumatics, furniture, home appliances, stand, trophies. Raising our studio, we started to interact directly with the companies. One of our most important client, for example, has been Merlo spa, for which we designed their first farm tractor. It won the second award at Hannover as best farm tractor. Then we gained clients like Ferrero Kinder sorpresa, CMA spa, Carrara & Matta, Bemis and Foppapedretti".

The two brothers organized their studio as an artisan shop. "We conceive our studio as an atelier, where a small and close group of people work in harmony, aiming at innovative projects, always keeping in mind the exigencies of every single client".
 
a weighted eulogy to craziness

Sometimes designers are defined as crazy. But designer has a creative craziness, and inside of it there is the vital lymph that every company needs in order to not grow older, to try to distinguish itself among a jungle full of products. Maybe this is the real task of the designer. Craziness, but craziness under control, so that only the best part, the more creative and innovative, can come out. To see and to realize what hasn't been built yet is the limit of craziness. Our projects, however, are always the logic consequences of deep historical research, on cultural, ergonomic and commercial materials

genious and dissolute living: a topos of the good old days

We believe in the creative aspect of our work and our works prove it. Nevertheless, we think it is very important to bind and carry creativity through detailed rules, decided by market, technologoies, production limits and many other elements. We always try to explore new fields of design, but, among our clients, we favour companies with differenent productions, not competing with each other. This policy, above all, grant us the possibility to create, wherever possible, sinergies among the companies we work with and to avoid the routine.
 

Pieces included in the catalogue:
Around 25 pieces

The five projects of designs for which it’s worth working:
PuntoG – Punto Gelato Italiano – Industrie IFI
Rotola – OgtM
TacTac – Ritmonio
Eva – Scavolini
Sibilla – CMA

Unrealized dream/project:
Design a car, always

Favourite material for a project:
No preference

Last book read:
ADI Design Index 06

Film:
The Texas Chainsaw Massacre

Exhibition:
Piemonte Torino Design

Your projects often involve food and new ways to prepare: is this a coincidence or a bent?
We like good food and most of all the rituals to prepare, the story and the passion behind it

Which is the difference between the projects you realized and those you presented at the design competitions you attended?
No difference, we face everything very seriously and professionally

You own different patents; do you think protecting intellectual property rights is still important in an era of internet sharing and cultural métissage?
Ideas are very important for us and we think they must always be protected. Maybe now there are more thieves, but at the same time it's easier to catch them.

Hobby:
Mountain, we are good climbers and skier.

A principle:
Do good design means design innovation

What we tell about us:
Our method and approach to the project is different from all the other designers, we always tell the client that our project is expensive and is executed for them only.

What we tell about design:
Let’s say the word design has been deprived of its real meaning, which is "good project". The Italian design has a marvelous and unique story that has to be protected with our projects, and not with the words

What we tell about our projects:
They are always very innovative; an example could be our wheel "Rotola" for Ogtm, which is protected by 5 patents.

We’d like to design:
A car, we are from Turin and we think we have it in the DNA. We wait a job order impatiently.

What an object should never miss:
An imperceptible sign that makes the difference. Also the innovation.

Our favorite object:
It is always our last project.

Nowadays, everybody knows that design adds value to the products. It is really true and we believe that it is really our work. We also believe that this should be every good designer's work. Our products, designed for different industrial sectors, they are known for their high innovation component and high quality. And this facet is always tied to themes like product's industrial economy and industrial production. We guess that if the entrepreneur/businessman is not greedy and the designer does his work well, working from an industrial point of view (concerning innovation, production and communication) then you still can obtain industrial good products that can corner the market.
 

2007

I.D. International Design Magazine has selected our wheel "Rotola" among the 150 best products of 2007.
Ottagono October 2007, dedicates one page to our studio, in its special issue Turin Woprld Design Capital 2008.
Auto&Design January-February 2007
Ottagono February 2007

2006

Interni no. 12 December 2006
Pubblicazioni Cucina Eva 2006
Interni no. 10 October 2006
Interni no. 9 September 2006
Designplaza 09 2006
La via del design, issued with no. 4 Interni April 2006
Interni Kingsize 06 no. 4 April 2006
Piemonte Torino Design exhibition catalogue January  '06
Designplaza 06 decorandum macef January '06
Pop Ideas macef/interbi January '06

Communicating cities' identity throughout  existing material, removing all that is in excess, interacting with different customers using different messages such as ergonomy, safety and more...these are only few Sentieri Urbani's features. S.U. communicates city's identity, culture, history and local differences and places without over-adding signs. Sentieri Urbani removes material from our codified communication system but gives more information that look different depending on the point of you, position and the speed you are moving around the city.

You can feel and see it in a 'slow' way or in a fast 'way'. It decorates the city and gives you pleasant input while looking at the city but only going round in a 'slow' way (by foot or bike), otherwise if you go fast you almost cannot feel this decoration at all.

Zebra crossing becomes a pleasant sign for pedestrians that can 'read' more information and 'learn' the place they're visiting, but if you go by car and you are moving fast you fell Sentieri Urbani as it was a traditional crossing. It is useful for a safety reason because it increases street fiction and reduces material, it is visible, recognizable, simply and clearly readable

Our favorite artist is Francesca Zanellato, nickname Cikitaz. We always ask her to illustrate and interpret their best design pieces. Now Cikitaz is a young reality in contemporary art and her illustrations are exhibited in prestigious art galleries all over the world.