'Design does not necessarily imply change'. Interview with Jordi Blasi and Raffaella Perrone

As part of the exhibition "Premis ADI 2024", we had the opportunity to sit down with Jordi Blas and Raffaella Perrone, curators of the exhibition. In this interview, we talked about the importance of the ADI Awards, the process of curating the exhibition and Jordi's ideas about design.

Jordi Blasi, born in Barcelona in 1980, is an industrial designer with a Master's degree in Art and Design Research at the UAB. Specialising in product design, strategic consultancy and art direction, he has established himself as a freelance designer while teaching and writing. A member of ADI-FAD, he has contributed to the design industry through collaborations with companies such as Ateljé Lyktan, Estiluz and Simon. He currently teaches at the EINA, BAU and IED schools and is director of the master's degree in Product Design at the ESDESIGN school. 

Raffaella Perrone is Director of the Design Area at IED Barcelona Design School and is also President of the Industrial Design Association ADI-FAD in Spain since 2023 after having been Vice President since 2018. In the last five years she has participated in numerous conferences on creativity, design and education, publishing academic articles and essays at international level. Raffaella studied at the Politecnico di Milano and at the Escola Tècnica Superior d'Arquitectura de Barcelona, obtaining a Degree in Architecture (1995) and a PhD from the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (2011).

Jordi, could you explain the significance and trajectory of the ADI Awards 2024 exhibition within the design community and what relevance it brings to the products on display? What repercussions or reactions do you hope to elicit from visitors and how do you think it could contribute to their understanding of industrial design?

The ADI Awards are the main event related to industrial design that has been held continuously since 1961 in our country. Forty-two editions have allowed us, over all these years, to have a snapshot of the state of design in our sector and in our environment.

Segmented into four categories: Delta Awards, ADI Medals, ADI Culture and ADI Trajectory, the awards cover the different areas in which our profession operates. From the professional and academic sphere to the more cultural aspect. 

Jordi, as curator of the ADI Awards 2024 exhibition, how did you organise the exhibition? What narrative did you follow?

The exhibition is structured on two levels. One, in the form of an exhibition, where the spectator can recognise the different objects; and a second level, which we have arranged on the basis of a series of concepts that we introduce at the beginning and expand on in greater depth. Concepts from which the visitor can better interpret the objects on display. Concepts that deal with beauty, utility, mediation, power of vulnerability, essential for the correct exercise of our profession.

Raffaella, the members of the jury have been chosen for their impact on the world of design. Could you tell us about the profile of the members of the jury and how they were selected?

The selection of the members of the jury is a job that we do within the ADI FAD Board Awards Commission, normally the members propose different candidatures, trying to ensure that the candidatures represent a diversity of gender, age, profiles and ways of understanding design. We try to select an external jury without any relationship or commercial interests with the brands and products represented, so that they can be neutral and at the same time take a position. The jury, in its decision, represents the different ways of doing and understanding design today, so in the difference, the dialogue and discussion is more interesting and the result more relevant.

In the 2024 edition we have a jury formed by 4 members: Raffaella Mangiarotti, Marisa Santamaría, Lucas Muñoz, Philippe-Albert Lefebvre.

Raffaella Mangiarotti, an architect and designer who lives and works in Milan, is the international profile. She has a degree in architecture and a doctorate in environmental design. She is a researcher at the Politecnico di Milano. In 2010 she founded the Raffaella Mangiarotti studio where she specialises in furniture design, art direction, showrooms and exhibition stands. Some of her products are exhibited in museums and are part of permanent collections, such as the MoMA. 

Lucas Muñoz Muñoz represents Speculative Design or a more experimental, conceptual and critical design, he elaborates projects that give a personal look to our artificial environment with sustainable awareness, recognized for his projects, as for the good use of materials.

Philippe-Albert Lefebvre is an international profile based in Catalonia, he represents knowledge in fashion products, with a focus on footwear design, new materials and production techniques with hints of a more rational Swiss design. He was design director of Alexandre Taylor and professor of the Master in Product Design at ECAL.

Raffaella, can you explain the new categories of the Delta Awards and the division you have applied to the Culture category?

The "building materials and components" category of the Delta Awards aims to promote advances in the entire construction industry, as well as construction components for both domestic and industrial use.

In the ADI Culture Awards, it was difficult for a jury to compare which is better, an exhibition or a book. We have therefore suggested new categories to make this task easier. Events include exhibitions, cycles, congresses, actions, visual installations or workshops. Publications include books, essays, theses, websites, blogs or apps.

Jordi, from the products presented, what new developments or solutions shape the future of industrial design and how do you think its role in society will evolve?

Visitors to the exhibition must start from the premise that design does not necessarily imply an abrupt change in the definition of the attributes of what already exists, but is based on the possibility of improvement. You will discover objects that incorporate new technologies, new materials and more sustainable manufacturing processes. Trends that will continue to be implemented over the coming years, and that show us how objects become the binding agent that makes possible the existence of the complex societies in which we live. And that the ecological threat of climate change is forcing us, as designers, to rethink our own way of relating to the world through objects.