#Industry News
ICON in ADI Design Index 2023
A new achievement for Icon seating collection by Mara. Selected for ADI Design Index, it will run for 2024 edition of Compasso d’Oro ADI
Latest product of Mara family, but first in terms of achievements. The seating collection Icon is having one success after another, winning one award after another: an official endorsement for its innovative and original design, resulting from Mara’s brilliant research and their collaboration with product designer Marcello Ziliani.
Icon has been awarded with ADI Design Index 2023 (in the category “Design for Living”) by the Associazione del Design Industriale (the Industrial Design Council), which collects the finest Italian design products every year. This prestigious accolade will allow Icon to run for 2024 Compasso d’Oro on occasion of the 70th anniversary of its foundation, born in 1954 in Milan from an idea of Gio Ponti.
ADI Design Index is a collector of products that stand out for their originality, functional as well as typological innovation, involved production processes, peculiar materials and formal synthesis, with a strong ethical and sustainable connotation. Selected by the permanent Observatory of ADI Design those products become part of an annual, a dedicated site and a series of exhibitions staged between Milan and Rome, in the presence of institutions and authorities.
“Joining ADI Design Index is a remarkable emotion for us, that backs up our continuous efforts to improve our high-quality production methods, increasingly oriented to design and people’s well-being”, commented Laura and Luciano Marchina, Mara’s managing director and CEO respectively - “We believe that beauty and functionality combined with formal simplicity are the key features of Icon collection, as it mirrors our idea of Made in Italy: a perfect combination of innovation and design”, she added.
Thanks to its ergonomic, versatile, and aesthetical elegance, Icon is standing out in the international background for its technical as well as formal peculiarities. The collection was born as an armchair, as then it developed into a complete seating collection – high-back, lounge, stool and desk versions combined with multiple bases, that, as common denominator, have a technical DNA with an innovative multifunctional identity to suit to residential, hospitality and workplace contexts.
Icon revisits the typical tub chair with an integrated mechanism that allows the seat and the back to move independently. The aesthetics, though, is soft and linear: its clear-cut lines and sinuous profiles define it – the receding armrest that looks backwards with the upward-reaching edge, creating a charming and modern product. The large cushioning results in a proper comfort – while supporting the most intense working moments, as well as the pleasant occasions for conversation around a table – and does not contain the resulting overall lightness. Even more embracing is the high-back version, that emphasizes the sense of comfort, while the swivel mechanism further highlights the practicality and dynamism that define this seating.
To complete these virtuous qualities, there is also the sustainable aspect of the collection: Icon is in fact made at "kilometre zero", at the company's production site and through local suppliers; the careful design makes it extremely robust, and therefore long-lasting; also indifferent to the passage of styles or fashions, it gives even the possibility of changing the clothes thanks to the removable upholstery.
The selection for ADI Design Index fulfils a list of international awards, that see Icon ass as the protagonist. Finalist at Archiproducts Design Awards and Mixology Awards by the English magazine Mix Interiors, the collection won the renowned German Design Award 2023 by the German Design Council in the category “Excellent Product Design – Furniture”.
