Emanuele Di Bacco Receives the Bronze A' Design Award for It's a Metaphor Table in Furniture Design

Emanuele Di Bacco recognized for furniture design by the international grand jury of the 2019 - 2020 A' Design Award & Competition

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

COMO, Italy, April 22, 2020 /DesignNewswire/ A' Design Award & Competition has announced that It's a Metaphor Table by Emanuele Di Bacco, designed for Gladstone London, has been granted the Bronze A' Design Award in the Furniture Design category. The recognition forms part of the 2019 - 2020 A' Design Award & Competition and was reached through blind peer review by an international grand jury panel of established academics, design professionals and press members, who scored anonymized entries against predetermined criteria.

The Bronze A' Design Award Explained

The Bronze A' Design Award is given to outstanding designs that showcase a high degree of creativity and practicality. It recognizes the dedication and skill of designers who produce work that stands out for its thoughtful development and innovative use of materials and technology. These designs are acknowledged for their professional execution and potential to influence industry standards positively. Winning this award highlights the designer's ability to blend form and function effectively, offering solutions that enhance people's lives and wellbeing.

Regarding It's a Metaphor Table

This project is poking fun at itself while raising social awareness about gender equality. Specifically, it uses a metaphor that springs from sumo, one of the most male-dominated sports in Japanese society. Women are not allowed to compete professionally in this sport given sexist rules, which border them outside the wrestling ring as a result of their "impurity" by reason of the menstrual blood. Knocking a sumo warrior to the ground, at the service of a flower pot or any other need people may have, desecrates that macho-dominance sumo still holds, by simply using irony and humor.

About Emanuele Di Bacco

Emanuele Di Bacco is an independent designer from Rome, Italy, who lives and works in London. His background comes from architecture and production design studies; this latter led him to work in advertising & films industry for the past 10 years collecting international awards. Emanuele never left his artistic bent for design and thanks his visionary background, he started his independent design firm in 2019, which is the result of his knowledge and sensitivity acquired through all the artistic disciplines he have been involved.

Award Record

With this recognition, Emanuele Di Bacco is a winner of 1 A' Design Award.

About the A' Furniture Design Award

The A' Furniture Design Award is an international furniture competition recognizing good furniture designs by best furniture designers worldwide. The competition is organized within the A' Design Award & Competition and is open to furniture designers, product designers, industrial design studios and furniture brands from all countries. Entries typically include chairs, tables, sofas, beds, cabinets and shelves. Awarded furniture designs are published at https://dezigners.org/design-category/furniture

About A' Design Award & Competition

A' Design Award & Competition is an international, juried design accolade organized annually since 2008. The competition is open to entries from all countries. The A' Design Award has a philanthropic mission to advance society through good design by recognizing and promoting superior products, projects and services that benefit society, and by creating a global awareness and appreciation for good design practices and principles. Entries are peer reviewed and anonymously evaluated by an international grand jury panel of established academics, design professionals and press members against predetermined criteria such as functionality, ergonomics, engineering, presentation, innovation, usability, sustainability and technology, with score normalization applied to remove biases. Awards are conferred at Platinum, Gold, Silver, Bronze and Iron levels. The A' Design Prize granted to eligible laureates includes the award trophy, the certificate of design excellence, the hardcover yearbook, a lifetime license to use the A' Design Award winner logo, exhibition of awarded works, an invitation to the gala night and award ceremony in Italy, inclusion in the World Design Rankings and Designer Rankings, and public relations and publicity services. Registration, the upload of a work and the preliminary score are free of charge, and Professional and Digital Edition laureates are not contractually obliged to pay further fees to claim the A' Design Prize. Further information is available at https://competition.adesignaward.com

Press Resources

Winner Page: https://dezigners.org/96553
A' Design Award Page: https://competition.adesignaward.com/96553
Media Showcase: https://www.designnewsroom.com/!96553
Laureate Profile: https://dezigners.org/d/265714
Further Information from the Laureate: http://gladstonestudio.co.uk/

Media Contact

Giulia Ferrari, Press Office
Designers.Org
Via Leone Leoni 32, 22100 Como, Italy
press@designers.org
+39 031 4491953

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Fact Sheet

The Work

Project: It's a Metaphor Table
Function: Table
Category: Furniture Design
Discipline: Industrial Design
Industry: Furniture & Home
Colors: Dark Slate Gray, Dark Olive Green, Black, Maroon and Dim Gray
Images: 5
Client: Gladstone London

The Recognition

Laureate: Emanuele Di Bacco
Country: Great Britain
Recognition: Bronze A' Design Award
Edition: 2019 - 2020
Design ID: #96553

Credits

Design Details

Unique Properties: This is a furniture product able to speak and provoke, challenging with irony and a clumsy smile unethical behaviors of our times.
Inspiration: "The piece of wood came alive and it was able to speak". That's pretty much what happened to Carlo Collodi's Pinocchio; likewise, adding communication contents to a product, gives this object an identity and the ability to speak to people. This project is poking fun at itself while aim to raise social awareness on equality of the sexes. Specifically, it uses a metaphor which springs from sumo, one of the most male dominated sport in the Japanese society. Women are not allowed to compete professionally in this sport given sexist rules, which by tradition border them outside the wrestling ring as a result of their "impurity" by reason of the menstrual blood.
Research: The main focus of this project -together with many pieces produced by our design studio- is to raise awareness about social rights and equal opportunity. Specifically, the target of our research was speaking about the equality of the sexes without being moralistic or patronising; in order to do this we chose to use irony and humour, two powerful rhetorical devices to convey a disputed concept without too much bloodshed.
Challenge: The creative challenge of this project is to combine the practical function of a furniture piece and communication contents as a means of social commitment. Sumo wrestlers are so well regarded and revered in society to be almost considered as macho semi-gods in their country; placing one of them in a conscious submissive position -grateful and happy to help others- wishes to rebalance a more male-dominated thinking to a non-discriminatory one.
Realization and Technology: 3D-printed assembled object. It can be produced either way with Eco-friendly 3D-printed Poly Lactic Acid filaments or carbon fibers. The structure is divided in multiparts, hand refined and assembled. Successively the whole body is glazed by immersion and finished with a vitreous enamel coating. A round tempered glass is based on the structure and secured using discreet clear glass high-grip bumpers, specifically designed for the purpose. The structural analysis take into consideration the chosen materials and the multipart splitting process, where every cut and internal printed reinforcements are made to dump and sustain the weight the structure will go through.
Operation and Interaction: A table which can hosts up to 10 seaters. Ideal to be placed wherever an open minded spirit is at home.
Project Duration and Location: The project has started in December 2019 in London and finished, as it is shown, in February 2020. Currently, the table has a unique prototype and will be ready to be produced and launched serially in May 2020.
Specifications: Measures are in mm. Glass platform ø: 1800 / Glass platform thickness: 10 / Body with: 850 / Body height: 750 / Body depth: 1000
Keywords: table, social design, equality of the sexes, Japan, sumo