The awards ceremony of the fifth edition of AWDA, Aiap Women in Design Award, the international biennial award curated by Cinzia Ferrara, Laura Moretti, Carla Palladino together with a team of volunteers, dedicated to visual communication designers, was held at the Salone d'Onore of Triennale Milano. The prize was created with the aim of exploring different languages, poetics and approaches in graphic design and mapping the working condition of women in design.
The award is promoted by Aiap, the Italian Association of Visual Communication Design, and is supported by ICoD, International Council of Design, with the collaboration of numerous national and international associations and institutions, including POLI.Design.
The international jury selected 60 shortlisted projects divided into the three award categories (students, researchers, professionals), in addition to the main Aiap Women in Design Award. For the first time, a special award, AWDA for Rights!, was given to the project that most significantly addressed social issues related to women's rights and work, as well as gender inequality in any field.
The Career Award was given to Aoi Huber Kono, while the Memorial Award went to Michela Papadia.
Among the selected projects with female authors from Politecnico, we point out the Honorable Mention for the category dedicated to female researchers, awarded to Valeria Bucchetti, Francesca Casnati and Michela Rossi for the "Manifesto for a gender-sensitive communication."
Here are all the projects from the School and Department of Design and our alumnae that made it to the shortlist:
Research & Training
Valeria Bucchetti, Donatella Sciuto and Ingrid Paoletti, for the exhibition (and the related catalogue) “Politecniche. Donne progettiste del cambiamento”, held at Archivi Storici in the B1 building of the Bovisa-Durando Campus in 2021.
Valeria Bucchetti, for the book “Cattive immagini” (FrancoAngeli, 2021).
Barbara Predan and Špela Šubic (University of Ljubljana) for the project "How is a vase like a house?". Barbara Predan, along with Cerne Oven, served as a Visiting Professor in 2022 and 2023 at the School of Design, Master's Degree Course in Communication Design.
Professionals
Giulia Bardelli (Studio But Maybe), graphic design for “Il Festival del Ciclo Mestruale” (Bachelor in Communication Design in 2016).
Michela Lazzaroni with “The Poet's Journey” (Master Degree in Communication Design in 2013, supervised by Luigi Bellavita).
Students
Ludovica Polo, Master’s Degree in Communication Design in 2022, with the thesis “Trasformazioni verbovisive. Parola e immagine fra arti e design: un percorso storico”, supervisor Salvatore Zingale.
Francesca Granzotto, Master’s Degree in Communication Design in 2021, with the thesis “Crumbs* Digital guide to online petition”, supervisor Maria De Los Angeles Briones.
Paola Abbiati (Iuav), Bachelor’s Degree in Communication Design in 2019 at the School of Design, with the thesis “Claudia Morgagni. Indomita essenza”, supervisor Fiorella Bulegato, co-supervisor Francesco E. Guida.
Credits: flag design by AWDA team (font courtesy: Zetafont)