The Academy announces a new edition of the NABA Design Award, the competition created to promote and celebrate the projects developed by students from the Design Area. Scheduled for June 10, 2025, starting at 6:30 PM at the NABA Campus in Milan (via C. Darwin, 20), Classroom G.04, the award ceremony will be led by Claudio Larcher (NABA Design Area Leader), Valentina Dalla Costa (Design Area MAs Course Leader), and Germana De Michelis (BA in Design Course Leader at the Milan campus).
The event is open to the public, with registration required via Eventbrite, and can also be followed via live stream on NABA’s YouTube channel.
NABA Design Award 2025: the award categories and the jury
Conceived by Claudio Larcher, the NABA Design Award is the prize dedicated to the best projects developed during the past Academic Year. During the ceremony, the works of students from the BA in Design, the MAs in Product and Service Design, Interior Design and Social Design, as well as the Academic Masters Italian Design, will be celebrated.
The awards will be assigned in the following categories:
- Interior Project – BA
- Product Project – BA
- Interior Thesis – BA
- Product Thesis – BA
- Interior Project – MA
- Product and Service Project – MA
- Social Design Project – MA
- Product and Service Thesis – MA
- Interior Thesis – MA
- Social Design Thesis – MA
- Photography
- Drawing
- Techniques, Materials and Innovation
The following special awards will also be assigned:
- Jury Prize
- Best Project of the Year 2025
- Social Mention
The winners in each category were selected by a jury composed of professionals and journalists from the design world, including Monica Dalla Riva (Vice President Customer Experience and Design, Deutsche Telekom AG), Matteo Battiston (Chief Design Officer at EssilorLuxottica), Luis Angarita (Head of Industrial Design, Co-director Master in Entrepreneurship & Innovation, Associate Professor at ASU), and Mirko Zardini (Architect, author and curator), as well as NABA representatives Claudio Larcher, Germana De Michelis, Valentina Dalla Costa, and Luca Poncellini (NABA Design and Applied Arts Department Head).
As in previous years, all the best projects from the Academy’s Design Area will be collected in a single catalogue. Atto curated the graphic design of the publication, developed from a broader reflection by the Design Area on its core values. This process led to the selection of seven words that speak of NABA Design—its identity and uniqueness: Imagination, Rhythm, Relationship, Mistake, Listening, Responsibility, Role. The Academy intends to share these concepts and turn them into a small collective dictionary, where each word is shaped not only by its etymology, but also by the lived experiences of those who teach, design, decide, debate, and grow within our campuses.
The main partner of this edition of the NABA Design Award is INSTAX by Fijifilm, which will offer, for the winners of Best Project of the Year 2025 and Jury Prize, a selection of prizes.
NABA Design Award 2025: the identity of the event and the prizes
The visual identity of this edition of the NABA Design Award was created by Sofia d’Andrea (Design Academic Assistant). The trophies awarded to the winners were designed by Claudio Larcher and produced within the Design Area’s laboratories under the supervision of Carmelo Zocco (Design Laboratory Manager), using plastic waste from projects developed by students for Salone del Mobile 2025. This approach reflects the Academy’s ongoing commitment to sustainability and circular design.
NABA Design Award 2025: event details
Tuesday, June 10, 2025 – from 6:30 PM
NABA Campus Milan, Classroom G.04
Via Carlo Darwin, 20
Free entry with mandatory reservation on Eventbrite, subject to availability