The jury.
Each category has an independent panel of industry experts — designers and brand representatives who evaluate and purchase design every day.
Mario Alessiani is an Italian industrial designer, whose practice centers on "functional beauty" — balancing producibility, function and form across product, furniture, lighting and interior design.
A graduate of IED Rome with early experience in London, he founded his own studio in 2013 at age 24. He has collaborated with brands including Axolight (notably the Float portable lamp), Bogaerts Label, Umbra and Officine Tamborrino, and was named among Italy's best under-30 creatives at the Triennale di Milano.
He teaches at IED Rome and the University of Camerino, and writes Designer From Nowhere, a newsletter on independent design practice.
Filippo Batavia began his career across the automotive and naval industries, working at the intersection of industrial design, product engineering and advanced manufacturing.
Since joining SAES — an advanced materials company developing technologies for fields spanning ultra-high vacuum systems, consumer electronics, automotive, healthcare and aerospace — in 2020, he has led its Design House, shaping products through advanced materials, experimental manufacturing and computational design across consumer electronics, space and defense, footwear technology and industrial systems.
He is also Co-Founder and Design Director of The B!POD Company, SAES' first B2C venture, which brings vacuum technology into everyday life through its Droid device, and where he built the brand's entire industrial ecosystem.
His work has been exhibited internationally and recognized with multiple awards; he holds more than 15 patents and continues researching the intersection of design, materials science and programming.
Matteo Battiston is Chief Design Officer at EssilorLuxottica, where he leads design and R&D through a diverse, global team, overseeing collections for brands including Ray-Ban, Oakley, Oliver Peoples and Persol, as well as licenses such as Chanel, Prada and Dolce & Gabbana.
A pioneer in smart glasses, he played a key role in developing Ray-Ban Meta, guided by the vision of making technology invisible and innovation deeply human.
His work has received international recognition, including the ADI Compasso d'Oro, and he serves on the advisory boards of leading design and communication institutions.
Linus Berglund is Marketing Manager at Lammhults Design Group, responsible for strategic marketing across brands including Abstracta, Lammhults, Ragnars and Fora Form.
Until 2025 he was Marketing Director at Abstracta — a Swedish acoustics pioneer since 1972 — where he led brand strategy, communication and creative direction, and he continues to contribute to the Product Council for Abstracta and the other Lammhults Design Group brands.
He also serves as Program Director for the 1-Year Preparatory Course in Product and Furniture Design at Beckmans College of Design Evening School, where he holds a BA in Product and Interior Design.
His background spans design, branding and communication, combining strategic marketing expertise with a strong understanding of design processes and product development.
Rodrigo Brenner is a Brazilian industrial designer from Curitiba, based in Milan, and co-founder — with Mauricio Noronha — of Furf Design Studio, an internationally awarded, multidisciplinary studio working across furniture, interior, product and jewelry design for clients from startups to the United Nations, with more than five million products sold worldwide.
Named on Forbes' "Under 30" list and a TEDx speaker, he teaches at Istituto Marangoni in Milan and serves as an instructor for UNIDO.
Furf's honors include Cannes Lions, iF Design Award and Red Dot, with pieces in international museum collections; recent projects include the mycelium "Navegar" funerary urn (iF Award 2024) and the Formula 1 São Paulo Grand Prix trophy with Louis Vuitton.
He regularly serves as a jury member for the iF Design Award and the ADC Awards.
Valerio Cometti is an Italian designer and engineer, founder and creative director of V12 Design, a Milan-based product, graphic and service design studio he established in 2005.
A Mechanical Engineering graduate from the Politecnico di Milano, he brings an engineering-rooted approach to design, treating manufacturing constraints as a creative starting point.
V12 Design works across industrial design, branding, UX/UI and Design Thinking for clients including Brionvega, LaCimbali/Faema, Leucos, Riva1920, Ferrari and Bialetti, and has more recently become an Industrial/Technology Partner of the ESA BIC Padova space incubator.
Since 2009 Cometti has also been a car design columnist for Mondadori
Francesco Favaretto leads Favaretto&Partners, an Italian design studio with an international outlook founded in 1973 by his father Paolo, active in the development of complex products, industrial design, strategic consultancy and creative direction.
Born in Padua and graduated in design from Iuav University of Venice, he joined the studio in 2009 and took over its leadership in 2012, expanding its approach to include strategy, creative direction and international positioning while maintaining its founding principles of precision, functionality and close collaboration with manufacturers.
Today the studio operates mainly on international markets, supporting companies across product design, supplier selection, materials and creative direction, while staying rooted in Italian design tradition.
Chiara Gabriele is PR Leader at IKEA Italia, where she has worked since 2017, first leading Corporate Communication and later also taking on responsibility for Product PR.
She brings over 20 years of experience in media relations and institutional relations in Italy, gained across agencies, companies and consultancy, having held various roles in national and international organizations in Pharma, Automotive, Retail and Sustainability.
Stefano Giovannoni is an Italian industrial designer, interior designer and architect who has collaborated with international companies including Alessi, Magis, Samsung, Siemens, Lavazza, LG Electronics and Fiat, among many others.
As an industrial designer, he created some of the best-selling design objects of recent decades, such as the "Girotondo" and "Mami" series and "Il Bagno Alessi One" for Alessi, and the "Bombo" series for Magis — work that has earned him recognition for his ability to anticipate people's taste.
In 2016 he founded Qeeboo, a Milan-based design brand known for imaginative, narrative objects that blend everyday function with a strong sense of wonder and identity.
Nicola Girotti has led Product Design at Pininfarina since 2017, overseeing the entire product development process — from early research on requirements and user needs through to final development and market launch.
Before joining Pininfarina, he gained international experience at Lego Concept Lab in Italy, Decathlon–Artengo in France, and Cisco Consumer Business and Motorola Solutions in Denmark, working across a range of industries and design cultures.
At Pininfarina he leads a multicultural, multifunctional team with the goal of expanding the company's Product Design division, combining analytical rigor with a strong focus on user experience and human-centered value.
Stefano L'Abbate has been active in the design world for over twenty-five years, collaborating with some of the leading international designers and companies in the industry and contributing to the development of numerous products.
He now works closely with the international creative community, connecting designers, architects and industry, with a focus on strengthening brand positioning in the Architecture & Design channel at infiniti, an Italian design and manufacturing company within OMP Group that combines design, engineering and production to create furniture systems built for durability and long-term quality.
His approach reflects a cross-disciplinary view of design, shaped by direct knowledge of its protagonists and by the relationships between creativity, expertise and strategic vision.
Claudio Larcher is an architect and designer whose studio operates at the intersection of design and architecture, treating creativity as a constant investigative and cultural tool rather than a stylistic choice.
Since 2010 this has extended into social-impact projects worldwide, alongside numerous exhibitions in Italy and abroad.
Between 2017 and 2025 he served as Ambasciatore del Design Italiano for Switzerland, Albania, Uruguay, Andorra and Colombia, and in 2022 he received an Honourable Mention at the Compasso d'Oro. He is also the author of several publications, including Globetrotting Designers and Design from the Alps.
He currently leads the Bachelor's and Master's Degree Programs in Design at NABA in Milan, and has collaborated with companies including Danese Milano, Prandina and Sphaus.
Raffaella Mangiarotti is an Italian architect, designer and creative director based in Milan, and a researcher at the Politecnico di Milano, where she teaches Industrial and Fashion Design.
She co-founded deepdesign with Matteo Bazzicalupo in 1999, then launched her own studio in 2010/11, focusing on furniture, art direction and exhibition design — serving as art director for Serralunga, Manerba and IOC.
Her most recent notable work is an ongoing lighting collaboration with IKEA, launched in 2025, including the Compasso d'Oro-nominated BÄCKNATE and the 2026 MOSSPLYM/TRÅDNATE lamps.
She holds over 40 international design awards, has work in MoMA's permanent collection, and was Ambassador of Italian Design in the World from 2017 to 2024.
Edoardo Mantovani is CEO & General Manager of Villeroy & Boch Group for Italy, Spain and Portugal.
With over twenty years of experience in the design and furniture industry, he held leadership roles at companies including Foscarini and Panzeri, contributing to the development of internationally recognized brands.
Today he leads the Group's growth across Southern Europe, promoting a vision that combines innovation, design culture, sustainability and manufacturing excellence.
Villeroy & Boch, founded in 1748 and headquartered in Mettlach, Germany, is a leading global supplier in the Dining & Lifestyle and Bathroom & Wellness sectors, represented by around 12,000 employees in roughly 140 countries.
Manuele Perlati is founder and CEO of Hiro, an Italian furniture and design brand built to make Made in Italy design more accessible through a direct-to-consumer model, strong in-house production, and ongoing dialogue with its community.
Having grown up within his family's manufacturing business, he combined industrial expertise, a digital-first outlook and product focus to build a young brand able to compete in a mature market — leveraging in-house production, fast development cycles and co-creation with customers.
Through Hiro, he works to show that a contemporary, scalable design model close to people can also emerge from Italian territory and manufacturing.
Florian Seidl is an Austrian vehicle and product designer based in Turin since 2008. He studied Industrial Design at the University of Art and Industrial Design Linz and Hong Kong Polytechnic University, earning a master's in Vehicle Design from the Royal College of Art in London.
At Centro Stile Fiat he was a senior member of the team behind the Fiat 500 range, and also worked for KTM.
Since 2015 he has been Lavazza's Design Manager at the Innovation Center in Turin, building the company's in-house design team and shaping its product and packaging identity — including the Lavazza Deséa (Red Dot 2019) and Tiny Eco (iF Design Award 2023) espresso machines.
He also teaches at the Scuola Politecnica di Design (SPD) in Milan, and was named to Perspective magazine's "40 under 40" for Product Design in 2019.
Stefania Sighinolfi is Global Brand & Marketing Director at SMEG, where she leads the company's global brand, marketing and communications strategy.
With nearly 25 years of experience in design-driven industries, she has developed extensive expertise in international brand development, product innovation and strategic marketing, leading multidisciplinary teams that bridge industrial design, consumer insight and brand language across global markets.
She is a strong advocate for design as a driver of cultural relevance, business growth and meaningful consumer experiences.
Begüm Tomruk leads Industrial Design and Creative Direction for Marantz, Bowers & Wilkins and Classé under HARMAN International, working with global teams to evolve these premium audio brands while preserving their heritage.
Born in Istanbul and graduated in Industrial Design from Mimar Sinan Fine Arts University, she previously worked at GROHE, Beko and Grundig.
Her projects have won multiple iF Design Awards and Red Dot: Best of the Best distinctions, and she served on the iF Design Award jury in 2024 and 2025 — bringing to IFB Award a perspective that spans product design, brand strategy and creative direction.
Massimiliano Tosetto leads Lodes, a design lighting company founded in Venice in 1950, having taken over its direction in 2013 (then known as Studio Italia Design).
Under his leadership, the company expanded its collection with premium, technologically innovative lighting solutions, culminating in 2020 with its rebranding as Lodes to mark the brand's 70th anniversary and a new chapter built on manufacturing expertise and Italian heritage.
He has fostered collaborations with internationally renowned designers alongside the brand's in-house creative team, driving Lodes' growth into one of Europe's leading names in design lighting, now present in more than 90 markets worldwide.
Fabio Verdelli is an Italian industrial designer whose work spans furniture, packaging, appliances and industrial systems, alongside a long-standing commitment to design education and research through collaborations with universities and institutes in Italy and abroad.
He founded his own studio over fifteen years ago, working with companies and entrepreneurs to develop brand identity, product design and communication strategy end-to-end — from early concept through to market positioning.
The studio's client list includes Ray-Ban, Jacuzzi, Bulgari, Bosch, De'Longhi, Samsung, Meta, Armani, Moncler and Oakley.
Ian Yang is the Founder and CEO of Gantri, an award-winning manufacturer and seller of sustainable lighting products, born from his background in business strategy and product development and a passion for design, technology and the potential of 3D printing.
Gantri collaborates with designers to produce lighting made from its proprietary plant-derived PlantPolymers — biodegradable and durable — manufactured on-demand in California to make premium design more accessible.
In Spring 2025 the company launched Gantri Made, a digital manufacturing platform giving designers and brands access to its production process to create and scale lighting products without the cost and complexity of traditional manufacturing.
