May 6 is only a week away! Don’t miss the deadline.
The deadline for the Parmigiano Reggiano® Design Challenge is approaching fast, and we’re reminding professional designers and design students to enter their work! The Design Challenge was launched by the Parmigiano Reggiano Consortium collaboratively with Alessi, the iconic Italian design brand. The competition challenges creatives to “imagine Masterpieces for the Table inspired by food.”
Entries Are Free.
Click here to learn more about the Parmigiano Reggiano® Design Challenge. Hurry, entries close May 6th, 2022.
The brief?
To elevate the human experience through products inspired by dishes prepared by world-renowned chefs.
This year’s design brief calls for a close collaboration between design and the culinary arts. Spread across TWO categories: Cooking, and Eating, this year’s Parmigiano Reggiano Design Challenge includes inspiration in the form of dishes prepared by renowned Chef Michel Nischan, the recipient of four James Beard Awards, and by Chef Michele Casadei Massari, the US Brand Ambassador for Parmigiano Reggiano. Designers are required to visualize their creative masterpieces around these inspirational dishes. Participants can consider materials, technologies, functionality, and sustainability as part of their concepts. The entries can be submitted online as sketches, renderings, or photos of prototypes. Learn more here.
A chance to win a trip to Italy, awards, gifts, and visibility!
The Best of Show wins a week-long trip to Italy for two, including VIP tours of a Parmigiano Reggiano artisanal dairy and to the Alessi Design Museum, and MUCH more! The Design Challenge winners qualify for Gold, Silver and Bronze Awards in two categories, along with amazing gifts from the sponsors. The winners will be featured online and promoted through social media. Additionally, keep in mind that the entries will be reviewed by a stellar group of judges that include some of the most influential names in the design industry.
The judges and sponsors.
The 2022 Parmigiano Reggiano Design Challenge will be presided over by a jury panel of both esteemed designers and culinary professionals. This panel includes Mauro Porcini, the Chief Design Officer for PepsiCo, world-famous designers Karim Rashid and Fabio Novembre, respected restaurant designer Alessia Genova from Tihany Design, and Donald Strum, the head of the Michael Graves Design office. The jury also includes the winner of last year’s Best of Show Award, designer Qing Yan. Additionally, Chef Michele Casadei Massari and Chef Michel Nischan will also join the design industry judges and contribute a culinary perspective to the judging process. If that wasn’t enough, Alessi and Kartell – two of the top Italian design brands in the product and furniture categories are sponsoring the competition. The opportunity for contestants to be seen by influential industry leaders and top design brands is reason enough to enter your work!
Your entry will help fight nutrition insecurity!
Designers can also feel good that by simply entering their work they will help raise much-needed funds for Wholesome Wave, a non-profit organization working to make fruits and vegetables more accessible and affordable for those living with diet-related health risks and conditions, particularly those suffering from the impacts of racial, ethnic and income-based inequities. The sponsors have pledged to make a donation to Wholesome Wave based on the number of entries we receive.
HERE’S AN APPETIZING EXAMPLE!
A pasta bowl inspired by the region and the texture of Parmigiano Reggiano cheese!
Designed by Tomas Neumann and rendered using KeyShot, this pasta bowl sits at the very intersection of food and design. The color and unique uneven surface were inspired by the distinctive mountain-like texture of a wheel of Parmigiano Reggiano cheese when it is cracked for the first time – and is also a reference to the Apennine Mountains which run across Emilia Romagna, the area of origin of Parmigiano Reggiano cheese. Titled “Appennino Interiore” (or Apennine Within) the bowl not only celebrates the crystalline texture of the cheese, it is also made using sustainable materials. Neumann mentions that the bowl is made from a “food-grade biodegradable resin/linen composite that recycles cheesecloth from the cheese production” which is aligned with one of the Design Challenge’s themes – Zero Waste.
Learn more and submit your designs!
The Parmigiano Reggiano Design Challenge site includes all the details about the competition and the requirements for entry. But, hurry! The deadline is May 6…so you only have a few days to enter your work. Oh, and as they say in Italy, “Buona Fortuna!”
Visit the Parmigiano Reggiano Design Challenge site for complete details!