The iDogi Awards Ceremony was held within Palazzo Vendramin Calergi in Venice, home of the casino. The awards are promoted and organised by iDogi, a company specialising in over-sized luxury chandeliers, now celebrating 50 years in business. The awards feature three categories (residential under 1000 sqm, residential over 1000 sqm, and hotels) and an important fil rouge: the promotion of classic style in interiors.
A brilliant and varied jury, coordinated by multi-award winning London interior designer Vanessa Brady (on the jury last year as well), selected numerous designs sent in by professionals from around the world: a sign of the Venetian brand’s growing presence outside of Italy (95% of the company’s revenue is earned abroad) and, it must be stressed again, the strong and deeply rooted “desire for classic style” which sustains a sector that normally operates under the radar and with subsequently scarce media visibility.
The jury for this year’s edition of the iDogi Awards included Daniela Rossi Cattaneo, legendary Milanese interior designer of international acclaim; Tom Marquardt from Chicago; Antonio Alizzi, from Italy but residing in Moscow; and Carlo Beltramelli, an architect from Vicenza with projects around the world and a declared propensity for custom-made items.
The jury, a perfect combination of demographics, areas of expertise, and backgrounds, experienced moments of open disagreement during the selection process for the projects to be awarded.
The parterre of finalists included designs submitted from Italy, Russia, Japan, India, Monaco, the United Arab Emirates, China, Indonesia, the US, and Great Britain, and it was these last two countries that earned the three most important awards. Alex Kravetz, owner of Alex Kravetz design in Surrey, won over the jury with his design for the Imperial hotel in Vienna; Scotsman Alan Crawford, from London, won the award for residential under 1000 sqm; and the founder of the Dahlia Design Studio in America won for residential over 1000 sqm.
Two special mentions were earned by designers from the Far East: from Japan, Makoto Yamaguchi stood our for his ability to create harmony between tradition and the future; and from Indonesia, the Vivianne Faye studio for a concept that brought together east and west.
The crowning achievement of this edition of the iDogi Awards was definitely the intermingling and contamination between different ethnicities and backgrounds and the “constant need for connection” which the world of interior design has absorbed; something which on the one hand contributes to the daily stress of input, while on the other provides, in real time, incredible opportunities for choice.
iDogi is a company that is experiencing exponential growth in the over-sized luxury chandelier sector, with an initial design and retail line that is incredibly well-stocked and a strong all-female team ready to respond 24/7 to clients as well as, with just as much energy, to Domenico Caminiti’s (their president’s) inexhaustible wave of creativity.
