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- Trophies and sustainability
The Isola Design Awards Trophy: Four Panels, Four Surfaces
Since 2021, the Isola Design Awards have recognised projects by independent designers and studios. They are run by Isola Design Group, a platform based in Milan and Dubai.
For the 2026 edition, Isola opened up the trophy design for the first time through a call addressed to its community. It chose the proposal by Danidevito Studio, a Barcelona design studio that combines simple geometric shapes in its ceramic objects. Isola ties the trophy to the edition’s theme, “Evolving Now”, a celebration of transformation and constant evolution.
Building on that idea, this article looks at the composition of the 2026 trophy and how it relates to earlier editions. It also draws lessons for brands that want to design the trophy for their own award.
Contents
- Design and Materials of the Isola Design Awards Trophy: Layers You Read One by One
- Who Receives the Isola Design Awards Trophy and What They Get
- Isola Design Awards Winners in the Design Press
- What the Isola Design Awards Trophy Teaches a Brand
- Isola Design Awards 2026: Key Dates
- Visible Transformation, Layer by Layer
- Frequently Asked Questions
Design and Materials of the Isola Design Awards Trophy: Layers You Read One by One
Isola conceives the trophy as a vertical composition of materials. Each one keeps its own texture and density rather than melting into a single homogeneous object. The result is a dialogue between contrasts: the raw and the refined, the industrial and the organic, the opaque and the translucent.
Four joined pieces make up a single trophy, and each is lower and narrower than the one behind it. At the back sits a terracotta-red panel with a matte, grainy surface. In front of it, another in a sandy tone, porous and with vertical veining. Next comes a translucent green panel with a satin finish and a stepped notch on its left edge that reveals more of the sand surface. At the front, a brushed-metal plate carries the award’s logo.
BASE39, a creative centre in Sharjah that brings together laboratories and workshops, made the trophy. The red panel absorbs light, the sand one breaks it up in its pores, the green one lets it through diffused, and the metal stretches it into fine lines. With the stepped edges, all four surfaces can be read at once.
The table shows how the trophy has changed since 2021, with a different designer for each of the six editions.
| Edition and Authorship | Material and Approach |
|---|---|
| 2021: Tommaso Spinzi, produced by Caracol AM | Modular Totem 3D-printed in bioplastic, with pieces that can be assembled and taken apart |
| 2022: Masquespacio, produced by Prósper Riba Vilardell | Deep blue glass sphere on a turquoise cone |
| 2023: Tellurico | A carved wooden trophy, with artificial intelligence used only at the concept stage; every piece is unique |
| 2024: IAMMI | “Champion”: a vase shaped like an unidealised human figure, with a white body and blue handles and base |
| 2025: Grob Design | “bEEn”: a honeycomb-inspired form, with cork as the main material and controlled imperfections |
| 2026: Danidevito Studio, produced by BASE39 | Four joined pieces with distinct surfaces on view |
Who Receives the Isola Design Awards Trophy and What They Get
In 2026, ten winners receive the same trophy: the eight category winners and the winners of two special distinctions. Recognition is thus shared between a jury, the Isola community and a local partner. The table summarises four distinctions and who decides each one.
| Distinction | Who Decides and What They Receive |
|---|---|
| Jury Award | The jury picks one winner per category, using criteria such as originality, craftsmanship and sustainability. The winner receives the trophy. |
| Category finalist | The jury ranks it second. The finalist receives a 50% discount on the entry fee for one year. |
| Community Choice Award | The Isola community, through daily voting. The winner receives the trophy. |
| BASE39 Award | A separate jury chooses among designers based in the United Arab Emirates who enter any category. The winner receives the trophy. |
Winning also opens up specific routes to visibility. The most notable ones are:
- Exhibition in Milan: the category winner shows their project at Milan Design Week 2027, within the exhibition curated by Isola, in front of visitors to the district.
- A stage in Sharjah: the BASE39 Award winner also exhibits at BASE39, adding a second audience in the Emirates.
- Community vote: the Community Choice Award comes from the Isola community’s daily voting, so the winner arrives at the ceremony with an audience that already knows their project.
Isola Design Awards Winners in the Design Press
Each edition generates coverage in design media that does not depend on the winner. Notable examples include:
- Design Milk (2023): the magazine devoted an article to the winners of the third edition, with images and a description of each project. Among them was the Circular Ceramics tableware collection by designer Sara Howard. It is read by design enthusiasts who may become buyers or collaborators.
- STIRworld (2026): the design and architecture publication presented the ten 2025 winners on the occasion of their exhibition in Milan, bringing those projects closer to readers in the sector.
That coverage, generated by third parties without any payment from the winner, is what is known as earned media.
As long as it stays online, the Design Milk article keeps leading people who search for the award to the 2023 winning projects.
Turn your award’s trophy into a record of your community
Custom design, with care in every detail
Design your custom trophyWhat the Isola Design Awards Trophy Teaches a Brand
The decisions behind this trophy apply well beyond the award. A brand can adopt each one separately when designing its own.
- Assign a material to each value. When each layer keeps its own surface, a brand can match one to each attribute it recognises. The trophy brings together four surfaces that can be told apart at a glance, so whoever receives it can understand its composition without a separate explanation.
- Open the design to the community. When a brand opens the commission to its community, the design starts from a proposal submitted from within it rather than from a studio chosen in advance. Isola did this in 2026 for the first time: members of its community could propose the trophy that winners would receive, and the chosen proposal was revealed before the ceremony. In this way, the award can build participation well before the presentation.
- Renew the trophy in stages. A design that changes with each cycle turns every presentation into news and leaves a record of the award’s stages. With a different designer since 2021, Isola’s six trophies make up that archive.
Four visible surfaces, an open call and a new designer in every edition: three decisions that turn the trophy into a record of the Isola community.
Isola Design Awards 2026: Key Dates
The sixth edition culminates in a ceremony in Sharjah, and the awards’ official website publishes the full schedule.
- 7 September: shortlist announced.
- 9 to 30 September: public and jury voting.
- 6 October: finalists announced.
- 10 November: award ceremony at BASE39 (Sharjah, United Arab Emirates).
Give your award a trophy with as many layers as your brand has values
Custom design, with care in every detail
Design your custom trophyVisible Transformation, Layer by Layer
The Isola Design Awards trophy turns the theme “Evolving Now” into four joined pieces: a matte red panel, a porous sand one, a translucent green one and a brushed-metal plate. In this way, transformation can be read head-on, and each surface stands apart from the others.
At Sustain Awards we design and make custom trophies with a handcrafted character, where form and surfaces express the values that set your brand apart.
Frequently Asked Questions
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