ABOUT
Who is Sara?
She’s a person,before being a designer. And she strongly believes in self-awareness as a key tool for innovation.
Sara Ferrari is an Italian product designer.
Her work focuses on the use of self-awareness as a tool for innovation and she uses mindfulness practise and observation exercises that she personally designed, in order to enhance it. She applies this to her product design projects and in her teaching activities.
In 2009 she founded Sara Ferrari Design in London, where she spent the first four years of her career getting her work recognized worldwide, winning design competitions, and designing successful products.
In 2010, her project “Stone-Leaf” received a special mention from the international “Zanotta_Cristalplant Design contest”. After her return to Italy in 2011, she was awarded with a special mention from the YOUNG&DESIGN award for her project BACO, a sofa designed for the Milan-based company D3co.
In October 2013, she started a research project on the subject “design and emotions” at Delft University of Technology, trying to find a way to create a link between academic research and design companies, where she also ran different courses including one in collaboration with the Italian brand Alessi.
While in the Netherlands, Sara kept working for Italian companies such as Olimpia Splendid, a leader in air conditioning, heating and air treatment products, for which she designed “MIA”, a pellet stove awarded with the GOOD DESIGN AWARD from the Chicago Athenaeum in 2014 and the RED DOT Design Award in 2015.
In the same year, during the Salone del Mobile in Milan, Same was awarded with the third prize in the YOUNG&DESIGN ’15 with the Libra project.
She also won the GOOD DESIGN AWARD 2016 from the Chicago Athenaeum for UNICO AIR inverter, designed for Olimpia Splendid.
Her work has been displayed and sold in various institutions including the Triennale Museum in Milan, The Others fair in Turin, The Somerset House and the ICA in London and The Peel Gallery in Texas.
She is been teaching, lecturing and leading workshops in several Universities and Design Schools, such as TU Delft , HKU in Utrecht, University of Bologna , NABA (New Academy of fine Art) in Milan, SID (Scuola Italiana Design) in Padova, Politecnico di Milano, Alba University in Beirut, Domus Academy, where she’s been directing the Master in product Design for the academic year of 2017/18 and the University of Los Andes, where she’s been Visiting Professor for the 1st semester of 2019. She is based in Brescia and she’s working as a designer, lecturer and workshop leader for both companies and Universities.
She is also collaborating in different projects as “designer of meaning” with Professor of Leadership and Innovation Roberto Verganti.
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Clients/Collaborations
Awards
what others think of Sara
R. Verganti
Author of Design Driven Innovation
G. Biscaro
Art Director @ Fontana Arte
P. Hekkert
Full Professor of form and theory, TU Delft
J. Neira
Editor of Designboom
I. Kreukniet
Online Key Account Manager, Alessi SpA
