THE FINALISTS
OF THE ROMETTI
AWARD 2025

There is something profoundly captivating about witnessing how ceramic art—with its millennia-long history—continues to reinvent itself through the eyes of new generations. This very alchemy between tradition and innovation has been the essence of the Rometti Award for thirteen years: an international competition conceived to spark a dialogue between our artisanal savoir-faire and the creative energy of students from the most prestigious Art and Design Academies around the world.

A true laboratory of ideas, a forge of talent, an ideal bridge between the glorious past of our workshop and the still-untold forms of the future. The same spirit that, in the 1920s and ’30s, welcomed visionary young artists such as Corrado Cagli and Leoncillo Leonardi into our workshop is now renewed through the vision of Massimo Monini, owner of the Manifattura, and the artistic direction of Jean Christophe Clair.

The jury—chaired by the renowned designer Ugo La Pietra and composed of distinguished experts from the world of design—selected six finalist projects from a multitude of submissions received from across the globe. These works impressed not only for their design quality, but also for their conceptual originality, balance of form and function, and ability to interpret ceramics as a contemporary expressive language.

Here are the six projects selected for the 2025 edition:

• ALMA, vase by Andrea di Pietro – NID Nuovo Istituto di Design, Perugia (Italy)

• AMPHORA, vase by Alix Bazin – ENSAD École Nationale Supérieure Des Arts Décoratifs, Paris (France)

• AMPLITUDES, vase set by Mariana Gaspar Bernardino – ESAD Escola Superior de Artes e Design, Porto (Portugal)

• KAIROS, modular vase by Vittorio Melchionna – ISIA Istituto Superiore per le Industrie Artistiche, Florence (Italy)

• KITSU AND KOAN, vase set by Elhajji Wong – IED Istituto Europeo di Design, Milan (Italy)

• PALINSESTO, totem by Anastasia Ashikhmina – ABAFI Accademia di Belle Arti di Firenze (Italy)

From 21 to 25 July 2025, the young finalists will be hosted at our Manifattura in Umbertide for an intensive creative residency, where they will have the opportunity to turn their visions into tangible prototypes, working side by side with our skilled artisans. It will be a full immersion into matter, gesture, and the meditative rhythm of ceramics.

The Rometti Award is an initiative that, for over a decade, has allowed us to discover, nurture, and support creative talent. Over the years, several selected projects have even entered production, finding their place in our catalogue alongside collections born from collaborations with iconic names such as Chantal Thomass, Roberto Capucci, and Ambrogio Pozzi.

The award ceremony will take place in October, when the winners will be officially announced and monetary prizes awarded to the top three finalists. Yet, as always, the real value of the experience lies beyond the podium: in the act of giving form to an idea, in the depth of a transformative journey, and—perhaps—in glimpsing one’s own path in the world of design.

Continuing to invest in design culture, in visual education, in the power of imagination: this is the mission that drives the Rometti Award, year after year.

Because ceramics needs a future.