SCM Group, together with NiEW, a business design and customer experience company specialising in industry, have received recognition for their combination of industry and Italian design – their Maestro Active human-machine interface project won the RedDot Award in the Brands & Communication Design 2019 category.
This prestigious global competition is now in its 65th edition, and the jury recognised the high level of design, innovation and creativity behind the ‘made in Italy’ product, following a scrupulous assessment of more than 8000 international projects across the various categories.
Maestro Active, which had already achieved industry recognition in February with a special mention at the German Design Award, is NiEW’s concept of a corporate operating system capable of adapting to all SCM’s product lines and devices, with regard to Industry 4.0 and Industrial IoT.
From left: SCM Group software design manager Massimiliano Olivieri with innovation director, Federico Ratti
ts objective was to create a single interface across the group’s technologies,which not only meets the highest demands of contemporary IT design, but also allows any operator, irrespective of language, background, culture or professional experience, to approach a wide variety of machinery directly, and with confidence.
The interface adapts to the user’s characteristics in terms of language, computer literacy and information complexity, providing recommendations for the effective use of the machine.
“The success of the Maestro Active visual and interaction design project,” comments Federico Ratti, innovation director at SCM Group, “is a demonstration of how much this system can meet user experience demands made by SCM Group’s client companies, operating across the globe in various commodity sectors – from the furniture to the building industry, from the car to aerospace industry, from the nautical industry to the manufacturing of plastics.
“The aim is to provide our state-of-the-art technologies with exclusive digital systems, to make using the machines even more effective, easier and pleasant, and guarantee a high level of know-how.”
From left: Andrea Violante, CEO NiEW, Daniele de Cia, Founder di NiEW., SCM Group innovation director, Federico Ratti and SCM Group software design manager Massimiliano Olivieri
Daniele De Cia, founder and president of NiEW, adds: “We are extremely proud of the result achieved with our longstanding partnership with SCM Group – the re-designing of such a complex, important system for the competitiveness of a company could only have been achieved thanks to genuine complicity between the multi-disciplinary skills of researchers, designers and business experts at NiEW and the wealth of technologies experience and market leadership possessed by SCM Group.”
Professor Peter Zec, founder and CEO at Red Dot Award, comments: “The Red Dot Award has been one of the largest, most important design competitions in the world for 65 years, and offers designers, agencies and companies the chance to present their excellences in the world of design. I would like to offer my congratulations to the winners for their distinction. Anyone who can make their mark in a fierce, global competition like this one, deserves to feel proud of the results achieved.”
The Red Dot Awards 2019 ceremony was held on the 1st November during a gala evening at the Konzerthaus in Berlin, before an audience of around 1400 international guests. The winning projects are featured in the International Yearbook Brands & Communication Design 2019/2020, now on sale worldwide.
The Maestro Active interface was also at the centre of the Inclusive European project case study which aimed to develop automation systems for the manufacturing industry which can be configured to the user’s specifications. The project, which saw SCM working alongside nine EU partners, was financed by the European Commission as part of the Horizon 2020 programme and finalised at the end of September.
