Designs of the Year

GOV.UK Wins Designs of the Year 2013

The website GOV.UK has won the Design Museum Design of the Year Award 2013.

Deyan Sudjic, Director of Design Museum said: ‘GOV.UK is a remarkable success on so many levels. It makes life better for millions of people coping with the everyday chores, from getting a new passport, to paying their taxes. It’s a reflection of the government understanding how to communicate with the country in a way that works, it’s simple, direct, well mannered, all the things that we would like to take for granted from the government, but in a sea of red tape and jargon, usually can’t. GOV.UK looks elegant, and subtly British thanks to a revised version of a classic typeface, designed by Margaret Calvert back in the 1960s. It is the Paul Smith of websites. The rest of the world is deeply impressed, and because it has rationalised multiple official websites, it saves the taxpayer millions, what’s not to like?’

The award was presented to Mike Bracken, Executive Director of GDS, Ben Terrett Head of Design at GDS and Nick Hurd Minister for Civil Society at an awards reception held at Angler, South Place Hotel, London. The jury unanimously agreed that GOV.UK was

the overall winner for Design of the Year 2013 for its well thought out yet understated design, making the user experience faster and easier. The website is regarded as one of the leading government websites in the world.

This year’s category winners, announced last week, include the renovation and re-imagining of a faded 1960’s tower block in Paris, a landmark documentary on fashion icon Diana Vreeland, a re-invention of the wheel in the form of a unique folding wheel which can be applied to bicycles and wheelchairs and a chair constructed using the latest computer technology.

The seven category winners are:

Architecture: TOUR BOIS-LE-PRÊTRE, PARIS
Designed by Frédéric Druot, Anne Lacaton and Jean-Philippe Vassal

Digital: GOV.UK WEBSITE                                                                                                                    Designed by Government Digital Service

Fashion: DIANA VREELAND: THE EYE HAS TO TRAVEL
Directed by Lisa Immordino Vreeland

Furniture: MEDICI CHAIR
Designed by Konstantin Grcic for
Mattiazzi

Graphics: VENICE ARCHITECTURE BIENNALE IDENTITY
Designed by John Morgan Studio

Products: KIT YAMOYO
Designed by ColaLife and PI Global

Transport: MORPH FOLDING WHEEL
Designed by Vitamins for
Maddak Inc.

Pete Collard, Curator of Designs of the Year comments:
‘Designs of the Year is the Design Museum’s authoritative review of the most innovative, forward-thinking and culturally relevant projects from the past twelve months. The work selected demonstrates the many ways in which design can transform our physical and cultural landscape.’

Designs of the Year 2013 Nominees Announced

The nominations for the sixth annual Designs of the Year 2013 have been announced. Consisting of nearly 100 projects, selected by a panel of distinguished nominators, the awards compile the most original and exciting designs, prototypes and designers in the world today. All the nominations will be on display at the museum in the Designs of the Year exhibition from 20 March - 7 July 2013.

Share your comments, show support on the blog or tweet #designsoftheyear. View the full list below:

ARCHITECTURE

A Room For London, (Southbank Centre), UK
Designed by David Kohn Architects in collaboration with artist Fiona Banner

Astley Castle, Warwickshire, UK
Designed by Witherford Watson Mann

Book Mountain, Spijkenisse, Holland
Designed by MVRDV

Clapham Library, London, UK
Designed by Studio Egret West

Four Freedoms Park, New York, USA
Designed by Louis Kahn

Galaxy Soho, Bejing
Designed by Zaha Hadid

Home For All, (Venice 2012 Architecture Biennale)
Designed by Akihisa Hirata, Sou Fujimoto, Kumiko, Naoya Hatakeyama, Inui and Toyo Ito

Ikea Disobedients, (Performed at MoMA PS1), New York
Designed by Andrés Jaque Arquitectos

Kukje Art Centre, Seoul
Designed by SO - IL

La Tour Bois-Le-Prêtre, Paris
Designed by Druot, Lacaton and Vassal

Metropolitan Arts Centre, Belfast
Designed by Hackett Hall McKnight

MOCA (Museum of Contemporary Art), Cleveland, USA
Designed by Farshid Moussavi Architecture

Museum of Innocence, Istanbul
Designed by Orhan Pamuk with Ihsan Bilgin, Cem Yucel and Gregor Sunder Plassmann

Thalia Theatre, Lisbon
Designed by Gonçalo Byrne Arquitectos & Barbas Lopes Arquitectos

The Shard, London, UK
Designed by Renzo Piano

T-Site, Tokyo
Designed by Klein Dytham

Superkilen, Nørrebro, Denmark
Designed by BIG, TOPOTEK1 and Superflex

DIGITAL

Candles In The Wind
Designed by Moritz Waldemeyer for Ingo Maurer

City Tracking Pt 2
Designed by Stamen

Chirp
Designed by Patrick Bergel

Dashilar App
Designed by Nippon Design Centre Inc.

Digital Postcard and Player
Designed by Uniform

English Hedgerow Plate
Designed by Jason Jameson, James Hall and Rhys Griffin of Unanico Group, with Andrew Tanner Design and Royal Winton

Free Universal Construction Kit
Designed by Free Art and Technology Lab and Sy-Lab

Gov.UK Website
Designed by Government Digital Service

Light Field Camera
Designed by Lytro

Superstitious Fund Project
Designed by Shing Tat Chung

Rain Room, (The Curve, Barbican Art Gallery)
Designed by rAndom International

Raspberry Pi Computer
Designed by Raspberry Pi Foundation

Wind Map
Designed by Martin Wattenberg and Fernanda Bertini Viegas

Windows Phone 8
Designed by Microsoft

Zombies, Run! App
Designed by Six to Start and Naomi Alderman

FASHION

A/W12 Collection
Designed by Craig Green

A/W12 Womenswear
Designed by Giles Deacon

Anna Karenina Costumes
Designed by Jacqueline Durran

Commes De Garçons RTW A/W12
Designed by Rei Kawakubo

Diana Vreeland: The Eye Has To Travel
Directed by Lisa Immordino

I Want Muscle
Directed by Elisha Smith-Leverock

Louis Vuitton Collection
Designed by Yayoi Kusama

Prada S/S12 RTW Collection
Designed by Miuccia Prada

Proenza Schouler A/W12 Collection
Designed by Lazaro Hernandez and Jack McCollough

FURNITURE

100 Chairs
Designed by Marni

A-Collection
Designed by Ronan and Erwan Bouroullec for Hay

Corniches
Designed by Ronan and Erwan Bouroullec for Vitra

Engineering Temporality
Designed by Studio Markunpoika

Future Primitives
Designed by Muller Van Severen

Gravity Stool
Designed by Jolan Van Der Wiel

Liquid Glacial Table
Designed by Zaha Hadid

Medici Chair
Designed by Konstantin Grcic for Mattiazzi

Re-Imagined Chairs
Designed by Studiomama (Nina Tolstrup and Jack Mama)

Tié Paper Chair
Designed by Pinwu

The Sea Chair
Designed by Studio Swine & Kieren Jones

Well Proven Chair
Designed by James Shaw and Marjan van Aubel

GRAPHICS

Kapow!
Written by Adam Thirlwell and designed by Studio Frith

Austria Solar Annual Report
Designed by Serviceplan

Australian Cigarette Packaging
Commissioned by Australian Government Department for Health and Ageing

Bauhaus: Art As Life Exhibition (Barbican Art Gallery)
Designed by A Practice For Everyday Life

Dekho: Conversations on Design in India
Designed by CoDesign

Doc Lisboa ‘12
Designed by Pedro Nora

Made in Los Angeles: Work by Colby Poster Printing Co.
Designed by Anthony Burrill

Occupied Times Of London
Designed by Tzortzis Rallis and Lazaros Kakoulidis

Organic
Designed by Kapitza

Ralph Ellison Collection
Designed by Cardon Webb

Rijksmuseum Identity
Designed by Irma Boom

Strelka Institute Identity
Designed by OK-RM

The Gentlewoman #6
Designed by Veronica Ditting & Jop van Bennekom

Venice Architecture Biennale Identity
Designed by John Morgan

Zumtobel Annual Report
Designed by Brighten the Corners and Anish Kapoor

PRODUCT

Bang & Olufsen ‘Beolit 12′
Designed by Cecilie Manz

Child Vision Glasses
Designed by The Centre for Vision in the Developing World and Goodwin Hartshorn

Colalife
Designed by Simon Berry

Colour Porcelain
Designed by Scholten & Baijings/1616 Arita Japan

E- Source
Designed by Hal Watts

Faceture Vases
Designed by Phil Cuttance

Frederic Malle Travel Sprays
Designed by Pierre Hardy

Flyknit Trainers
Designed by Nike

Kiosk 2.0
Designed by Unfold Studio

Liquiglide Ketchup Bottle
Designed by Dave Smith/Varanasi Research Group MIT

Little Printer
Designed by Berg

Little Sun
Designed by Olafur Eliasson

3D Printed Exoskeleton ‘Magic Arms’
Designed by Nemours/Alfred I. duPont Hospital for Children in Wilmington, Delaware

Oigen Kitchenware
Designed by Jasper Morrison/Japan Creative

Olympic Cauldron
Designed by Heatherwick Studio

Papa Foxtrot Toys
Designed by PostlerFerguson

Plug Lamp
Designed by Form Us With Love

Replicator 2
Designed by MakerBot

Switch Collection
Designed by Inga Sempe for Legrand

Surface Tension Lamp
Designed by Front

Tekio
Designed by Anthony Dickens

W127 Lamp
Designed by Dirk Winkel for Wästberg

TRANSPORT

Air Access Seat
Designed by Priestmangoode

Donky Bicycle
Designed by Ben Wilson

Exhibition Road
Designed by Dixon Jones / The Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea

i3 Concept Car
Designed by BMW

Mando Footloose Chainless Bicycle
Designed by Mark Sanders

Morph Folding Wheel
Designed by Vitamins for Maddak Inc.

N-ONE
Designed by Honda

Olympics Wayfaring
Designed by TfL /JEDCO / LOCOG

Touch & Travel
Designed by DB Mobility Logistics AG

PREVIOUS DESIGNS OF THE YEAR WINNERS:

2008 - One Laptop per Child – Yves Béhar of Fuseproject
2009 - Barack Obama Poster – Shepard Fairey
2010 - Folding Plug – Min-Kyu Choi
2011 - Plumen Lightbulb 001 - Samuel Wilkinson for Hulger
2012 - London 2012 Olympic Torch - Barber Osgerby

‘Hand Made – High Tech’ Design Factory Student Project

Design Factory is the Design Museum’s annual project for HE project for BA students spanning; product, fashion/textiles, graphics/illustration and architecture/spatial design. This year the brief has been set by Designs of the Year 2012 Furniture nominees Silo Studio.

The title of the brief is ‘Hand Made – High Tech’ and encourages students to create a response that focuses on exploring and adapting unusual or unconventional materials and processes.

In a world saturated with ‘stuff’ how do designers generate innovative and surprising solutions?

Download the full brief here

To take part in the project, students MUST be registered by their course tutor by Wednesday 31 October 2012. Registration costs £5 and includes two tickets for research visits to the museum.

Students receive written feedback on submitted work from the judging panel and the top 40 students will be invited to attend a symposium day at the museum.

Find out more about how to get involved in Design Factory 2012/13 at designmuseum.org/universities/design-factory

Designs of the Year designers picked as Britians Leading Talent

Interviews with designers Samuel Wilkinson and Laurence Kemball-Cook both selected as part of ‘The Telegraph’s Amazing 15′ to represent some Britain’s most exciting talent today.

Samuel Wilkinson won the Designs of the Year Product and Overall Award in 2011 for the Plumen 001 low energy lightbulb, designed with Hulger.

Also in 2011 Laurence Kemball-Cook was nominated for the product award for Pavegen, energy generating paving slabs.

‘My Perfect Wheelchair’ on BBC Two Scotland

Documentary following designer Andrew Slorance in his quest to make and sell his ‘perfect wheelchair’. The Carbon Black wheelchair was nominated in the Product category for this year’s Designs of the Year. Catch ‘My Perfect Wheelchair’ on BBC Two Scotland (only) Thursday 19 July at 9pm and a week later on BBC iPlayer.

Designs of the Year De-rig

The exhibits are packed away and dismantled for the Designs of the Year de-rig.

Last Chance to See

Late Night Opening

Enjoy a last chance to see current exhibitions Designs of the Year and Christian Louboutin at the Design Museum Summer Party on Friday 29 June.

BOOK NOW

Curator in Residence

Curatorial Leadership Residency 2012, Design Museum, London
Visual diary by Michelle Joan Wilkinson, PhD

“I am a curator at the Reginald F. Lewis Museum of Maryland African American History & Culture in Baltimore, Maryland, USA and I spent a week in residence at the Design Museum “shadowing” the museum’s Director, Deyan Sudjic. My residency was coordinated through the Center for Curatorial Leadership (CCL), a programme which works with museum curators in developing management and leadership skills that will make them competitive candidates for museum director posts. As a 2012 CCL Fellow, I selected the Design Museum because I was impressed by the Designers in Residence program and I wanted the opportunity to learn from one of the world’s leading voices in architecture and design. I had read The Language of Things, Deyan Sudjic’s book on “desirable objects,” and found it very accessible. My week with Deyan was like a whirlwind through the design world, museum matters, and provocative conversations I hope to continue.

Day 1, Monday 21 May: Hopped on the 78 Bus from Shoreditch, crossing over Tower Bridge, and arrived just blocks from the Design Museum. A whole “behind-the-scenes” world awaited: rows of desks, ringing phones, computers, books, and teams of staff abuzz with design matters. The small library table is where a lot of the action happens, from my first one-on-one with the Director, Deyan Sudjic, to the Monday morning department staff meeting which followed.

On my first look around the galleries, the concept and design of the Christian Louboutin exhibition was impressive, centered around themes of travel and architecture as well as his studio practice.

On the second floor was the Designs of the Year exhibition. The highlight for me was seeing this year’s winning design by Barber Osgerby for the London 2012 Olympic Torch. How cool!

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Diamond Jubilee Weekend

In the lead up to and during the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee Weekend a small part of the exhibition space in Designs of the Year will be cordoned off and some exhibits removed to give clear access to the river view. This will take place between Thursday 31 May to Tuesday 5 June 2012. We apologise for any inconvenience caused.

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