The Design Museum in London, UK, has announced the winners of its 2014 Designs of the Year Awards. The designs are judged by a high-profile panel and are presented in seven design categories. One category winner will be go on to be named the overall winner.
Gizmag featured the Designs of the Year Awards last year and they are now in their seventh year. Previous winners have included the London 2012 Olympic Torch (2012), the well-known Barack Obama Poster (2009) and the One Laptop Per Child device designed by by Yves Béhar (2008).
This year's judging panel was chaired by Ekow Eshun (writer, journalist and broadcaster) and also included Ben Terrett (Government Digital Service), Frith Kerr (Studio Frith), Kim Colin (Industrial Facility), Piers Gough (CZWG Architects LLP) and Tina Gaudoin (acting editor in chief of Elle Decoration, and independent fashion journalist). The category winners are as follows:
Architecture
Zaha Hadid and Patrik Schumacher's Heydar Aliyev Center in Baku, Azerbaijan. The Center's "elaborate undulations, folds and inflections" create a surface that can perform a variety of different functions.
Digital
The Portable Eye Examination Kit (PEEK) is a smartphone-based system for delivering comprehensive eye examinations. The jury found that its ease of use, affordability and portability, mean that it can take eye care to the remotest of locations.
Fashion
Miuccia Prada's SS14 collection incorporates sporty details, structured shapes and bold colors. Vogue's take on the collection gushed, "By next summer we'll wonder what we ever wore before."
Furniture
The Pro Char Family is designed by Konstantin Grcic and features "state-of-the-art ergonomics and pioneering design." The design not only allows movement in all directions, but encourages it so as to promote healthier sitting.
Graphics
The Drone Shadows collection is series of installations consisting of a 1:1 scale outline of a military unmanned aerial vehicle. It was designed by James Bridle / booktwo.org and has appeared in locations across the globe.
Product
The Seaboard Grand is a reinvention of the piano keyboard designed by Roland Lamb and Hong-Yeul Eom. The jury felt that its "contemporary minimalist" design and "traditional handcrafted quality" reimagines the keys as "soft waves that enable continuous and discrete real-time, tactile control of sound through three-dimensional hand gestures."
Transport
Volkswagen's XL1 car is the world’s the most efficient liquid-fuelled production car, requiring just only 8.4 PS to sustain a constant 100 km/h (62 mph) on a level surface in still air. The car can reach 100 km/h in 12.7 seconds.
"From the daringly innovative to the reassuringly good, Designs of the Year 2014 is a condensed and vivid selection of the last twelve months in design," says Gemma Curtin, Curator of the accompanying Designs of the Year exhibition at the Design Museum. "This spectrum of expert-chosen design is an insight into what design can do for us both as individuals and as a society."
The Designs of the Year exhibition runs until August 25. The overall Designs of the Year winner will be announced on June 30 at a special event.
Source: Design Museum