And the winner is…

January 20th, 2011 by Mat Dolphin

What do a series of murals on the walls of Philadelphia, an iPhone App, a coffin, Gareth Pughs Spring Summer 2011 collection, Boris bikes and a barn in Suffolk have in common?

They’re just a few of the nominees featured in the prestigious Brit Insurance Designs of the Year Awards. The nominations, which were announced this week, are taken from seven areas which cover broad range of design disciplines. The categories are architecture, fashion, furniture, interactive, product, transport and, the one we’re most interested in, graphics. The selection is an eclectic affair and will be displayed at an exhibition at the Design Museum from February 16th. The aim of the exhibition is to promote the finest design the world has produced over the last year and eventually crown one of the shortlisted nominees ‘Designer of the Year’. Previous winners include Gorillaz co-creator Jamie Hewlett, industrial designer Yves Béhar and London student Min-Kyu Choi, the creator of the folding plug.

The judging panel – chaired by design writer and curator Stephen Bayley and featuring novelist Will Self, graphic designer Mark Farrow, and founder of Poke, Simon Waterfall – will announce the final winner in March.

Every year the list of nominees and subsequent winners cause lively debate and discussion amongst designers and I have no doubt that the angry masses will be posing the same angry questions from behind the safety of a computer screen. This year the smart money is on Apple’s game changing iPad but we thought we’d share a few of our favourites. Could any of these win the top spot?

Stephen Powers is an artist and graffiti writer, his ‘A Love Letter For You‘ project comprised of a series of murals throughout his hometown of Philadelphia. In conjunction with the City of Philadelphia Mural Arts Program and sponsored by the Pew Center for Arts & Heritage, the wording and content of the typographic murals are provided by the residents of the neighbourhoods in which they appear as a literal love letter to the city.

MVDRV of Rotterdam and British firm Mole Architects joined forces to produce a rather amazing piece of architecture in the heart of leafy Suffolk. The holiday home is a striking building, more the half of which is cantilevered above a natural slope, giving the impression that the structure is precariously balancing.

Plytube is a revolutionary way of producing plywood tubes for constructing furniture. Created by Seongyong Lee, the process involves laminates wrapped into tube shapes and hardened with glue. The end result is strong, lightweight and affordable. The furniture also looks rather nice.

Advertising giants Wieden + Kennedy got together with Aardman Animation to produce the worlds smallest stop motion animation. The piece, commissioned by Nokia and shot on their N8 phone employed microscope technology originally created to diagnose diseases in remote locations.

Not a bad selection eh?

The remainder of the nominees can be seen on the official website.

I’m sure the debate will rage on until long after the winner has been announced but in the mean time, we’d love to hear your thoughts. Is the list fair? Any glaring omissions? What should win and, more importantly… what will?

Thanks for reading

Mat D.


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