The Spark Awards celebrate design in all disciplines, from Architecture to Digital, Product to Print–whatever media you dream in. Please consider joining the Spark communities and of course, entering your work. We’ll make sure to “get it out there!”

Chee Pearlman, Chee & Company, Jury Chair
John Barratt, CEO, Teague
Sally Dominguez, Partner, B. Architecture and Rain Water Hog
Rob Curedale, Curedale Design
Adam Brodsley, Partner, Volume Design
Thom Faulders, Faulders Studio Architects
Tucker Viemeister, Lab Chief, Lab at Rockwell Group
Scott Stropkay, Co-Founder, Essential Design
Michael Vanderbyl, Principal, Vanderbyl Design
Dan Sturges, President, Intrago Corporation
Ken Musgrave, Director, Experience Design, Dell
Heather Fleming, CEO, Catapult Design
Margaret Gould Stewart, User Experience Manager, YouTube
Kerry Tremain, Graphic Designer & Author
Mary Yu, Fashion Designer, Mary Yu Design
Susan Rockrise, Brand Design, Susan Rockwise & Associates
Bryant Yeh, Principal, Yeh Studio Architects

Competition deadlines:
Don’t worry–you have lots of time.
Summer Promo ends Aug. 15 – save $100
Standard Deadline: Oct. 10
Late Deadline, Oct. 22

the jury’s judging criteria: to select ‘work that reflects issues raised by one or more of the concerns of the current debate on design; to consider the responsiveness of the design to the social, cultural and economic landscape as well as environmental issues; and to assess the degree to which the project has fulfilled the expectations of users and clients’.

2010 best of show:



british student, min-kyu choi from london, has won the brit insurance design of the year 2010, for his elegant reinterpretation of the humble electrical plug, beating over 90 international nominees in the process. jury chair, antony gormley, presented him with the award at a gala dinner held at the design museum.

antony gormley comments ‘thought-through, responsive and modest, the folding plug shows how intelligent, elegant and inventive design can make a difference to everyone’s life.’

min-kyu choi’s inspiration came from having to carry around the world’s largest plug (uk pin plug) with the macbook air, the world’s thinnest laptop. In creating a plug which could fold flat for easy transportation, choi received much praise on showcasing the plug at the royal college of art’s graduate show in 2009, with a brilliant and seemingly obvious improvement to a product that had changed little since its inception in 1946.

deyan sudjic, director of the design museum comments ‘it’s great to see such a practical but elegant demonstration of what design can do to make everyday life so much better. min-kyu choi is a designer just setting out on his career and he clearly has a great future ahead of him.’

the folding plug and all of this year’s shortlisted designs are on show at the design museum, due to the overwhelming demand the exhibition has been extended and will now run through to 31 october.

The winners below, and below that the shortlist.

*****
seven category winners





architecture: monterrey housing — mexico
elemental — chile





fashion: alexander mcqueen
spring/summer ’10 and spring/summer catwalk presentation — plato’s atlantis, uk





furniture: grassworks
by jair straschnow — netherlands





graphics: the newspaper club, uk
created by ben terrett, russell davies and ton taylor and supported by 4iP




interactive: the eyewriter
by members of free art and technology, openframeworks, graffiti research la, the ebeling group and tony quan — usa





product: folding plug
by min-kyu choi — uk





transport: E430 electric aircraft
by yuneec international — china


*****
2010 brit insurance design awards shortlist





the 2010 shortlist of about a hundred nominees.

architecture ( below )





porchdog house prototype, biloxi, mississippi —usa — marlon blackwell architects;
brandhorst museum, munich, germany – matthias sauerbruch, louisa hutton and juan lucas young for sauerbruch hutton;
british embassy, warsaw, poland – tony fretton architects;
high line park, new york, usa – james corner field operations and diller scofidio + renfro;
hutong bubble 32, beijing, china – ma yansong and dang qun, MAD architects;
maxxi, national museum of the XXI century arts, rome, italy – zaha hadid architects;
melbourne recital centre and mtc theatre project, melbourne, australia – ashton raggatt mcdougall;
monterrey housing, mexico – elemental s.a., chile;
neues museum, berlin, germany – david chipperfield architects and julian harrap architects;
ningbo historic museum, ningbo, china – wang shu and lu wenyu, amateur architecture studio;
raven row, london, uk – 6A architects;
tea, tenerife espacio de las artes, canary islands, spain – herzog & de meuron;
youl hwa dang book hall, paju book city, south korea – architecture research unit (aru);
london metropolitan university with network in architecture (nia), seoul.

fashion ( below )





hats: an anthology by stephen jones, v&a museum, london, curated by stephen jones and oriole cullen, UK;


accessories and artefacts: women’s lives in paris 1940-1944 exhibition, curated by the musée galliera and the memorial-musée, designed by jean-jacques raynaud, graphics by CL design, france;
alexander mcqueen spring/summer ’10 and spring/summer ’10 catwalk presentation, france;
beth ditto at evans, (beth ditto and lisa marie peacock) UK;
boudicca spring/summer ’10 real girl lookbook, UK;
christopher kane spring/summer ’09, UK;
goggle jacket ‘989–‘009, by aitor throup for C.P. company, UK;
madeleine vionnet, puriste de la mode exhibition, musée mode et du textile, paris, curated by pamela golbin, designed by andrée putman, france.

furniture ( below )





360° work chair — germany — konstantin grcic;
breathe furniture, australia – helen kontouris;
carbon fibre chair, japan – shigeru ban architects;
extrusions, uk – thomas heatherwick studio;
grassworks, netherlands – jair straschnow;
houdini armrest chair, germany – stefan diez;
palindrome series, uk – peter marigold;
pallet furniture, uk – nina tolstrup, studiomama;
parcs, uk – pearsonlloyd;
polytopia, australia – lucas chirnside;
repair project, lisbon, portugal – linda brothwell;
setu office chair, germany – studio 7.5.

graphics ( below )





cafe of equivalent$ — uk — kennardphillipps;
032c magazine, germany – art direction by mike meiré;
altermodern: TATE triennial catalogue and poster design, uk – m/m (paris);
corporate diversity, swiss graphic design and advertising by geigy 1940-1970, switzerland;
norm, edited by andres janser and barbara junod;
daily visual column for de volkskrant, netherlands – gorilla;
it’s nice that, uk – will hudson and alex bec;
pig 05049, netherlands – christien meindertsma;
russian criminal tattoo encyclopaedia volume III, uk – fuel design and publishing;
the happy hypocrite, uk – a practice for everyday life;
the indian type foundry, india – peter bilak and satya rajpurohit;
the newspaper club, uk – ben terrett;
the new yorker, 2 nov 2009 edition, usa – chris ware;
trillion dollar campaign, zimbabwe – tbwa\hunt\lascaris, south africa for the zimbabwean newspaper;
typographic trees, crawley library, uk – gordon young and why not associates;
voltaic: songs from the volta tour – m/m (paris) for björk;
war memorial, uk – harry pearce for the science museum, london;
yes, uk – farrow design for the pet shop boys.

interactive ( below )





bbc iplayer — uk — bbc;
bloom, uk – brian eno and peter chilvers;
graffiti taxonomy: paris, france – evan roth;
kindle 2, usa – amazon.com;
l-e-d-led-l-ed, japan – dilight;
onedotzero festival identity, uk – karsten schmidt and wieden + kennedy london;
openframeworks, usa – zach lieberman, theodore watson, arturo castro and the of community;
pachube, uk – usman haque, sam mulube and christopher burman;
panda eyes, uk – jason bruges studio for wwf;
the eyewriter, usa – developed by members of free art and technology (f.a.t), openframeworks, graffiti research lab, the ebeling group and tony quan;
the incidental, milan and london design festival, italy and uk – concept and creative direction by daniel charny, from now on;
ycn library, uk – young creative network.

product ( below )





sugru, uk – jane ni dhulchaointigh;
beehaus, uk – omlet;
blown-fabric lanterns, japan – nendo;
case abyss, norway – abyssus marine services for seabed geophysical;
clouds, denmark – ronan and erwan bouroullec for kvadrat;
design and democracy: blanke ark, norway – blueroom, innovativoli and kadabra;
folding plug, uk – min-kyu choi;
hope chandelier, italy – francisco gomez paz and paolo rizzatto for luceplan;
kyoto box, kenya – jon bohmer of kyoto;
l’eau d’issey ettore sottsass edition, france – issey miyake;
pact underwear, usa – yves béhar;
plantlock, uk – front yard company;
real time, netherlands – maarten bass;
samsung n310 mini notebook, japan – naoto fukasawa;
ski helmet for girls, norway – per finne industrial design for kari traa;
soma, tel aviv, israel – ayala serfaty;
the idea of a tree, austria – katherine mischer & thomas traxler;
the story of stuff, usa – annie leonard;
worldmade sport wheelchair, uk – david constantine.

transport ( below )





gina light visionary model — germany – bmw;
e430 electric aircraft, china – yuneec international;
gocycle, uk – karbon kinetics ltd.;
honda ev-n concept, japan – kanna sumiyoshi;
land glider, japan – nissan motor co. ltd.;
mission one superbike, usa – yves béhar for mission motors;
urbikes, fourth generation urban bicycle, spain – eduard sentís.

from this comprehensive list, the jury selected the seven category winners on march 4th, 2010. on march 16 the overall brit insurance design of the year 2010 winner. last year’s winner was the poster ‘hope’, designed by shepard fairey for barack obama’s presidential campaign.

What is the ZEROprize ? Awarded to the first re-skinned & retrofitted building of a certain size to achieve a net zero footprint while operating for a minimum of one year. The prize will go to the first registered project to maintain a triple zero for a year. US entries must be built between 1945 and 1990, must be made of steel-reinforced concrete and must house either 150 units or have a usable floorspace of at least 9,300 square feet.

Designer: Cook+Fox Architects and Gensler

via sunfiltered

Resources:
bank of america tower, nyc

The application deadline has been extended through december 31.

With a readership of only 30,000 it was for real, winning five National Magazine Awards: For General Excellence in 1995, 1997, and 1999; for Special Interests in 2000; and Design in 1997.

Its yearly design competition, the Annual Design Review, is the oldest and biggest design competition in America, and has been operating ever since I.D.’s inception. Thankfully the publisher, F+W Media, plans to continue the competition, publishing the results online.

Sad news for anyone who cares about design, or is about to discover design. We hope this is temporary and someone figures a work-around.

Here’s the statement:

December 15, 2009

To Readers, Advertisers and Friends of I.D. Magazine:

Since 1954, I.D. Magazine has served as one of America’s leading critical magazines covering the art, business, and culture of design. Today it is with regret that we announce its closure. The January/February issue of I.D. will be its last; subscribers to I.D. will receive Print magazine for the balance of their subscription.

Ceasing publication of an iconic brand like I.D. is never an easy decision, but there are several forces that have worked against its sustainability. Certainly the downturn in print advertising has contributed to this decision, but other factors include the fragmentation and specialized information needs of I.D.’s core readers (product designers) and the plethora of information resources available to them – some for free (online and B2B) and others that are highly specialized and targeted to specific industries served.

F+W Media will continue producing the I.D. Annual Design Review, its flagship international product design competition, in an expanded fashion online. This new web initiative will feature not only 2010’s winners but will catalog thousands of notable entries from past competitions. Going forward, in addition to the I.D. Annual Design Review, F+W Media’s Design Group is comprised of the award-winning HOW and Print brands – magazines, books, events, and competitions serving the information needs of graphic designers in all media.

We thank the entire I.D. community, past and present – staffers, contributors, readers, and advertisers – for their support of the magazine throughout its 55-year history.

Sincerely,

Gary Lynch
Publisher & Editorial Director
F+W Media Design Community

Resources
Annual Design Review 2010
Core 77
IDSA ( industrial designers society of america ) — this product designer’s site also doing a bit of soul searching
icsid ( international council of societies of industrial design )

via archpaper

[full SOM statement]

via archpaper

Introduced as the answer to the millions of American adults who do not ride a bike, the Trek Lime bike was the first to feature Shimano’s revolutionary Coasting system. At the center of Lime’s design is the reminder that riding a bike should be as enjoyable today as it was when you were a child.

With its comfortable, upright riding position, automatic transmission, and pedal brakes, Lime is designed to ride the way we did as kids — spontaneously, socially, and to experience the sheer joy of motion. Lime is the ideal bike for the casual rider who wants a fun, convenient and stylish way to run out for a cup of coffee or a breath of fresh air.

The specs:
Frameset
Sizes S, M, L
Frame Alpha White Aluminum
Fork High tensile steel
Wheels
Wheels Shimano Coasting dynamo front hub, 3-speed rear hub; alloy rims
Tires Bontrager Cruiser, 26×1.90″
Drivetrain
Shifters Shimano Coasting, automatic
Front Derailleur n/a
Rear Derailleur n/a
Crank Bontrager Satellite 33T
Cassette Shimano 20T
Pedals Nylon platform
Components
Saddle Bontrager Suburbia
Seat Post Steel
Handlebars High tensile steel, 45 degree backsweep
Stem Alloy
Headset Threaded, semi-integrated
Brakeset Coaster
Extras Kickstand, chainguard, hub covers, top tube pad





Launched in 2006, National Design Week is an education initiative offering free admission for all museum visitors and hosting a series of public programs surrounding the National Design Awards. See what your city is doing…





This year marks the tenth anniversary of the National Design Awards. Browse past winners and finalists by selecting a year from the list below.





Browse this year’s People Awards winners.


Sources
dwell
yanko design
artdaily
mediabistro
bandlbicycles
bikeportland.org
notcot
jacksbikes
bikejuju
endless-sphere
treehugger