editor’s pick

The design world’s oscars”
icon magazine
the jury: british artist antony gormley will chair the jury which includes designer tom dixon, justin mcguirk, editor of icon magazine, graphic designer morag myerscough, style editor of grazia magazine paula reed and david rowan, editor of UK wired magazine, and writer and broadcaster janet street-porter.

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 – tbwahuntlascaris, 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.