Hasta La Ideas

Each year, the MullenLowe NOVA Award recognises the most innovative work produced by BA and MA students at Central Saint Martins, one of the world’s leading art and design colleges. Last year, womenswear designer Fredrik Tjærandsen won the top prize for his morphing inflatable rubber designs, while Elissa Brunato, who graduated from the Material Futures course, was awarded the Creative Innovation prize for her sustainable sequins.

Out of the 1,300 students graduating from Central Saint Martins this year, the winners of the five awards have been selected from 14 shortlisted entries, with BA Fashion Print graduate Sandra Poulson clinching both top spot and the people’s choice award for her project An Angolan Archive.

Poulson’s inter-disciplinary work features roughly 200 pieces spread across garments, photography, performance, sound and video. It draws on other materials such as written texts, research images and common Angolan items that feature in the final piece, which explores the relationship between family and inherited societal memory from colonial Angola and the civil war.

“This project started with a research trip to Luanda, my hometown, where I spent a month capturing and engaging with the daily life of the city, from informal settlements to downtown Luanda. I documented around 3,000 pieces of information through photography, video and voice recordings,” Poulson explains.

The work, she says, “acknowledges that an archive is colonial in outlook. Therefore, the task of decoloniality is central to An Angolan Archive, as the notion of African-led own archives is still to confront the current realities being depicted by external bodies.” Besides winning the main award, An Angolan Archive was also the recipient of the YourNOVA Award decided by a public vote.

The runners up to the main award are MA Industrial Design graduate Joseph Standing, whose work Aqua No More questioned how England would look in the face of diminished freshwater supply. The speculative project takes the form of a public engagement campaign, utilising a combination of voicemails and graphics to warn the public of water pollution and fragile water ecosystems, and the future implications of these dangers.

Fellow runner up Mathilde Rougier, who graduated from the BA Fashion Design Womenswear course, created a fashion collection that explores ideas of circular models, namely how restoring damaged data can act as a form of creation. The underlying concept aims to examine how existing materials and inspiration can be used for new ideas, using a modular assembly inspired by pixels on a screen.

The final award – Unilever #Unstereotype – went to BA Graphic Communication Design graduate Jahnavi Inniss, whose project Representation investigates the contribution Black people have made to British society. Inniss explored methods of establishing visibility and representation when it comes to Black British History, producing a five-metre long quilt and an online directory to share stories, as well as a set of educational resources.

The project was influenced by Stuart Hall’s theory of representation and Roland Barthes’ semiotic theory, and used examined public monuments and memorials as well as the education system. Speaking of the project, Inniss said: “What I’ve explored is just one small fragment, and there are so many more stories and histories that need to be told.”

mullenlowenova.com

The post Discover the MullenLowe NOVA Award winners 2020 appeared first on Creative Review.

In what has been an all-round difficult year for awards in the wake of the pandemic, D&AD announced the winners of the 58th edition of its annual awards scheme in a virtual ceremony last night.

Designed by Studio Dumbar and hosted by D&AD president Kate Stanners, the virtual ceremony saw four Black Pencils – the award scheme’s highest accolade – given out, and 618 pencils awarded overall.

Ingo Stockholm, David Miami and Publicis Bucharest took home a Black Pencil in the PR category for their striking Moldy Whopper campaign for Burger King, which demonstrated the fast food chain’s fresh food credentials by showing exactly what happens to its Whopper burger when it’s left for 35 days.

Other projects awarded Black Pencils include FCB Chicago’s The Gun Violence History Book for Illinois Council Against Handgun Violence, which visually captures how there has been so much gun violence in America that if it was all captured in a book it would probably stop a bullet, and FCB/SIX’s pan-African tourism campaign Go Back To Africa, which puts a clever spin on what has historically been used as a racial slur.

Meanwhile, Universal Sans became the first typography entry to win a Black Pencil. Created by Family Type, the variable typeface allows for an extensive range of customisation and unique variations, bringing a flexible and adaptable typeface to a wider audience.

Following in the footsteps of 2019 recipient Es Devlin, this year’s President’s Award went to Yuya Furukawa, chief creative officer at Dentsu, for his outstanding contribution to creativity.

The organisation also named its top ad agencies, design studios, production companies and clients of 2020, with the top places going to David Miami, FCB Design Group, Iconoclast Paris and Burger King respectively.

Following a campaign by D&AD that looked back at the last ten years of Black Pencils, Rivers of Light, a 2012 campaign illuminating rivers with messages for soldiers in Colombia, was voted as the industry’s overall favourite, and advertising Black Pencil of the decade.

Meanwhile, Libresse’s 2019 spot Viva la Vulva was awarded Craft Black Pencil of the Decade and Palau Pledge – a 2018 campaign that asked visitors to Palau to sign an agreement in their passports promising not to damage the island’s resources – won in the design categories.

See all of this year’s winners at dandad.org/en/d-ad-awards

The post Introducing the D&AD Awards 2020 winners appeared first on Creative Review.

I often get told that there are way too many masks out there, and my response is almost always “there are way too many smartphones, laptops, and cars out there too”. Each mask, just like each phone, each car model, or each sneaker design, hopes to make its own impression, solve its own set of problems, and create a positive impact on the user and help the company earn a fair amount of money that then goes into delivering better products. Meet the weetbe mask, one of many masks featured on this site. Unlike other masks though, weetbe has a set of properties unique to it. It’s transparent, comes with not two but three filters, has an attachable face-shield component, and the best part, a modular fan-unit that snaps onto the filter on the front, power-delivering clean, filtered air to your nose and mouth for as long as 8 hours.

Drawing on the analogy of masks and mobile phones, the weetbe mask offers a level of modularity that reminds me of Google’s Project Ara. The mask itself is a functional face-mask with a transparent body, hypoallergenic design, and certified filters… but its ability to snap-on extra modules is what makes it wonderful. The weetbe comes with a clear, see-through body complete with an air-sealing lining and an anti-fog coating. Adjustable straps help secure the mask around your face, while filters on the front as well as the sides help you breathe 98% clean, purified air. The mask comes fitted with Proveil filters, which are made from nanofibers that are small enough to trap respirable airborne particles including viruses. These filters are reusable, can be washed or steam-sterilized, and are made to biodegrade too, allowing you to replace them easily and guilt-free.

The most anticipated feature about the weetbe, however, is the snap-on fan module. Referred to as the ‘fan osaka’, the fan module snaps right onto the front, pushing air through the anterior filter to create positive air pressure inside the mask. Built with its own lithium-ion battery, the fan works for 8 hours on a full charge and works silently. The module is smaller and lighter than you’d think, still retaining the mask’s transparent appeal, and is perfect for snapping on while exercising, jogging, or even for elderly people who find it difficult to breathe through a mask. Backers of the weetbe can even opt in for the ‘screen osaka’ a snap-on-snap-off face shield made from clear polycarbonate, offering a pristine, see-through barrier that protects the upper half of your face. The screen sports a similar anti-fogging feature, making sure your view isn’t ever obstructed by condensation.

Other features of the weetbe include its ability to be customized, with a custom skin you can apply on the inside of the mask, turning its transparent body into a canvas of print. The head-bands are customizable too, allowing you to add a name or company logo on. The weetbe is even splash-resistant, which means you can easily wear it out in the rain… and its transparent design, aside from enabling you to use facial unlocking on your phone, just gives you the freedom to breathe clean air and be protected without having your face concealed by opaque fabric or plastic. Besides, it helps to be able to smile at friends, neighbors, and other people too!

Designer: Weetbe Design

Click Here to Buy Now: $30 $75 (60% off). Hurry, only 60 left!

weetbe – Transparent Face Mask with Attachable Shield & Fan

weetbe is an all in one transparent face mask that comes with three filters, has an attachable face-shield component, and a modular fan-unit that snaps onto the filter delivering clean, filtered air to your nose and mouth for as long as 8 hours.

fan osaka – Snap-on Fan Module

screen osaka – Attachable Face Shield

Designed to give extra protection to doctors, nurses, waiters/waitresses who are in constant contact with the public.

Transparent Design

The transparent design enhances visual communication between people. In addition, it makes listening and lip-reading easier for the hearing impaired.

+98% Air Filtration

Creative Process & Prototypes

Click Here to Buy Now: $30 $75 (60% off). Hurry, only 60 left!

Graphic designer Applied Design Works has collaborated with the nonprofit organisation Braille Institute to develop a “hyperlegible typeface” for the visually impaired community.

The font family, which is named Atkinson Hyperlegible after Braille Institute founder Robert Atkinson, is composed of distinct and exaggerated letterforms crafted by Applied Design Works to increase character recognition and the readability of written content.

It is free of use by anyone who wants to make their own written materials widely accessible and can also be used for signage or to help people with good vision read quickly and accurately.

Atkinson Hyperlegible was developed by Applied Design Works while creating a new visual identity for the Braille Institute to reflect a growing number of people around the world with vision impairment and the organisation’s efforts to serve this community.

However, during this process, Applied Design Works discovered that a typeface that mirrored this goal and met the needs of people with low vision did not exist.

“There was no brief for the Atkinson Hyperlegible typeface, it was born simply out of a strong desire to improve the lives of people with low vision,” explained Applied Design Works.

“The number of people who live with low vision is increasing at an incredible rate as people live longer and chronic conditions like diabetes that cause damage to people’s eyes,” the studio continued.

“The Braille Institute asked Applied Design Works to help them with a new positioning and visual identity to reflect a significant shift in the way the organisation helps people adapt to vision loss.”

Atkinson Hyperlegible, which has since been shortlisted for the Dezeen Awards 2020 in the Graphic design category, is available in four font styles – regular, bold, italics, italics bold.

To ensure the readability of each font, they were developed in a collaboration with a low-vision specialist from the Braille Institute and a panel of people with visual impairments. The font family also has accent characters to support 27 languages.

Unconventionally, Atkinson Hyperlegible prioritises letterform distinction and clearly defined letter shapes over visual consistency and aesthetic appeal.

In this way, the typeface borrows elements from different font types and families that would not usually be teamed together.

“Atkinson Hyperlegible may prove to only the first of its kind in a newly imagined category of hyperlegible typefaces,” the studio explained. “Typefaces that break with the longstanding tradition of letterform harmony and focus instead on letterform distinction to increase character recognition.”

This is evident where the capital letter I has been characterised with serifs but the capital letter T has not. Serifs are the decorative stroke that finishes off the end of a letter stem and are typically consistent within a font family.

Similarly, some letters feature curved tails while others are straight – as seen when comparing the capital and lowercase Q.

Other key details that have been used to exaggerated shaping of letters include angled spurs, the part of a letter that extends from a curve.

Meanwhile, circular detailing on many of the letters is designed to evoke braille dots, as a nod to the history of Braille Institute.

Other new font families that feature on Dezeen include Body Type by Julius Raymund Advincula that is made from cleverly positioned body parts, the first digital typeface family for the Welsh language by Smörgåsbord and a typeface called Sans Forgetica that aims to aid memory.

The post Atkinson Hyperlegible typeface is designed for visually impaired readers appeared first on Dezeen.

Here’s some food for thought. That bottle of shampoo, disinfectant, liquid soap, or detergent is essentially 80-90% water. Extract all that water and reduce the product down to simply its dry ingredients and they hardly occupy any volume or weight. The fact that you’re literally paying for 9 ounces of water every time you buy a 10 oz bottle of cleaning liquid isn’t just an economical issue, it’s an ecological one too. Shipping a bottle with 90% water is a waste of cargo space and fuel, as well as a waste of that large plastic bottle which eventually gets thrown into the garbage when the liquid runs out.

1N9 helps cut all that down by condensing your bottle of cleaning liquid into a single compacted pill of dry-ingredients. Pop the pill into a regular plastic spray bottle filled with water and the pill disintegrates, turning the water into cleaning liquid… when the liquid runs out, just pop another pill in and repeat the process. You save up on money (because a pill of dry-ingredients doesn’t cost as much, and you end up reusing the same spray bottle instead of buying a fresh bottle every time! Plus, 1N9’s cleaning pills are made from 100% natural ingredients, making them safe for you as well as for the environment! Double win!

Designer: Supublic for 1N9 Modern Cleaner