The 2022 Core77 Design Awards Sustainability Prize Winners

The 2022 Core77 Design Awards Sustainability Prize, sponsored this year by Sappi, honors one outstanding project demonstrating the most innovative, exciting, and impactful solution pointing to a brighter, restorative era of design.

This year’s Core77 Design Awards Sustainability Prize team was led by Baillie Mishler and Lauryn Menard, co-founders of PROWL. Joining Menard and Mishler on the panel was Shujan Bertrand, Founder & CEO of Aplat, Dan Kennedy, Engineer and Manager, and Monica Martinez, Founder of Don Bugito.

Professional Winner: The L34 Light

This year’s Professional Winner of the Sustainability Prize is The L34 Light by Rab Lighting, a lighting solution with 79% smaller shipped volume than the typical high-bay light, for reduced transportation impacts and up to 30% post-industrial recycled plastic from their own injection molding process.

The jury team said about the project:

“We chose this light as our winner because it checked the boxes of nearly all of our judging criteria. Contract lighting solutions are products that we overlook all too often, even though we know they could use a lot of improvement. The L34 light amazed us with its incredibly low carbon footprint that has a far more compact volume than the typical high-bay light and the ways in which it is designed to do MORE with LESS.We think this light has the potential to become the new standard in contract lighting!”


Student Winner: Project ArcStar

This year’s Student Winner of the Sustainability Prize is Project ArcStar, by Niklas Andreasen for FH JOANNEUM University of Applied Sciences.

The jury was moved by this project, noting,

“Although this project is extremely ambitious, it’s also one of the most exciting of the entries with the most potential for positive impact. The melting of the arctic glaciers and ice have snowballing effects that will impact the lives of all species on Earth to an extent we cannot yet fathom. Working to fix this problem by employing smart and responsible materials at a large scale with massive positive effect is precisely why we chose it as our winner.”

Congratulations to all of this year’s honorees! You can view the honorees in all categories on the Core77 Design Awards website.

Check out all the 2022 Core77 Design Awards honorees by category:

Built Environment | Commercial Equipment | Consumer Technology | Design Education Initiative | Design for Social Impact | Furniture & Lighting | Health & Wellness | Home & Living | Interaction | Packaging | Personal Accessory | Service Design | Speculative Design | Sports & Recreation | Strategy & Research | Tools & Work | Transportation | Visual Communication

The 2022 Core77 Design Awards Strategy & Research Honorees

The 2022 Core77 Design Awards Strategy & Research category honors projects or products that predominantly utilize design research and strategy. Examples include: brand strategies, product and project strategies, research methodologies such as surveys, interviews, studies, observations, varied research throughout projects, etc.

This year’s Core77 Design Awards Stategy & Research team was led by Natalie Nixon, Ph.D., Founder of Figure 8 Thinking. Joining Dr. Nixon on the panel was Kevin Bethune, Founder and Chief Creative Officer of dreams • design + life, Farrah Bostic, Founder of The Difference Engine, and Desmond Dickerson, Director of Future of Work Marketing at Microsoft.

Congratulations to all of this year’s honorees! You can view the honorees in all 18 categories on the Core77 Design Awards website.

Check out all the 2022 Core77 Design Awards honorees by category:

Built Environment | Commercial Equipment | Consumer Technology | Design Education Initiative | Design for Social Impact | Furniture & Lighting | Health & Wellness | Home & Living | Interaction | Packaging | Personal Accessory | Service Design | Speculative Design | Sports & Recreation | Strategy & Research | Tools & Work | Transportation | Visual Communication

The 2022 Core77 Design Awards Tools & Work Honorees

The 2022 Core77 Design Awards Tools & Work category honors products or services designed for individual use with the intention of improving efficiency and productivity. Examples include: hardware tools, photography and audio equipment, productivity applications, educational tools, etc.

This year’s Core77 Design Awards Tools & Work team was led by Janet Lieberman-Lu, Senior Mechanical Engineer at Microsoft. Joining Lieberman-Lu on the panel was David Block, Principal of Studio Redeye, Adriana C Vazquez Ortiz, Co-founder and CEO of Lilu, and Reid Schlegel, Associate Design Director at Aruliden. Congratulations to all of this year’s honorees! You can view the honorees in all 18 categories on the Core77 Design Awards website.

Check out all the 2022 Core77 Design Awards honorees by category:

Built Environment | Commercial Equipment | Consumer Technology | Design Education Initiative | Design for Social Impact | Furniture & Lighting | Health & Wellness | Home & Living | Interaction | Packaging | Personal Accessory | Service Design | Speculative Design | Sports & Recreation | Strategy & Research | Tools & Work | Transportation | Visual Communication

The 2022 Core77 Design Awards Transportation Honorees

The 2022 Core77 Design Awards Transportation category honors vehicles, systems or modes of transportation used to get people or objects from one place to another, for private, public, commercial or industrial purposes. Examples include: planes, trains, automobiles, buses, bikes, boats, mass transit systems, transportation infrastructure, etc.

This year’s Core77 Design Awards Transportation team was led by Shel Kimen, Co-Director of Design Thinking at Ford. Joining Kimen on the panel was Serena De Mori, Product Manager in Innovation & Inclusive Mobility Solutions at Alba Robot, Francis Pollara, Director of Strategy and Development at Urban Movement Labs, and Robert Walker, Director of Design of (AMES) Advanced Mobility and Experience Studio at General Motors.

Congratulations to all of this year’s honorees! You can view the honorees in all 18 categories on the Core77 Design Awards website.

Check out all the 2022 Core77 Design Awards honorees by category:

Built Environment | Commercial Equipment | Consumer Technology | Design Education Initiative | Design for Social Impact | Furniture & Lighting | Health & Wellness | Home & Living | Interaction | Packaging | Personal Accessory | Service Design | Speculative Design | Sports & Recreation | Strategy & Research | Tools & Work | Transportation | Visual Communication

The 2022 Core77 Design Awards Visual Communication Honorees

The 2022 Core77 Design Awards Visual Communication category honors all visual and graphic design, branding and identity projects for print, digital or physical environments. Examples include: logos and identity systems, environmental graphics, signage, typefaces, infographics, motion graphics, print design, advertising.

This year’s Core77 Design Awards Visual Communication team was led by Dana Arnett, CEO of VSA Partners. Joining Arnett on the panel was Lisa Babb, Professor in the School of Industrial Design at Georgia Tech, Antonio García, Head of Design at TXI and founder of Dadwell & Co., Su Mathews Hale, CEO and Chief Creative Officer of Su Mathews Hale Design, and Silas Munro, Partner at Polymode.

Congratulations to all of this year’s honorees! You can view the honorees in all 18 categories on the Core77 Design Awards website.

Check out all the 2022 Core77 Design Awards honorees by category:

Built Environment | Commercial Equipment | Consumer Technology | Design Education Initiative | Design for Social Impact | Furniture & Lighting | Health & Wellness | Home & Living | Interaction | Packaging | Personal Accessory | Service Design | Speculative Design | Sports & Recreation | Strategy & Research | Tools & Work | Transportation | Visual Communication

Scientists Engineer Plants to Grow in Total Darkness

New research published in the journal Nature Food reveals that scientists have invented a way for plants to grow in total darkness. To do so, researchers used a process called artificial photosynthesis, where they fed acetate to plants as a carbon source, allowing them to bypass natural photosynthesis. They tested this on yeast, green algae, fungal mycelium, cowpea, tomato, tobacco, rice, canola and green pea, finding that all of them grew in the dark—with some actually growing more efficiently than in sunlight. Yeast, for instance, was 18 times more efficient. This artificial process could be a game-changer for the environment, as food as well as products like plastic alternatives, hydrogen fuel and methanol can be made more sustainably. “Using artificial photosynthesis approaches to produce food could be a paradigm shift for how we feed people,” says Robert Jinkerson, an author of the study. “By increasing the efficiency of food production, less land is needed, lessening the impact agriculture has on the environment.” Learn more about this breakthrough at New Atlas.

Image courtesy of Marcus Harland-Dunaway/UCR

Kehai wall clock makes you look at the passage of time in a different light

Being able to tell the time of day may have been critical to survival in ancient times, but our modern lifestyles have unsurprisingly put a different twist on that. More often than not, the ticking of the clock, literal or figurative, is a source of stress for some people, a glaring reminder of how little time they have left in the day or in their lives. Minimalist clocks have tried to change our attitude towards time by changing the way we look at clocks themselves. This wall clock continues that tradition by applying a good measure of Japanese minimalist aesthetic to create a timepiece that tries to make you feel more detached from the burden of keeping time.

Designer: Makoto Koizumi

It starts with the very shape of the clock, a simple and familiar circle. The custom aluminum frame is made in Japan using a casting technique to create a thin yet durable container for the wall clock. Available in white, yellow, and gray, the clock almost disappears into the wall if placed on a surface that nearly has the same hue. Without any extraneous marks inside or outside, the minimalist appearance of the clock’s frame tries to avoid inducing stress whenever you look at it.

The clock’s hour and minute hands are not only plain, but they’re also literally flat and look almost broken. The two together almost give the clock a skewed face, as if the hands were floating in some murky soup of time and space. The frosted glass on top adds to the obscurity of the hands and the clock in general as if making it harder to read the time. Its ambiguous design, as the designer called it, tries to make us rethink our sometimes unpleasant view of time and the clocks that represent them.

In contrast to the rest of the clock, however, the second “hand” easily stands out and calls attention to itself. It’s just a big red dot that looks almost like a zit on the clock’s otherwise pristine face. It is so unlike traditional seconds hands, not just in appearance but also in movement. Where most hands move either in staggered motions or sweep swiftly around, the size of the red circle means it travels smoothly and more slowly as it circumnavigates the clock’s edge. In some sense, it removes the tension when watching the Kehai clock, unlike the gripping suspense of watching the second hand hit 12 as seen on TV.

Kehai is a simple and beautiful interpretation of a clock that is both Zen and playful at the same time. In a way, it almost represents that same ambiguity we have towards clocks and time itself. The murky glass is seemingly creating a barrier between us and the clock, while the red dot tries to remind us that every second counts. Time passes at the same rate, whether we rush or not, and this clock tries to blur our skewed perception of it while also giving any wall and any room a unique character.

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The Sunbeam Side Table mimics that special moment when sunlight spills through the clouds


Sunbeam Side Table Mark Mitchell Serafini 4

A side table’s main purpose is to keep small things at home within easy reach. We often find at least one in the living room beside the couch or in the bedroom by the bed. It is often neglected, but it can be helpful for the temporary placement of everyday items like remote control, a smartphone, a mug, or a book. Many side table designs are available, and some are also multi-functional (will add link to a YD side table listicle). Most options offer more than an everyday table, but not many may inspire people like the Sunbeam Side Table.

Designer: Mark Mitchell

Sunbeam Side Table Mark Mitchell Serafini 3

The side table doesn’t have to be an afterthought as it can also be a significant element to infuse style into any room. It can bring balance and harmony to an otherwise bland corner. The Sunbeam Side Table is a primal example of that.

Sunbeam Side Table Mark Mitchell Serafini

The furniture piece beautifully captures the natural phenomena called “rays of god” with its design and gives a peaceful, celestial mood. “Rays of god” are sunbeams that pierce through gaps in clouds resulting in sunlight shining in all directions. As the name suggests, they present ethereal and beautiful images in the sky. Like rays of god, the Sunbeam Side Table offers a sense of poetry and romanticism you don’t often see on other tables in the market.

Sunbeam Side Table Mark Mitchell Serafini 5

Sunbeam Side Table is created from a collaboration between designer Mark Mitchell and Serafini, an Italian company known for craftsmanship and tradition when it comes to marble production. This piece is made from a single block of marble, making it very sturdy and stable. The material is skillfully carved to hold eleven spruce wood “sun rays” extending from the top point, sans the need for any glue.

The “sun rays” of the table serve as the tabletop, casting radial-patterned shadows on the smooth, angled marble surface when lit from above. One drawback of this elegantly designed side table might be its functionality. Because there are gaps between the wood “sun rays” tabletop, if you put a small object on it, it might slip through.

Sunbeam Side Table Sketch

The Sunbeam Side Table evokes a distinct charm that can bring a ray of sunshine to your room and to your heart. It enlivens the space and leaves you an image of heaven with the clouds and sunbeams, at least for me. Of course, it has a bit of mystery, but it can inspire and tell people there is hope and that tomorrow will be a brighter day.

Sunbeam Side Table Mark Mitchell

Sunbeam Side Table Sketch 2

Sunbeam Side Table Sketch 3

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 first appeared on Yanko Design.

ASUS ROG Phone 6 design may have a cleaner futuristic vibe

While almost any high-end phone is really capable of gaming, there are a few that stand out as having been designed specifically for that purpose. These sometimes have “active cooling technology,” which pretty much just means it has a tiny fan spinning inside, almost like a miniature gaming laptop. These gaming smartphones take after PC counterparts in other ways as well, particularly with the generous use of RGB lights, dark finishes, and sometimes asymmetrical forms. Some gaming computers, however, started incorporating newer design languages that give off a different personality. It seems that the next version of ASUS’ gaming smartphone is following in those footsteps, and the ROG Phone 6 could probably be one of the most handsome gaming smartphones in the market.

Designer: ASUS (via Evan Blass)

If you are an avid gamer, the aesthetics of gaming devices and accessories might already be normal for you. The motifs employed by the likes of Razer, Dell’s Alienware, and ASUS’ Republic of Gamers all share similar elements such as those mentioned earlier. While the design language conveys images of speed, vibrancy, and activity, it may also speak of chaos, imbalance, and aggressiveness. Based on images shared by tipster Evan Blass, the ASUS Republic of Gamers Phones 6 might be anything but.

The phone might come in a predominantly white case, which in itself is already unorthodox as far as gaming products are concerned. It probably won’t be the only colorway available, but it will most likely be the most popular, given its novelty. Lines still don’t go straight up and down or sideways, but their appearance is more balanced here, forming a trapezoidal shape right in the middle of the phone. With the cleaner lines and lighter hues, the ROG Phone 6 takes on a more utopian appearance compared to the cyberpunk aesthetic of its predecessors.

There are still plenty of blacks and colors to go around, though they seem to be relegated to accessories. The AeroActive Cooler 6 add-on, for example, brings a dash of that RGB lighting to the phone, while a black DevilCase Guardian Lite Plus case offers a perfect contrast to the phone’s white shell. There is also a pair of white detachable controllers similar to the Nintendo Switch’s Joy-cons to complement and complete the look.

There does seem to be a small trend in the gaming market that is moving away from the stereotypical blacks and RGBs of gaming-related products. Dell’s latest Alienware desktops, for example, employ a similar white and light blue color scheme. The “trophy” PlayStation 5, of course, also aimed for a more futuristic visual with a splash of white and smooth curves. Whether it’s a passing fad or a new movement, we’ll have to see if these products catch on with gamers who can be very particular about the way their gaming gear looks.

As for the specs, the ASUS ROG Phone 6 will undoubtedly be a powerhouse, boasting at most 18GB of RAM, which sounds almost overkill for a phone. It will be interesting how it will perform in the camera department, though, since it is an area that’s often overlooked by gaming phones. The phone is expected to debut on the 5th of July, so it won’t be long before we behold the real thing.

The post ASUS ROG Phone 6 design may have a cleaner futuristic vibe first appeared on Yanko Design.

Manhattan Berry

Manhattan Berry is an elevated, all-natural and lightly carbonated non-alcoholic cocktail from Mocktail Club that succeeds in balancing a multitude of flavors. A first taste reveals a fruit-forward profile, with blackberry and pear shrub, that’s not overly sweet. Ginger, apple cider vinegar and tea-infused spices finish the beverage, providing warmth, depth and complexity. Price reflects a four-pack.