Hasta La Ideas

Design world visionary Bill Moggridge, who now serves as director of the Smithsonian’s Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum, has won the 2010 Prince Philip Designers Prize. Established in 1959 as “the Duke of Edinburgh’s Prize for Elegant Design” and administered by Britain’s Design Council, the annual award aims to celebrate “how designers improve daily life by solving problems and turning ideas into commercially successful reality.” Recent winners include James Dyson, Terence Conran, and Norman Foster.

“His phenomenal success is emblematic of the industrial designer’s skill in visualizing and giving form to intangible data and human sensations,” noted the Royal Society of Arts in nominating Moggridge for the prize, Britain’s longest-running design honor. A jury chaired by Prince Philip selected the IDEO co-founder and designer of the first laptop computer based on the quality, originality, and commercial success of his work, as well as his overall contribution to the standing of design and to design education. Moggridge bested a shortlist of designers nominated by the U.K.’s leading professional art and design organizations and educational institutions. The other contenders for this year’s prize were fashion designers Vivienne Westwood and Christopher Bailey, architects Eva Jiricna and Zaha Hadid, automotive designer Adrian Newey, graphic designers Eva Jiricna and Neville Brody, and furniture designer John Makepeace. Westwood, Brody, and Makepeace received special commendations from the jury.

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Courtesy 303 Gallery and the artist

Last night, the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation and Hugo Boss announced that German artist Hans-Peter Feldmann is the winner of the 2010 Hugo Boss Prize. He will receive $100,000 (plus a a terrific tetrahedral trophy), and an exhibition of his work will be on view at the Guggenheim Museum from May 20 through September 5 of next year. Other artists shortlisted for this, the eighth Hugo Boss Prize were Cao Fei, Roman Ondák, Walid Raad, Natascha Sadr Haghighian, and Apichatpong Weerasethakul. Established in 1996, the biennial award “is conferred upon artists whose work represents a significant development in contemporary art,” according to Hugo Boss and the Guggenheim. Past winners include Emily Jacir, Matthew Barney, Pierre Huyghe, and Tacita Dean.

Based in Dusseldorf, Feldmann has a way with the quotidian: reframing found images and familiar objects in an arresting way, and often presenting them in intriguing serial formats. We once clipped a photo of his haunting Man Ray-meets-Magritte work “The Lovers” (2008) and repurposed it as a twisted valentine. (We had a feeling Feldmann would have approved.) “His obsessive accumulation of objects and images amounts to a tremendous ongoing project of cataloguing the multiplicity of potential meanings present in the world around us,” noted the international jury of museum directors and curators in its statement. “Although he has been practicing for over four decades and has been a key influence on generations of younger artists, Feldmann’s work exhibits a vitality and keen originality that places it among the most compelling work being produced today. It is this critical engagement with the moment that we recognize in awarding him the Hugo Boss Prize 2010.”

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An esteemed jury of creativity experts has spoken, and 25 artists, designers, photographers, filmmakers, and musicians are $25,000 richer thanks to AOL’s “25 for 25″ grant program. Part of the company’s Project on Creativity, launched earlier this year with the help of artist Chuck Close and an epic 25th-anniversary bash at the New Museum, the program has just awarded $625,000 in grants to “tomorrow’s groundbreakers and visionaries—individuals with a creative spark to ignite.” Critically assessing the creative sparks of applicants was a distinguished AOL advisory board that included the Whitney’s Adam D. Weinberg and Chrissie Iles, UnBeige editor emeritus Jen Bekman, architect Rafael de Cardenas, and crimson-spectacled Paper editrix Kim Hastreiter.

Among the recipients from the design side of the creativity continuum is Courtland, New York-based architect Julio F. Torres-Santana, who plans to use the funding to do a bit of field testing of the portable shelter system he developed. “I’m going to take it to an area in Ithaca where there are homeless people and give it to someone who can use it,” he said. Also funneling the $25K into product development is Adital Ela, a Tel Aviv-based sustainable design specialist. She’ll spend the cash to create functioning prototypes of WindyLight, her collection of self-sufficient (and stunningly beautiful) outdoor lights that incorporate wind energy and an LED light source. “I would like to exhibit the project to allow the illustration and communication of a vision in which products become a direct link between renewable resources and basic everyday human needs,” explained Ela, a TED fellow. Keep reading for the full list of winners.

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Three design stars will be inducted into Interior Design‘s Hall of Fame this year: Shigeru Ban (Shigeru Ban Architects), Neil Denari (Neil M. Denari Architects), and Karim Rashid. The magazine has also created a new award—the Design Icon. The inaugural recipient of the honor will be Paige Rense, former editor of Architectural Digest and a 1985 Hall of Fame inductee. The foursome will be feted at a December 1 gala at New York’s Waldorf-Astoria Hotel, with proceeds from the event benefiting the Council for Interior Design Accreditation and the Alpha Workshops. While the Interior Design Hall of Fame has historically cast a relatively wide net in fulfilling its mission “to honor design professionals who have contributed to the growth and prominence of the interior design field,” this year’s selections aren’t sitting well with everyone. “Why are two architects, an industrial designer, and a shelter magazine editor being lauded as the best of the best by Interior Design magazine?” asked one commenter on ID‘s website. “Why isn’t Interior Design magazine lauding interior designers? This seems to happen every year, and it’s sending a pretty negative message to those of us who are trained interior designers.”

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At left, a rendering of Konstantin Grcic’s “Netscape” installation, which will be presented in the courtyard of Design Miami’s temporary structure (at right) designed by Moorhead & Moorhead.

It’s been a very good year for Konstantin Grcic. Having begun 2010 by clinching the “Furniture Designer of the Year” honor from Wallpaper* (and a panel of judges that ranged from Steven Holl and Kelly Wearstler to John Galliano and Carsten Höller), the Munich-based industrial design star has seen his 360° chair and 360° stool welcomed into the permanent collection of New York’s Museum of Modern Art. Now comes word that Grcic will be feted in December as Design Miami‘s Designer of the Year, awarded annually to an internationally renowned designer or studio “whose body of work demonstrates unmatched quality, innovation, and influence, while expanding the boundaries of design.” Grcic was the unanimous selection of the Design Miami jury, according to Wava Carpenter, acting director of the fair. “Konstantin’s work in the last year has demonstrated his incredible range and prolific talent,” she says. “His ability to work in multiple contexts simultaneously is the hallmark of today’s most successful and enduring designers.” Past Designer of the Year winners include Maarten Baas, Fernando and Humberto Campana, Zaha Hadid, and Marc Newson.

Design Miami commissioned new work by Grcic that will presented at the fair (which this December will take place right in Art Basel’s backyard at the Miami Beach Convention Center), and Grcic came up with “Netscape,” an installation that will be presented in the courtyard of Design Miami’s temporary structure designed by Moorhead & Moorhead. The interactive work will consist of a six-point star-shaped structure from which seats made of netting will be suspended. The 24-seat web of hanging chairs will create a space for guests to engage with one another before entering or leaving the fair. “When I first looked at the design for this year’s temporary structure, there was this beautiful part of the tent, just before the entrance,” says Grcic. “I knew that I wanted to create something special for the fair—something functional,but also something that incorporated my ideas of what a place like Miami is like in December….It’s a space for people to enjoy.” Fairgoers will also be treated to a selection of Grcic’s greatest hits (three cheers for Chair One!) with an exhibition of career highlights curated by Grcic himself.

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