Hasta La Ideas

The votes have been tallied and the people have spoken: the Braille Alphabet Bracelet is the winner of the 2010 People’s Design Award. The Cooper-Hewitt’s annual crowd-sourced honor was presented to designer Leslie Ligon by White House Deputy Social Secretary Ebs Burnough and fashion designer Cynthia Rowley at last week’s National Design Awards gala in New York City. The bracelet, which retails for $47.50, features the entire alphabet in Braille on one side and the corresponding print on the reverse. “I’m delighted that the public has chosen to honor the Braille Alphabet Bracelet, which looks good, communicates without a glance, and feels great too!” said Cooper-Hewitt director Bill Moggridge.

Ligon, whose oldest son is blind, is the founder of At First Sight Braille Jewelry. In 2001, as her son began to learn Braille, she set out to apply her jewelry-making skills to create “something that seamlessly combined the aesthetics of design and the functionality of Braille, so that people would be as interested in and attracted to it as they are to jewelry or fabrics with Asian characters or 18th-century French script,” writes Ligon on her website. “I wanted to offer pieces anyone would want to wear.” A percentage of the company’s profits are donated to Braille literacy organizations, including National Braille Press and BrailleInk.

“Daunted initially by learning Braille, we were equally daunted by the aspect that nearly ninety percent of the [visually impaired] population was functionally illiterate,” said Ligon in her acceptance speech. According to the American Foundation for the Blind, as few as 10 percent of people who are legally blind learn to read and write Braille, and several studies indicate that at least 90 percent of the blind that hold jobs are Braille literate. “Braille and white canes are huge visual stigma, if you choose to look at them that way, but they’re also representative of independence and what it means to really fly.” In closing, Ligon left the crowd with some design advice. “I think this is really just about the top dog in statues for awards,” she said, clutching her Winterhouse-designed swirly asterisk trophy. “But I think it needs a little Braille.” She proceeded to roll an elasticated Braille alphabet bracelet over the top. “No offense,” added Ligon.

continued…

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

Ready, aim, lifesaver! Longreach, which shoots an emergency buoyancy aid up to 500 feet out to sea, has bested 14 other problem-solving shortlisted designs to win this year’s James Dyson Award. Australian designer Sam Adeloju (at right) and his alma mater, the University of New South Wales, will each receive $15,000. U.S. student Kimberley Hoffman earned second place honors for her Sea Kettle, which uses natural sunlight to desalinate water in an emergency life raft, while Swiss design grads Lars Imhof and Marc Binder took third place for their Reax resuscitation device. All four top finishers will receive a visit to the Dyson research and development centers in either the United Kingdom or Malaysia.

“Longreach is a smart solution to a very real problem,” said James Dyson in a statement announcing the winner. “A product’s functionality couldn’t be more important when it’s used to save someone’s life.” Longreach is a handheld launcher powered by oxygen and butane, capable of firing a self-inflating flotation device over long distances to people at risk of drowning. It is made of hydrophobic foam that rapidly expands upon hitting the water to protect the buoyancy aid from puncture. “After learning about propulsion technology in grenade launchers, I had to find a chemical that would expand to forty times its size in just fifteen seconds upon hitting water,” said Adeloju, who lives in Sydney. “After four months of testing, I found that hydrophobic foam worked and soon after the concept for Longreach was developed.” Adeljou plans to use his winnings to develop prototype and continue testing. He is already in talks with the Surf Life Saving Australia and Westpac Rescue—an aeromedical search and rescue service—to mass produce his invention.

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

Veranda, now under the inspired editorial lead of Dara Caponigro (who tomorrow morning will moderate a panel discussion on “the value of quality” at New York’s D&D Building), last week celebrated the winners of its 2010 Art of Design Awards with an Antony Todd-designed gala at the Hearst Tower. And kudos to Veranda for donating a portion of the evening’s proceeds to our boundlessly creative friends at The Alpha Workshops. Now in their second year, the magazine’s Art of Design Awards “honor trailblazers forging paths in the design industry with work that is both innovative and timeless.” The 2010 winners are Paul Wiseman (interior design), Bernie de Le Cuona (fabric design), Gil Schafer (architecture), The Rug Company founders Suzanne and Christopher Sharp (accessories and furniture), Nancy Goslee Power (garden design), and Alessio Boschi for Autore (jewelry design). All of them are featured in the October issue of Veranda. “The world is craving authenticity right now—things that are thoughtful and well executed,” said Caponigro. “By looking both backward and forward, the Art of Design Award winners prove that good classic design is anything but boring.” Nominated by leaders in the decor and design worlds, the winners were selected by a judging panel that included fashion designer Oscar de la Renta, architect Peter Pennoyer, designer Rose Tarlow, and David McFadden, chief curator of the Museum of Arts and Design.

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

Tate Modern isn’t the only institution celebrating a decade’s worth of creative excellence. The One Club recently gathered at New York’s icy cool IAC Building to celebrate the winners of the tenth One Show Design, its international design competition. Presenters including the effervescent Brian Collins doled out the prized gold, silver, and bronze pencils in categories ranging from print design and corporate identity to environmental design and typography. The night’s top honor, Best of Show, went to the team of Masashi Kawamura, Hal Kirkland, Magico Nakamura, and Masayoshi Nakamura for their mesmerizing music video—posted below—for “Hibi No Neiro” (Tone of Everyday) by Sour, a Japanese pop group. Shot entirely on webcams, the video features Sour fans from all over the world performing synchronized moves. Betcha can’t watch it just once. Other winners include the HBO “Cube” by BBDO/New York, the “Clocks” billboard for Solidarité Sida by Paris-based BETC Euro RSCG, and “The Trillion Dollar Poster Campaign” for The Zimbabwean by TBWA\Hunt\Lascaris of Johannesburg. And kudos to the School of Visual Arts for taking home a silver pencil for its smashing catalog of undergraduate work. Marvel at the full list of winning One Show Design entries here.

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

What if an ancient lost city was discovered beneath Regent’s Park in London? Sure, it sounds like the premise of a special transatlantic episode of Scooby-Doo, but Simon Fujiwara will bring it to life this October at Frieze Art Fair. The multimedia artist (at right), who is based in Berlin and Mexico City, is the winner of the 2010 Cartier Award, which allows an emerging artist based outside the United Kingdom to realize a major project at Frieze. The award provides production costs of up to £10,000 (approximately $15,000, at current exchange), an artist’s fee of £1,000 ($1,500) and a three-month residency at Gasworks in South London. Past Cartier Award recipients include Mika Rottenberg, Mario Garcia Torres, and Jordan Wolfson. As part of the Frieze Projects program, this year curated by Sarah McCrory, Fujiwara will create “Frozen,” an installation that will aim to convince fairgoers that they’re standing upon the site of a historic civilization. Scattered throughout the fair will be archaeological digs, displays of found artifacts, and graphic panels depicting a hub of art and commerce that has been lost to the ages.

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.