Hasta La Ideas

Advertorial content: After the success of last year’s inaugural bottle redesign challenge—which saw over 30,000 entries from more than 140 countries—Heineken today launches its second annual global bottle design competition. This year, in celebration of their 140th anniversary, the iconic beer company opens the doors to its rich history of…

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Not positive, but I think this machine is designed to turn one leg pink

More than a few industrial designers (including your correspondent) have had to pay the bills by designing something we’re, ah, not exactly proud of: forgettable gewgaws and temporary tchotchkes that aren’t exactly MoMA material. But the luckiest among us get to design objects with purpose and meaning. Anyone who designs medical products is up near the top of that pile, and if you’re one of them, here’s your chance to shine.

The 15th Annual Medical Design Excellence Awards are now seeking submissions for 2013, with a deadline of December 7th (or January 11th if you’re made of money and don’t mind paying an extra $100). There’s ten different categories ranging from emergency & critical care to surgical and packaging (full list here), and as you can imagine of the medical field, the evaluations will be rigorous:

Entries are evaluated by a multidisciplinary panel of jurors with expertise in industrial design, engineering, human factors, manufacturing, medicine, and other design and healthcare-related fields. Selected products must not only pass design and engineering excellence, manufacturing effectiveness and innovation, but also the overall benefit to the medical and healthcare industry.

Entry information is available here.

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“Most [design] competitions,” says Sam Hecht, “are a way of predicting what the judges are looking for. But with the Lexus Design Award, what’s intriguing is that we can go past the act of persuasion, and we can get into the realms of real thinking and real dialogue.”

There’s a new international design competition in town, and it’s not the type that’s finished once you send in your concept—in fact, your initial entry could be just the beginning. Winners of the Lexus Design Award will be invited to work with Hecht and/or architect Junya Ishigami, to develop their ideas into prototypes that’ll be shown at Milan Design Week next year.

The LDA has a Logan’s Run-style age cut-off of 30, but ten talented twentysomethings (or teens, if you can stop texting long enough to read this) will make the final cut. As for the theme, you’d assume the entries must be vehicle designs, but Lexus is keeping the design brief abstract:

The theme of the LEXUS DESIGN AWARD 2012 is motion—a word and concept directly connected to people’s everyday lives. Under this theme, Lexus welcomes innovators and calls for works that display a deep understanding of Lexus design, uniquely interpret concepts and provide original perspectives on and solutions to various issues of daily life. Lexus welcomes designers’ from all fields, such as architecture, product design and fashion.

Here’s Hecht expounding on the concept a bit:

I realize most non-designers don’t know who Hecht is, but it’s weird to see him ride a bicycle around London anonymously—I wonder if Starck could get away with the same in Paris. (It’s also a bit odd that the subtitles don’t quite match Hecht’s diction, but I assume they’re trying to make it easier to parse for those who can read English better than they can speak it.)

Interested entrants have until December 31st to apply.

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Just a friendly reminder that there’s just a few more weeks left to enter The Battery Conservancy’s Draw Up A Chair Competition for innovative, portable outdoor seating in the public park. The 25-acre green space on the south tip of Manhattan overlooking New York Habor welcomes six million tourists annually. Juried by MoMA’s Paola Antonelli, the Campana Brothers, The New York Times‘ Allison Arieff, Founder of Design Within Reach and CEO of Public Bikes Rob Forbes, and Co-Founder and Director of Grupo de Diseño Urbano Mario Schjetnan, finalists work will be prototyped and showcased at the Design Miami/ fair. The winner will be awarded a US$10,000 prize and their design will be fabricated for use in the park. As Adrian Benepe, New York City Parks & Recreation Commissioner explains:

New York City is known for its innovative landscapes and we look forward to improving Battery Park with a great new design for outdoor seating. The Battery is New York City’s birthplace and as the original waterfront park, it has long served as a social hub and a place of arrival for newcomers. This creative competition will highlight ideas on how we can continue capturing the spirit of one of New York City’s most cherished landscapes and meeting places.

The Battery Conservancy Americas Design Competition
Draw Up a Chair
Call for Submissions Now through October 30th
Installation of winning design, June 2014

The competition is open to students and professionals across the Americas: Canada, The United States, Mexico, Central and South America and the Caribbean. Download the brief and sign up for competition updates today!

Battery Park Garden of Remembrance. Image courtesy of Battery Conservancy

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Along with Mondo Guerra of Project Runway and Jill Fehrenbacher of Inhabitat, our own Executive Editor LinYee Yuan was one of the three judges in HP + Project Runway laptop bag design contest. Earlier this month, they narrowed down the pool of applicants to their 40 favorites, which have been posted in an online gallery for your viewing and voting pleasure in order to determine the five lucky entrants who will make the cut for the final round and a chance to win the $10,000 grand prize.

The 12-day public voting period has flown by: public voting closes at midnight tonight, so head over to the Jury’s Choice gallery, check out what your friends and fellow designers have come up with, and vote for your favorite one.

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