Winners of the 2023 Design Intelligence Award: Here’s a look at the most innovative designs of the year

Posted on 03/04/2023 by Vincent Nguyen

Established in 2015 by the China Academy of Art, the DIA Award is not just about recognizing good design… it is about cultivating it. Serving as both an awards program and a product accelerator, the DIA Award has celebrated innovation and entrepreneurial spirit for nearly a decade. The free-to-enter program has a three-stage judging and evaluation process, with the aim of developing products that uniquely benefit humanity. In doing so, the DIA Award also seeks to create a platform for accelerating international trade, increasing connectivity, and opening up commercial opportunities that help propel the Global East in the West-heavy Design Industry. Effective design is only truly impactful when it reaches and benefits a wider audience. With this in mind, the awards program has created a prize fund of ¥5 million RMB, equivalent to $728,000 USD, to support the development of exceptional ideas into exceptional designs. This initiative aims to incubate and nurture innovative concepts that have the potential to make a significant difference in the world of design.

The Design Intelligence Award undergoes a rigorous judging process, consisting of three stages. A panel of 550 design experts evaluates entries based on three criteria layers. The first layer focuses on the fundamental “Principles of Design”, including functionality, aesthetics, technicality, user experience, and sustainability. The second layer emphasizes the “Direction of Design”, considering its contributions to humanity, industry, and the future. The third and final layer highlights the “Impact of Design” on social influence and industrial development. The judging process culminates in a hands-on final round, ensuring that only the most exceptional designs are recognized.

Comprising 550 experts and judges from 37 countries and regions around the world, the elite DIA Jury Panel thoughtfully chooses 30 remarkable projects that exhibit innovation and positive impact. These fortunate winners gain access to the DIA’s prize fund of ¥5 million RMB ($728,000 USD), with the highest-ranked project receiving ¥1 million RMB. Additionally, winners are invited to the prestigious DIA Award Ceremony, where they can network with global representatives from diverse sectors such as design, academia, and media. Winners also have the opportunity to attend the D-WILL expert lectures, sponsored by the Zhejiang Modern Intelligent Manufacturing Promotion Center and Design Innovation Center of China Academy of Art. These lectures aim to foster innovation and connectivity by featuring education experts, industry leaders, and pioneers who share their knowledge and accomplishments with the next generation. Finally, winners benefit from media exposure through a coordinated PR campaign, further promoting their work to a broader audience. In fact, you can scroll down to see a few winners and honorable mentions from last year’s Design Intelligence Awards!

Click here to view all the winners of the 2023 Design Intelligence Award

HiPhi Z by Human Horizons

Designed as China’s answer to Tesla, the HiPhi Z is an all-electric sedan with a futuristic design and impressive capabilities. The model’s electric powertrain features two rear-mounted electric motors, one for each wheel, producing over 600 horsepower and 605 pound-feet of torque. It can accelerate the sedan to 62 miles per hour in a mere 3.8 seconds and travel up to 438 miles on a single charge. Moreover, the Z provides an engaging user experience, not just for the driver but also for passersby, thanks to the unique LED matrix under each headlight and taillight that can display text, emojis, and more!

Darwin Bucky by Darwin Projects & Andblack Design Studio

Darwin Bucky is a lightweight, multifunctional exoskeleton that challenges the permanence of conventional architecture. Designed to be an exhibition or performance space with a large canopy, it can be easily assembled and dismantled in a few days, stored, or transported in a shipping container. Its conical shape and triangulated planes offer structural stability, excellent acoustics, and require half the materials compared to traditional buildings, while the space underneath is perfectly versatile to serve as an exhibition gallery, town hall, performance arena, or even a nightclub.

Paper Razor by Kai Corporation

The Paper Razor is a sustainable alternative to disposable plastic razors, made entirely out of paper with a metal blade. The razor is flat-packed and can easily be folded into a rigid and ergonomic shape. Its origami-inspired design minimizes the use of plastic by up to 98%. The razor is designed for travelers as it is lightweight, weighing only 4 grams, with a thickness no more than 5mm. It can withstand water temperatures of up to 104°F and comes in five different colors. Designed ideally for travelers, the Paper Razor offers an ecologically conscious alternative to disposable all-plastic razors.

Kreis Recycled Coffee Cups by Coffee Kreis

Meet the Kreis Cup, a coffee cup that’s sustainable, durable, and designed to enhance your coffee-drinking experience. Available in cup and travel-mug styles the Kreis ditches plastic, steel, and ceramic for a much more unconventional yet pretty impressive material – coffee grounds! Made from discarded coffee grounds and plant-based binders, the Kreis cups are heat-resistant, reusable, shatter-proof, and actually help keep your coffee hotter for longer. They’re designed to be biodegradable too, just in case you want to dispose of them, and the only perceivable disadvantage of the Kreis Cups is that they give off a delicate coffee aroma, so you can pretty much only use them to drink coffee!

VT-30 by EHang

Designed by one of China’s most prominent eVTOL manufacturers, the VT-30 is a “lift and cruise” aircraft aimed at inter-city travel. The two-seater, fully autonomous aircraft is capable of traveling up to 300 km (with flight times of up to 100 minutes) on a single battery charge, and can take off and land on both runways as well as helipads. Unlike other major players in the sector working on air taxis, EHang’s two-seater has a design that’s surprisingly compact and slick (in part thanks to its smaller cockpit), which also helps give it its surprisingly higher range.

Welme by Camex Wellnest Ltd. & Oro Innovations Pvt. Ltd.

The Welme is a discreet wearable device that’s designed to rehabilitate cramps and pains associated with periods by relying on TENS (Transcutaneous Electrical Nerve Stimulation) technology. By stimulating nerves without any side effects, drugs, or chemicals, TENS technology blocks the pain signals and prevents them from reaching the brain. Helping relieve pain without medication, heat-packs, or burning balms/sprays, the Welme is a wonderfully compact device that’s slim enough to be worn even when outdoors. The body patches attach to your abdomen (and can even be used on the back to relieve back pain), with the Welme hub itself being a simple, intuitive, puck-shaped module that clips right to your pants or pocket lining.

Sustainable Shopping Bag by Lim Sungmook

Cleverly cut out of a sheet of durable, waterproof Tyvek material, the Sustainable Shopping Bag offers a biodegradable eco-friendly alternative to the single-use plastic shopping bag that goes right into a landfill after it serves its purpose. What the Sustainable Shopping Bag rather remarkably does is rely on an efficient net-based design that’s strong while requiring less material. The cuts in the bag’s design help it expand to fit a wide variety of products from groceries to clothes and even the one-off wine bottle, and the bag’s patented design comes in a variety of sizes as well as color/pattern options.

Bamboo Pencil by Zhangyan

Inspired by the bamboo-based scrolls found in Confucian-era Chinese culture, these ‘Bamboo Pencils’ are made from regular wood, but come in a similar scroll-shaped design that allows you to easily bundle a bunch of pencils together in a cluster so they don’t get lost or stolen. The pencils can be individually separated during use, and each pencil comes with words of wisdom from Confucius, paying a hat-tip to the culture while also acting as a rather wonderful symbol of Chinese history in the modern era!

U-Lab 001 Guitar by Unknown Galaxy Technology (Shenzhen) Ltd. & inDare Design Strategy Ltd.

Although it looks like a conventional guitar from afar, the U-Lab 001 is far from the traditional Spanish-style guitar you’ve come to love. For starters, it has a hollow cutout, doesn’t have any strings, and folds in half during travel. Designed for novices who have little to no formal training in guitar playing, the U-Lab 001 provides the perfect launchpad for strumming, chords, fingerpicking, and mastering musical theory. The right-hand rocker switches can emulate the act of strumming all strings, and the fretboard under the left hand comes with a touch-sensitive light-up surface that teaches notes, chords, and overall music theory, along with a companion smartphone app. The ULab 001 also features a built-in speaker, a rotary knob to control volume, a single knob to change a guitar’s scale on command, and a headphone jack for silent, personal jamming!

Oto Hugging Chair by Alexia Audrain

The Oto Chair, also known as the Hugging Chair, is a therapeutic piece of furniture designed for people with sensory integration disorders, especially individuals with autism. The chair aims to recreate the sensation of being hugged or compressed, which has a soothing effect on the person sitting within the chair. The Oto Chair comes with a cocoonlike shape sporting a beechwood frame and plush upholstery that absorbs sound. The chair also has a self-compressing feature via a resistance foam cushion that can be activated by a remote control.

Click here to view all the winners of the 2023 Design Intelligence Award

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Enter Now! The 2023 International Design Excellence Awards (IDEA) is Open for Submissions

Posted on 06/02/2023 by Sarang Sheth

The International Design Excellence Award (IDEA) has been bestowed upon some of the most innovative products in the world, like the iPhone, MacBook Pro, Tesla Model S, Oculus Rift, and the Xbox. Now in its 43rd edition, and with 20 diverse categories, IDEA is accepting entries to its annual design award program, so you can have your creative work share the same platform with some of the greatest, most iconic products in the world!

Held every single year since its inception in 1980, the International Design Excellence Award is an initiative by the Industrial Designers Society of America (IDSA), America’s foremost and oldest organization for Industrial Designers. Its objective – To recognize exceptional achievement in industrial design across an ever-growing roster of diverse categories that now include the likes of design strategy, branding, digital interaction, social impact, service design, and many more. “Design awards, especially the esteemed IDEA, matter. They motivate design teams, boost client economics and help to reinforce a progressive design culture within our society,” says Dan Harden, IDSA member, founder of Whipsaw, and multi-IDEA winner.

Winning an IDEA is a milestone that can help shape the trajectory of your career, putting your design on the world stage and earning it recognition from industry leaders. Aside from multiple categories, the award accepts entries across a wide range of experience levels, with a dedicated category just for student designers. IDEA recognizes products and services that encourage, inspire, and push humanity forward. The IDEA Jury rigorously reviews each entry across five distinct criteria which are unique to the IDEA competition: Design Innovation, Benefit to User, Benefit to Client/Brand, Benefit to Society, and Appropriate Aesthetics. Winners receive significant international publicity and global exposure, including high-profile industry promotion by IDSA and across media outlets, and are awarded the iconic 5-piece IDEA trophy that can be pulled apart to reveal the letters which spell “IDEA”. In addition to receiving the highly coveted trophy, all winners are featured in IDSA’s annual Yearbook of Design Excellence, a standout collector’s edition magazine distributed to a global audience of design professionals and business executives. Winning IDEA products are also eligible to become part of the permanent collection of The Henry Ford Museum, where they remain ever-present symbols of ingenuity and mastery of craft.

Entries for the 43rd annual International Design Excellence Awards (IDEA)® are now open to all creatives including individual designers, studios, and students, through the official deadline of March 6th, 2023. The 20 IDEA 2023 categories are Automotive & Transportation, Branding, Children’s Products, Commercial & Industrial Products, Concepts & Speculative Design, Consumer Technology, Design Strategy, Digital Interaction, Environments, Home, Furniture & Lighting, Lifestyle & Accessories, Medical & Health, Office & Accessories, Outdoor & Gardens, Packaging, Service Design, Social Impact Design, Sports, Leisure & Recreation, and Student Designs (including any physical or digital product, service, or experience created during collegiate student coursework).

Shujan Bertrand will head this year’s IDEA Jury Panel

Heading the IDEA Jury group this year is IDSA member and founder of Aplat, Shujan Bertrand. Based in San Francisco, California, Shujan is an advocate for sustainability in design and uses the art of origami principles for zero-waste design and manufacturing in her work. An industrial designer with over 20 years of product design, Shujan will lead a diverse IDEA Jury that includes top designers from Google, Lenovo, Estee Lauder, Astro Studios, Meta, Microsoft, Amazon, Kohler, Smart Design, and more. IDEA 2023 winners will be honored at the IDEA Ceremony & Gala in New York City as part of the International Design Conference 2023 (August 23-25, 2023).

Head to the IDEA Website to submit your entry to this year’s award program, or scroll down to see some of our favorite and notable winners from last year’s awards!

Microsoft Surface Adaptive Kit by Windows and Devices Design Team (Best In Show)

he Microsoft Surface Adaptive Kit is a unique award-winning solution, co-designed with people living with disabilities to help make using and navigating devices easier. The kit comes with four cards containing 40 products, allowing for a broad range of adaptive customizations that create accessible experiences for a wide spectrum of needs. For instance, the label kit can be used to identify important keys, match ports and cables, and open compatible devices and accessories. The kit works with a wide host of devices, making them more accessible, and easier to navigate for all.

Moxie by fuseproject for Embodied (Gold)

Designed by fuseproject for Embodied, the Moxie robot companion helps aid in the social, emotional and cognitive development of 5 to 10-year-olds through play-based learning and teaching turn-taking and eye contact. It introduces emotional intelligence through artificial intelligence, using the anthropomorphic design of a friendly robot to help children get more used to this ‘age of exponential change’, giving them the emotional, social, and cognitive skills they need to navigate a complex, ever-evolving world. Rather than being an ‘assistant’, Moxie takes on the role of a friend that understands its young user and machine-learns in the process to help it be more useful and educational.

Clover Vertica by Starbucks Industrial Design (Gold)

This state-of-the-art coffee machine was designed to handle the peak volumes of coffee requirements at Starbucks stores, all while streamlining the process. It grinds and brews each cup freshly, going from bean to cup in just 30 seconds, while also eliminating paper filters and cutting back on coffee waste. The machine’s full-immersion brewing method pairs vacuum-press technology with precise control over water temperature to extract the best flavor from each roast. It also sports a modular design, with two ‘towers’ that can handle multiple orders at once and can even accommodate seasonal recipes/brews and variations.

Syng Cell Alpha by Syng (Gold)

Created by an ex-Apple designer, the Syng Cell Alpha is a high-end speaker with an oddly alluring design that looks like a music-pumping UFO. Touted as the world’s first ‘Triphonic Speaker’, the Cell Alpha sports two subwoofers, facing upwards and downwards, while the equator of this spherical speaker houses its triphone, or three horn-shaped audio drivers that project sound in 360°, filling your entire room with waves of high-fidelity sound.

Osmo Evaporative Refrigerator by Rose Kirby (Bronze – Student)

The Osmo Evaporative Refrigerator is a clever low-tech ceramic vessel that ‘refrigerates’ food without electricity. Its double wall features a water reservoir that creates a cool, humid environment through evaporative cooling, ideal for storing fruits and vegetables. Through the occasional simple interaction of refilling the reservoir, users develop a continual awareness of and connection with the foods they eat, increasing the likelihood that their food will be eaten before it spoils,” says designer Rose Kirby. Moreover, the visual presence of the Osmo on your kitchen countertop invites you to continuously observe it and the food inside it, reminding you of what you’re refrigerating so that you don’t forget about it the way you’d forget about food left in the back of your refrigerator.

OZEV EV Chargepoint by PA Consulting (Bronze)

Proposed by the UK government in the run-up to the 2021 UN Climate Change Conference held in Glasgow, the OZEV EV charger hopes to be as iconic as the country’s legendary black taxi-cab, while ushering in an era of electrification. “The UK government saw an opportunity to raise awareness and generate excitement about the role design can play in helping people make the switch to zero-emissions vehicles”, say the designers at PA Consulting and the Royal College of Art’s Office for Zero Emission Vehicles (OZEV). The charger’s designer is practical yet highly alluring, with a form language that feels instantly memorable. It also uses the same black design language as the taxi-cab, albeit with the judicious use of golden to make the EV charger look even more desirable and high-end.

HTC VIVE Flow by Kuen Chang, Natalia Amijo, Ian Mcgillivray, Chris Chen, and Ethan Wang (Silver)

The VIVE Flow is a lightweight, immersive glasses device that’s designed to help people nurture their minds, relax, have fun, and go with the ‘flow’. It offers an all-in-one extended-reality solution for improved mindfulness and well-being, gaming, and socializing. Its pancake lenses with dual hinge architecture plus soft face gasket enable it to fold into a small size while accommodating various head shapes and sizes. Moreover, adjustable diopters for each eye let users find their ideal viewing spot quickly, while its active cooling system draws heat away from the face to ensure comfort during use.

Smell Revived by Yuting Wang (Silver – Student)

A multi-award-winning VR experience, Smell Revived helps people re-train their sense of smell while on their path to recovery from Covid. The virtual-reality-based training system uses a piece of hardware that straps to your collar, and pairs with a VR program that uses smell-training to help patients with smell dysfunction, such as parosmia and anosmia. By using virtual reality, it provides multisensorial stimulation, which helps patients retrain their brain and nose to recognize smells. This makes the therapy process more enjoyable, stimulating, and successful as users are able to explore virtual settings while wearing a device that emits the relevant odors, without leaving a confined space (which helps with the Covid disease containment too).

Neto Water Filter Bag by Luke Wightman (Gold – Student)

The Neto Water Filter Bag is a revolutionary solution for providing clean, portable drinking water for backpacking and off-the-grid living. Powered by gravity, it utilizes wood discs made from sapwood xylem tissue to filter out contaminants, bacteria, and viruses in a way that’s far cheaper (up to 100x) than more common methods that use ultrafilter membranes. The process involves slicing tree branches into cross-sectional discs which are then treated with a natural chemical process that allows them to last two years in storage. “The resulting innovation overcomes several environmental issues while using natural and renewable resources,” mentions Luke Wightman, the designer.

Skrolla by Dan Harden (Bronze)

Designed by Dan Harden of Whipsaw, the Skrolla is a lounge chair with a distinct aesthetic that only uses 6 pieces of wood that come together to form the 4-legged seating apparatus. Its unique, eye-catching design features a single scroll-shaped seat and arm, a backrest, and four legs, which are each formed from 13 layers of plywood-veneer. The legs emerge right from underneath the curved armrest, cutting through it as the armrest creates a C-shaped pattern to merge into the seat of the Skrolla. This leg-attachment method ensures the legs remain firmly in place, eliminating the requirement for additional bracing. The backrest curves around and meets the opening in the scroll at the rear, where it is then mortised into the back legs.

Click Here to Enter the IDEA Awards Now: Regular Entry closes on February 26, 2023 (11:59 pm EST).

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What if Audi made public transport? This Movin’On Challenge Design concept blurs the lines between luxury and utility

Posted on 23/01/2023 by Sarang Sheth

Have you ever looked around while stuck in a traffic jam, only to see yourself surrounded by large cars with just one, maybe two people inside them? Personal ownership of transport is great for society, but not so much for the actual environment our society exists in. However, it’s difficult to shake the notion that bigger, more expensive cars make you look like you belong to a certain stratum of society. For Marko Petrovic, designer and founder of MarkDesignStudio, the answer was simple – to make luxury environment-friendly, just blur the line between luxury and utility. People will love to use public transport if it looked great and was branded with the insignia of Audi, BMW, Mercedes-Benz, or any other brand. If the only barrier to the mass adoption of public transport was just that private cars looked better and felt more premium, the solution was obvious. Make public utilities look and feel amazing!

The Concept NTU (NewTransportationUtility) is an entry to this year’s Movin’On Challenge Design (previously the Michelin Challenge Design), building on its theme “Balancing Sustainability”. The concept focuses on the three recognized pillars of Sustainability: PEOPLE, PROFIT, and PLANET. While transportation exists on three mediums – land, air, and water, Petrovic’s concept focuses predominantly on land, but can easily be carried forward to other areas of transport. The people and planet stand to benefit simply through the combination of creating an efficient public utility service that the public would love to use. The Concept NTU seats six in a transparent pod that’s transported around on an electric platform powered by solar energy. This pod concept efficiently utilizes space by ensuring that it never travels empty, and uses fixed routes, almost like a tram or railway system, creating a powerful centralized utility service that runs on clean energy. How does Profit factor in? Well, these transportation pods are directly created by brands, which focus not on personal ownership but on public service. Brands can further expand their offerings by providing personalization packages for the car’s experience and the UI.

Designer: Marko Petrovic

Click Here to visit the Movin’On Challenge Design website to know more about the 2023 challenge.
Click Here to see all the winners from the 2022 challenge.

The Concept NTU can be split into its three separate parts – the frame, polycarbonate cabin, and engine arms. The frame itself is a lightweight yet robust structure that houses the entire car within it. “the main inspiration and idea is recycling plastic waste and combining it with reinforced nanotech and carbon fiber creating a strong and lightwave chassis for future models”, says Petrovic.

The Concept can take on the avatar of popular cars using graphics, bridging the connect between brand and the vehicle.

The polycarbonate cabin is its own unique entity, existing as a separate unit that waits at locations across the city and docks into any empty NTU frame that comes along. It also boasts of transparent displays laser-integrated into the polycarbonate that come alive to form “one giant computer inside glass/polycarbonate”. This, in turn, serves the dual purpose of being not just the user interface for in-car passengers but also projecting holograms of the car brands visible to the people outside.

The engine arm is where all of Concept NTU’s futuristic magic lies, relying on Tesla’s wireless energy transmission systems instead of traditional fuel tanks or lithium-ion batteries. “Inside the arms/pillars is also located a powerful computer with an electric engine and caterpillar system instead of the classic circular tire”, Petrovic elaborates. The engine arms wirelessly pull energy from nearby electric power stations, but it goes even further by sharing non-used energy with other power stations and NTU vehicles in the vicinity to create an efficient distributed wireless energy network.

Currently in its 23rd edition, the Movin’On Challenge Design (which is free to participate in) is now open for entries up until the contest deadline of February 28, 2023. Entries will be judged by a prestigious international jury panel comprising heads of advanced design for major mobility organizations. The winners of the 23rd Movin’On Challenge Design will be revealed at the Movin’On Summit in June 2023. This year, three entries will stand to win the Gold, Silver, and Bronze positions and as an addition to its existing format, the top 3 winners will receive an opportunity to meet with the Movin’On Challenge Design team and juror representatives to review their entries, portfolio, and career plans. To read more about this year’s edition of the Movin’On Challenge Design, click here.

The Michelin Challenge Design was established in 2001, and was rebranded to the Movin’On Challenge Design in 2020, reflecting its integration as a featured program of the Movin’On Summit, the world’s foremost gathering for sustainable mobility. Inspired by Michelin, the Summit brings together large companies, startups, public and academic authorities, NGOs, and international organizations, as well as a community of experts and professionals to move from ambition to action. “We are encouraged by the continued growth of global participation in the Challenge Design program, and are especially excited this year to see the entries place an emphasis on the sustainable aspects of their mobility solutions,” said Kimbrelly Kegler, chairperson of Movin’On Challenge Design.

Click Here to visit the Movin’On Challenge Design website to know more about the 2023 challenge.
Click Here to see all the winners from the 2022 challenge.

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Oppo announces the 2022 edition of its Renovators Emerging Artists Project with prizes up to $15K

Posted on 21/06/2022 by Sarang Sheth

Earlier this month, prominent tech brand OPPO unveiled and launched its 2022 Renovators event – an annual competition that rallies artists to infuse tech into art and use the result to create something that benefits or raises a mirror to society.

Now in its 4th iteration, OPPO Renovators Emerging Artists Project, inviting professional creatives, as well as students and professors at art and design institutes around the world, to submit interdisciplinary artwork that explores the fusion of art and tech. This year, OPPO has developed partnerships with top art and design colleges and universities in more than 230 cities across more than 40 countries and regions around the world. “To date, nearly ten thousand artists have participated in the program and several outstanding projects
have been further developed with OPPO’s support”, mentioned the brand in a press release.

Click Here to visit the OPPO Renovators 2022 website and participate – Last date for submission is August 18th, 2022.

The competition is held in two categories – one for Future Renovators, and one for Brand Renovators. Future Renovators are invited to help art, science, and tech collide in a way that uniquely benefits societies, while Brand Renovators are called upon for cross-art creation and IP building. 100 entries stand a chance to win awards once the competition comes to a close with results being announced on September 1st, 2022. Winners can secure prizes as high as 100,000 CNY ($14,948 USD) along with an internship opportunity sponsored by OPPO. Excellent artworks will also be showcased at London Design Festival, a themed exhibition in Shenzhen Sea World Art Center, and on OPPO INNO DAY.

The 2022 leg of the OPPO Renovators will be judged by an esteemed panel of 11 jury members who command the professional and education space, with Dajuin YAO of the China Academy of Art heading the Future Renovators category, and William Liu, VP of OPPO heading the Brand Renovators category. Click here to know more on the OPPO Renovators website where you can enroll to participate too!

Past Winners of the OPPO Renovators 2021 Project

‘Light High’ Art Installation by Jacqueline Wen

‘Light Breathing’ Art Installation

‘Heatwave Auxiliary Skin’ to help humans in hot climates

A.I. Intelligent Space by Jianwen Li

‘AutoGene’ Art Installation by Peter William Holden

Click Here to visit the OPPO Renovators 2022 website and participate – Last date for submission is August 18th, 2022.

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KeyShot and Yanko Design invite designers to create innovative new materials for the popular rendering software

Posted on 20/06/2022 by Sarang Sheth

We’re thrilled to announce the “YDxKeyShot Material Design Challenge”, a unique opportunity for designers to explore KeyShot 11’s powerful Material Graph and 3D Paint features to create the materials of their dreams. Winners will not only be awarded free KeyShot 11 Pro licenses, but will also get to see their material on the KeyShot Cloud certified materials list. Winning renders will even be showcased on KeyShot’s startup window to thousands of KeyShot users across the world!

This is your chance to design the material of your dreams, creating something you wish everyone could use in their renders. The challenge is pretty simple. Design your own material – you could use KeyShot’s procedural textures, image files from the internet (free use non-copyrighted), or click images of your own and edit them to create your own resources. The YDxKeyShot Material Design Challenge has no rules – just have fun and keep creating! Looking for a nice carbon fiber material? Create your own! Found a nice terrazzo texture at your local cafe? Click a picture and turn it into a material! Need a smudgy, scratched glass surface for that photoreal smartphone render? Here’s the perfect opportunity to make it and share it with the world.

Once you design your material, how you present it matters too. Apply your material to an appropriate product and create a render that highlights your material in the best way possible. For example, if you designed a wooden material, apply it to a piece of furniture. If you made a ceramic material, showcase it on a ceramic object that’ll wow everyone! You can create as many render images as you want (or even a video), exploring the product in different angles, or even up close if your material is detailed. Also, don’t forget to show us what the material looks like on Keyshot’s iconic Material Ball!

The YDxKeyshot Material Design Challenge will be judged by Janis Sne – 3D Sportswear Designer at RKTFT Studios and Nike, Preeti Jesudoss – Senior Creative Head at Asian Paints, and Sarang Sheth – Editor-in-Chief at Yanko Design. To participate, upload your renders on Instagram (a few renders of a product, and one of the material ball) and tag + follow the @yankodesign and @keyshot3d accounts while also using the #YDxKeyShot hashtag. You can get your hands on the material ball 3D model and a free trial of the latest KeyShot 11 rendering software by downloading it on KeyShot’s website. To unlock the trial, use the Trial License Code KSYANKO22 during installation. Participants in the KeyShot x Yanko Design Challenge must be above the age of 18.

Here’s all the information you need:

The Design Brief
Design/Build a material for KeyShot.

How to Participate
Step 1: Download the Material Ball 3D Model and the KeyShot 11 trial.
Step 2: Upload your design to Instagram + Follow @yankodesign and @keyshot3d
Step 3: Tag @yankodesign and use the hashtag #YDxKeyShot in the caption.

Contest Opens: 20th June 2022, 06:30am PST
Contest Closes: 10th July 2022, 11:59pm PST

Gold Prize: KeyShot 11 Pro subscription + KeyShot Web. Material will be added to KeyShot Cloud certified materials list and render will be showcased on KeyShot Blog, Social Media, and Startup Window. Free access to Will Gibbons Animation Masterclass.
Silver Prize: KeyShot 11 Pro subscription. Material will be added to KeyShot Cloud certified materials list and render will be showcased on KeyShot Blog, Social Media, and Startup Window.
Bronze Prize: KeyShot 11 Pro subscription. Material will be added to KeyShot Cloud certified materials list.

You Have to Use KeyShot to create your renders.

Click Here to Download the Keyshot Material Ball 3D file

Click Here to Download a free trial of KeyShot 11 (Use the Trial Code KSYANKO22 after installation)

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Don’t Miss It! The Parmigiano Reggiano Design Challenge sponsored by Kartell and Alessi closes on May 6th!

Posted on 01/05/2022 by Neha Mistry

May 6 is only a week away! Don’t miss the deadline.

The deadline for the Parmigiano Reggiano® Design Challenge is approaching fast, and we’re reminding professional designers and design students to enter their work! Launched in partnership with iconic Italian brands Kartell and Alessi, the Parmigiano Reggiano Consortium has challenged creatives to “imagine Masterpieces for the Table inspired by food.”

Entries Are Free.

Click here to learn more about the Parmigiano Reggiano® Design Challenge. Hurry, entries close May 6th, 2022.

The brief?

To elevate the human experience through products inspired by dishes prepared by world-renowned chefs.

This year’s design brief calls for a close collaboration between design and the culinary arts. Spread across TWO categories: Cooking, and Eating, this year’s Parmigiano Reggiano Design Challenge includes inspiration in the form of dishes prepared by renowned Chef Michel Nischan, the recipient of four James Beard Awards, and by Chef Michele Casadei Massari, the US Brand Ambassador for Parmigiano Reggiano. Designers are required to visualize their creative masterpieces around these inspirational dishes. Participants can consider materials, technologies, functionality, and sustainability as part of their concepts. The entries can be submitted online as sketches, renderings, or photos of prototypes. Learn more here.

A chance to win a trip to Italy, awards, gifts, and visibility!

The Best of Show wins a week-long trip to Italy for two, including VIP tours of a Parmigiano Reggiano artisanal dairy and to the design museums of Alessi and Kartell, and MUCH more! The Design Challenge winners qualify for Gold, Silver and Bronze Awards in two categories, along with amazing gifts from the sponsors. The winners will be featured online and promoted through social media. Additionally, keep in mind that the entries will be reviewed by a stellar group of judges that include some of the most influential names in the design industry.

The judges and sponsors.

The 2022 Parmigiano Reggiano Design Challenge will be presided over by a jury panel of both esteemed designers and culinary professionals. This panel includes Mauro Porcini, the Chief Design Officer for PepsiCo, world-famous designers Karim Rashid and Fabio Novembre, respected restaurant designer Alessia Genova from Tihany Design, and Donald Strum, the head of the Michael Graves Design office. The jury also includes the winner of last year’s Best of Show Award, designer Qing Yan. Additionally, Chef Michele Casadei Massari and Chef Michel Nischan will also join the design industry judges and contribute a culinary perspective to the judging process. If that wasn’t enough, Alessi and Kartell – two of the top Italian design brands in the product and furniture categories are sponsoring the competition. The opportunity for contestants to be seen by influential industry leaders and top design brands is reason enough to enter your work!

Your entry will help fight nutrition insecurity!

Designers can also feel good that by simply entering their work they will help raise much-needed funds for Wholesome Wave, a non-profit organization working to make fruits and vegetables more accessible and affordable for those living with diet-related health risks and conditions, particularly those suffering from the impacts of racial, ethnic and income-based inequities. The sponsors have pledged to make a donation to Wholesome Wave based on the number of entries we receive.

HERE’S AN APPETIZING EXAMPLE!

A pasta bowl inspired by the region and the texture of Parmigiano Reggiano cheese!

Designed by Tomas Neumann and rendered using KeyShot, this pasta bowl sits at the very intersection of food and design. The color and unique uneven surface were inspired by the distinctive mountain-like texture of a wheel of Parmigiano Reggiano cheese when it is cracked for the first time – and is also a reference to the Apennine Mountains which run across Emilia Romagna, the area of origin of Parmigiano Reggiano cheese. Titled “Appennino Interiore” (or Apennine Within) the bowl not only celebrates the crystalline texture of the cheese, it is also made using sustainable materials. Neumann mentions that the bowl is made from a “food-grade biodegradable resin/linen composite that recycles cheesecloth from the cheese production” which is aligned with one of the Design Challenge’s themes – Zero Waste.

Learn more and submit your designs!

The Parmigiano Reggiano Design Challenge site includes all the details about the competition and the requirements for entry. But, hurry! The deadline is May 6…so you only have a few days to enter your work. Oh, and as they say in Italy, “Buona Fortuna!”

Visit the Parmigiano Reggiano Design Challenge site for complete details!

The post Don’t Miss It! The Parmigiano Reggiano Design Challenge sponsored by Kartell and Alessi closes on May 6th! first appeared on Yanko Design.

This entirely translucent wireless speaker concept brings honest transparency to consumer electronics

Posted on 22/03/2022 by Sarang Sheth

Our 2022 began on an incredibly exciting note with the #DoWhatFloatsYourboAt Design Challenge and we can’t be more thrilled to announce the winners! Instead of the conventional 3 winners, this time we’ve chosen 5 winning entries – Gold, Silver, Bronze, a special Student prize, as well as a new Honorable Mention that we added at the last minute because of how impressed we were with the entries! The challenge saw more than 1500 people signing up to participate and clocked in nearly 400 entries by the time the competition ended. The jury, headed by Katharina Stärck, Ayush Singh Patel, and Sarang Sheth arrived at 5 entries that delivered on the competition’s brief of rendering/designing the boAt Stone 1200F Wireless Speaker to make it look impactful and alluring. Over the course of this week and the next, we’ll introduce you to the winners and their designs.

The Bronze Prize went to Priyanshu Jaiswal (also known by his Instagram moniker @stang.id) for creating a speaker that focused not just on audio clarity but on literal clarity too! Priyanshu’s rendition of the boAt Stone 1200F turned the wireless speaker translucent, giving us a glimpse of the electronics and components within. In turn, this turns the speaker less into a mysterious monolithic block, and into a sonic artpiece that lets you admire the beauty within the speaker.

“Feelings and emotions are what drive our lives”, Priyanshu told YD. Pointing at other designs that focus on external detailing rather than showing off the interiors, Jaiswal mentions how a translucent speaker can captivate a user by allowing them to really see the speaker for what it is. Nothing hidden behind an opaque fascia, everything is visible to the observer, sort of like the Transparent Speaker or Harman Kardon’s Soundsticks. Priyanshu’s entry immediately stood out to the jury because of the fact that he didn’t see the speaker for what it was, but rather for what it could be. It involved detailing the insides of the 3D model, fitting audio drivers, a PCB, batteries, and appropriate wiring into the model, before rendering the final piece.

“I saw a teardown video of boAt 1200F… It took me by surprise, how well engineered the product is at such cost”, Priyanshu mentioned. “So I wanted to appreciate that through design and also have a nice product story at the same time.”

Priyanshu is an Industrial Design student from India. He describes himself as “a mad scientist” with an “intrinsic desire to explore new disciplines to add to my repertoire of knowledge.” As a Bronze Winner of the #DoWhatFloatsYourboAt Design Challenge, Priyanshu wins INR 5,000 boAt Products + KeyShot 10 Pro License (free upgradable to KeyShot 11).

Designer: Priyanshu Jaiswal

The post This entirely translucent wireless speaker concept brings honest transparency to consumer electronics first appeared on Yanko Design.

The boAt 1200F speaker gets a deliciously colorful makeover with this Silver Award-winning design concept

Posted on 21/03/2022 by Sarang Sheth

Following Alex Casabo in second place, designer Lidia Gómez charmed the jury with her #DoWhatFloatsYourboAt Design Challenge entry’s subtle-yet-eye-catching color palette. The happy, almost summery colors of the speaker were a wonderful pick since they complement most interiors as well as most outfits – as opposed to the loud, in-your-face reds, blues, or blacks seen on other wireless speakers from companies like *cough* JBL *cough*.

“[I] decided to keep the original design of the boAt Stone 1200F speaker but I’ve chosen a color palette that expresses the wildness and young spirit of the brand. In the shots, I’ve also tried to reflect the fresh and powerful style that characterizes this speaker in a style that ‘floats my boat’,” Lidia told Yanko Design.

“The first step that I took in my work process was to choose a vivid and energetic colour palette that represents the boAt style”, Lidia said about her design approach. “Once I made my choice, I started playing around with different compositions and lightings in Keyshot, always taking into account that the renders had to be clean and minimalist to allow the viewer to focus on the lead of the scene: the boAt Stone 1200F speakers.”

Lidia Gómez is an industrial designer based in Spain. Apart from working in a research center as a mechanical engineer, for more than a year, Lidia has been exploring the world of product design. In her projects, she combines functionality and aesthetics with a special emphasis on composition and visualization. As a Silver Winner of the #DoWhatFloatsYourboAt Design Challenge, Lidia wins INR 10,000 boAt Products + KeyShot 10 Pro License (free upgradable to KeyShot 11). She even wins $10,000 worth Lifetime Access to Creator Club Master Classes on How to Succeed at Crowdfunding. Creator Club is the first community-based membership and e-learning platform for tech and design startups that help you master the product development process, using crowdfunding (Kickstarter/Indiegogo), e-Commerce, Amazon, and other strategies to bring ideas to life and turn them into products that drive sales.

In fact, if you missed out on that last prize, Creator Club is offering a special discount to YD readers who want to kickstart their entrepreneurial journey! Click here to join the Club and get instant access to videos, resources, mentors, and a large community of creators just like you!

Designer: Lidia Gómez

The post The boAt 1200F speaker gets a deliciously colorful makeover with this Silver Award-winning design concept first appeared on Yanko Design.

The Parmigiano Reggiano Design Challenge invites designers to imagine products at the intersection of food and design.

Posted on 21/03/2022 by Sarang Sheth

After a stellar debut last year, The Parmigiano Reggiano® Design Challenge makes its grand comeback for a second year!

Launched in partnership with iconic Italian brands Kartell and Alessi, Parmigiano Reggiano Consortium is issuing its annual design challenge to creatives, inviting them to “imagine Masterpieces for the Table inspired by food.”

The brief? To elevate the human experience through products inspired by dishes prepared by world-renowned chefs.

The prizes? A week-long trip to Italy for two, including VIP tours of a Parmigiano Reggiano facility and to the design museums of Alessi and Kartell, and MANY more prizes!

Click Here to Submit Your Designs Now for the Parmigiano Reggiano® Design Challenge. Hurry, entries close May 6th, 2022.

About Parmigiano Reggiano

For almost 1,000 years, Parmigiano Reggiano has been made in the same region of Italy, with the same methods and ingredients that were used at the start. This relentless commitment to tradition is one of the many reasons why the cheese ranks as one of Italy’s most loved brands. To further cement its role as a cultural icon, the brand has organized a design competition that challenges the design community to submit product concepts inspired by ‘authenticity’.

About The Competition

Parmigiano Reggiano Design Challenge includes inspiration in the form of dishes prepared by renowned Chef Michel Nischan and Chef Michele Casadei Massari

This year’s design brief calls for a close collaboration between design and the culinary arts. Spread across TWO categories: Cooking, and Eating, this year’s Parmigiano Reggiano Design Challenge includes inspiration in the form of dishes prepared by renowned Chef Michel Nischan, the recipient of four James Beard Awards, and by Chef Michele Casadei Massari, the US Brand Ambassador for Parmigiano Reggiano and Executive Chef at his popular restaurant, Lucciola, in New York. Designers are required to visualize their creative masterpieces around these inspirational dishes. Participants can consider materials, technologies, functionality, and sustainability as part of their concepts. The entries can be submitted online as sketches, renderings, or photos of prototypes.

About The Jury and The Sponsors

The Jury

The 2022 Parmigiano Reggiano Design Challenge will be presided over by a jury panel of both esteemed designers and culinary professionals. This panel includes Mauro Porcini, the Chief Design Officer for PepsiCo, world-famous designers Karim Rashid and Fabio Novembre, respected restaurant designer Alessia Genova from Tihany Design, and the head of the Michael Graves Design office, Donald Strum. The jury also includes the winner of last year’s Best of Show Award, designer Qing Yan. Additionally, Chef Michele Casadei Massari and Chef Michel Nischan will also join the design industry judges and contribute a culinary perspective to the judging process. If that wasn’t enough, Alessi and Kartel – two of the top Italian design brands in the product and furniture categories are sponsoring the competition. The opportunity for contestants to be seen by influential industry leaders and top design brands is reason enough to enter your work!

Can I Enter? Is It Free?

What About the Awards?

The results of the competition will be announced on the 19th of May at the Awards Party in New York. The winners will receive Gold, Silver, and Bronze Awards, plus gifts from the sponsors and extensive coverage on Yanko Design and other reputed design blogs. The Best of Show Award winner will also receive a week-long trip to Italy for two, including VIP tours of a Parmigiano Reggiano facility and to the design museums of Alessi and Kartell. Additionally, the Best of Show Award winner will be invited to be a part of the jury in next year’s competition.

Parmigiano Reggiano is also partnering with KeyShot, the global innovative real-time 3D rendering tool, to award winners with Keyshot licenses. Professional Designers will get a KeyShot Pro Subscription (Value $1,188). Design Students will get KeyShot EDU (Value $95). Plus, any winning entry made with KeyShot Pro will also get 10GB of KeyShot Cloud storage to share KeyShot scenes online. KeyShot is even offering a FREE download of a full, extended trial of KeyShot Pro just for the participants!

Learn More. Deadline is May 6th, 2022.

Click Here to visit the Parmigiano Reggiano Design Challenge site for complete details about the competition and how to enter it. Don’t forget – you have until May 6th to submit your entries… so it’s best to get the wheels rolling on your concept development! For a look at last year’s winners, just scroll below for a few uniquely authentic and creative designs. Oh, and as they say in Italy, “Buona Fortuna!”

Click Here to Submit Your Designs Now for the Parmigiano Reggiano® Design Challenge. Hurry, entries close May 6th, 2022.

The post The Parmigiano Reggiano Design Challenge invites designers to imagine products at the intersection of food and design. first appeared on Yanko Design.

boAt Lifestyle and Yanko Design team up for a Rendering Challenge. Participate to win audio gear + free design courses

Posted on 31/01/2022 by Sarang Sheth

We’re thrilled to announce that Yanko Design is teaming up with boAt Lifestyle, India’s #1 Earwear brand, to flag off the #DoWhatFloatsYourboAt Design Challenge on Instagram. The #DoWhatFloatsYourboAt challenge’s brief is simple – Render the boAt Stone 1200F Wireless Speaker in your own imagination. The most creative entry stands a chance to win up to INR 10,000 worth of boAt Products, a KeyShot 10 Pro license (with a free upgrade to KeyShot 11), as well as access to offsite courses with Advanced Design and Hector Silva, and online lifetime access to Creator Club Master Classes. The contest is open and free to all, and here’s a secret perk – the best student entry even gets a paid internship at boAt.

Use this link to download the 3D files of the boAt Stone 1200F Wireless Speaker.
Click Here to Participate Now! Hurry, Contest closes on February 20th, 2022.

The boAt Stone 1200F has the aura and audacity of a boombox in a smaller, handy avatar. It boasts 14W of sheer audio power with a passive bass radiator for rich, foot-tapping, heart-thumping sound, and RGB LEDs on either side to add visual dynamism to your audio experience. The speaker comes with a wireless, portable design that can be carried in one’s hand or even strung along the shoulder using an accompanying strap. With 9 hours of playback time, the Stone 1200F lets the party go on into after-hours, and the fact that it’s IPX7 water and splash resistant lets you easily take the party outdoors too!

To participate in the #DoWhatFloatsYourboAt Design Challenge, upload your renders/animations/designs to Instagram and tag + follow the @yankodesign and @boat.nirvana accounts while also using the #YDxboAt hashtag. The renders can be images or even videos, and the brief is to render the boAt Stone 1200F’s design in your unique expressive style. Go absolutely wild!

The #DoWhatFloatsYourboAt rendering challenge will be judged by Ayush Singh Patel – Lead Industrial Designer at boAt Lifestyle, Katharina Stärck – Designer & 3D Visualizer at KRB.Berlin and Sarang Sheth – Editor in Chief at Yanko Design. To read about the competition details, read below. The competition ends on February 20th, 2022, 11:59pm PST. Disclaimer – Participants in this rendering challenge must be above the age of 18.

Here’s all the information you need:

The Brief
Render the boAt Stone 1200F Wireless Speaker in your own unique expressive style.

How to Participate
Step 1: Download the boAt 1200F 3D assets
Step 2: Upload your design to Instagram + Follow @yankodesign and @boat.nirvana
Step 3: Tag @yankodesign and use the hashtag #YDxboAt in the caption.

Contest Opens: January 31st, 2022
Contest Closes: February 20th, 2022, 11:59 PST.

Gold Prize: INR 10,000 boAt Products + KeyShot 10 Pro License (free upgradable to KeyShot 11) + Offsite Courses by Hector Silva
Silver Prize: INR 10,000 boAt Products + KeyShot 10 Pro License (free upgradable to KeyShot 11) + $10,000 worth Lifetime Access to Creator Club Master Classes on How to Succeed at Crowdfunding.
Bronze Prize: INR 5,000 boAt Products + KeyShot 10 Pro License (free upgradable to KeyShot 11)
Student Prize: Best Student Design Submission will get Paid Internship at boAt

Click Here to Download the boAt Stone 1200F 3D Assets

“With #DoWhatFloatsYourboAt, boAt Lifestyle is becoming a bold voice for the Gen-Z, a generation that is seeking a purpose in every passion. We are excited to extend this conversation to the eclectic design community with the #DoWhatFloatsYourboAt Design Challenge. So, if you are ready to let your imagination run wild, hop on the creativity wagon, and get rolling!”

boAt is India’s #1 Earwear brand (as per IDC India Monthly Wearables Tracker, November 2021 release).

The post boAt Lifestyle and Yanko Design team up for a Rendering Challenge. Participate to win audio gear + free design courses first appeared on Yanko Design.