We’ve spoken at length on this website about how the Design Intelligence Award is shaping the future of the creative industry through its novel format. Established in 2015 by the China Academy of Art, the Design Intelligence Award (or DIA for short) is more than just an award that recognizes good design. It’s an ecosystem for cultivating innovation and entrepreneurial spirit. For almost a decade, this free-to-enter program has celebrated creativity and ingenuity, with a three-stage judging and evaluation process aimed at developing products that uniquely benefit humanity. 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.

Click Here to Enter Now: Registration Closes on 30th June, 2023 (24:00, UTC+8).

The Design Intelligence Award undergoes a rigorous judging process, comprising three stages. A group of 550 design experts assesses entries based on three key criteria. The first layer focuses on the essential “Principles of Design,” which includes factors such as functionality, aesthetics, technicality, user experience, and sustainability. The second layer considers the “Direction of Design,” taking into account how the design contributes to humanity, industry, and the future. The third and final layer emphasizes the “Impact of Design” on social influence and industrial development. The judging process concludes with a hands-on final round, ensuring that only the most exceptional designs are recognized.

The DIA Jury Panel is made up of 550 experts and judges from 37 countries and regions around the world. They carefully select 30 outstanding projects that showcase innovation and positive impact. These lucky winners receive a share of the DIA’s prize fund of ¥5 million RMB ($728,000 USD), with the top project receiving ¥1 million RMB. The winners are also invited to the prestigious DIA Award Ceremony, where they can connect with global representatives from various sectors such as design, academia, and media. They 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 inspire innovation and collaboration by featuring education experts, industry leaders, and pioneers who share their knowledge and achievements with the next generation. Finally, the winners benefit from media exposure through a coordinated PR campaign, which helps to promote their work to a wider audience. If you’re curious, scroll below to check out some of last year’s Design Intelligence Awards winners and honorable mentions!

This year’s Design Intelligence Award is open for entries. Submit your innovative idea for a chance to win up to ¥1 million RMB ($147,000 USD) and bring your life-changing design to reality! Don’t miss out on this opportunity to make a difference. Click here to enroll for the 2023 Design Intelligence Awards FOR FREE!

2022 Design Intelligence Awards winners and Honorable Mentions

Shuttle Footwear by SCRY

The birth of SCRY Shuttle marks a new era in the footwear industry, where digitalization is revolutionizing the way shoes are made. Unlike traditional shoes, SCRY Shuttle is manufactured using an integrated 3D printing process that eliminates the need for assembly, reduces material waste, and eliminates lengthy assembly lines… and that unique approach reflects in the shoe’s drop-dead gorgeous design too! The shoe is made from a single material that is engineered to achieve the required performance of different parts, making it easy to recycle. The midsole of the shoe is filled with an innovative lattice structure that provides a soft and comfortable foot experience. The Shuttle isn’t designed for retail, however, SCRY does sell some stunning accent footwear on their website.

HiPhi Z by Human Horizons

With two electric motors mounted on the rear wheels, the HiPhi Z can generate over 600 horsepower and 605 pound-feet of torque, making the EV China’s answer to Tesla. It’s quick too, with a 0-62 mph time of just 3.8 seconds, comparable to the Model 3. And if you’re worried about range anxiety, don’t be – the Z can travel up to 438 miles on a single charge. What really sets the Z apart, however, is its unique LED matrix under each headlight and taillight. Not only does it look cool, but it can also display text, emojis, and other fun things. So not only will you enjoy driving the Z, but you’ll also turn heads and make people smile as you pass by.

Square Off Swap by Infivention Technologies

Following the launch of Square Off, an AI-automated chess board that you could play against, the Square Off Swap extends the same technology, but now with the ability to play multiple games on the same board. Offering users the ability to now play games like Chess, Checkers, Halma, and Connect 4 on a single surface, the Square Off Swap features better internals that are much more responsive, offering faster and more reactive gameplay and interactive embedded lights that just do wonders to uplift the gaming experience, while keeping everything extremely real!

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

The U-Lab 001 may look like a typical guitar, but it’s anything but ordinary. With a hollow cutout, no strings, and the ability to fold in half for easy travel, this guitar is perfect for beginners with little to no formal training. The right-hand rocker switches simulate strumming, while the touch-sensitive light-up fretboard under the left hand teaches notes, chords, and music theory. A companion smartphone app enhances the learning experience. The ULab 001 also boasts a built-in speaker, volume control, a knob to change the guitar’s scale, and a headphone jack for silent practice.

Little Patience Meditation Seat by Shine Meditation Health Technology

The Little Patience Meditation Seat is designed to guide users into sitting cross-legged, promoting an upright back and inwardly folded legs. This posture has been used for thousands of years in Oriental and Indian cultures for meditation and eating, as it increases blood circulation, joint flexibility, and strengthens bones while aiding digestion. The seat’s unique design resembles a saddle with a concave middle, requiring some guidance for first-time users. However, it encourages a healthy sitting practice that benefits both physical and mental well-being, making it an unusual but worthwhile addition to any space!

VT-30 by EHang

The VT-30 is an eVTOL aircraft created by leading Chinese manufacturer EHang for inter-city travel. It follows a “lift and cruise” model and is fully autonomous, with a capacity of two passengers. The aircraft can travel up to 300 km on a single battery charge, with flight times of up to 100 minutes. It can take off and land on both runways and helipads, given its vertical and take-off capabilities. Unlike other air taxi developers, EHang’s design is compact and sleek, with a smaller cockpit contributing to its impressive range.

FlipPack by Guangzhou Korin Technology

Korin Design’s engineers have developed a cutting-edge backpack that boasts magnetic side pockets for swift access and a sleek, waterproof exterior. Dubbed the FlipPack, for its flip-out magnetic side pockets, the backpack also offers exceptional security with RFID blocking, a concealed magnetic back pocket, air cell straps for added comfort, and a collapsible structure for effortless storage.

Sustainable Shopping Bag by Lim Sungmook

Crafted rather wonderfully from a single sheet of durable and waterproof Tyvek material, the Sustainable Shopping Bag is a smart alternative to single-use plastic bags that end up in landfills. Its net-based design is not only strong but also requires less material, making it an eco-friendly choice. The bag’s clever cuts allow it to expand and accommodate a range of items, from groceries to clothes and even a wine bottle. Available in various sizes, colors, and patterns, the bag’s patented design is both practical and stylish.

YA CONG Handle Pot by Hangzhou Great Wisdom Creative Design

Challenging the common silhouette of the teapot, the YA CONG features a unique squarish design that strays away from tradition, and also exhibits a new style of pottery that can’t be crafted on a rotary potter’s wheel. The unique shape is systematically designed with the characteristics of “square outside and round inside”, emphasizing both rigidity and softness. In straying away from the traditional shape of teapots, the YA CONG creates its own style and tradition with high artistic value and practical function.

Helloface Transparent Respirator Mask by oneoverthree for Handan Hengyong

While it’s safe to say that the pandemic is behind us, it’s also worth remembering that we still need masks, not for protection from pathogens, but rather from terrible air quality. A majority of the third world lives with incredibly polluted air (urban cities in first-world countries aren’t any better), and the Helloface Transparent Respirator Mask hopes to usher in a future where people can wear masks without obstructing their facial expressions. The mask features a cartridge on the front as well as inlets and outlets on the side that allow air to flow in and out comfortably without fogging up the inside. The rest of the mask itself is made from transparent plastic, allowing the wearer to still visually express themselves and interact with others without any barriers.

Click Here to Enroll for the 2023 Design Intelligence Awards FOR FREE! Registration Closes on 30th June, 2023 (24:00, UTC+8).

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The 11th LEXUS DESIGN AWARD came to a grand conclusion with the 4 Winning Designs being showcased at Milan Design Week. All winners wonderfully captured Lexus’ brand ethos of “Design for a Better Tomorrow”, with the Fog-X by Pavels Hedström also winning the ‘Your Choice Award’. The LEXUS DESIGN AWARD was envisioned to be a platform that helps the next generation of creatives to realize their ideas for a better future. Through a combination of industry mentorship and providing award grants to build prototypes, the LEXUS DESIGN AWARD helps transform nascent ideas and concepts into tangible solutions. These tangible prototypes were exhibited to the public between April 18th and 23rd at Milan Design Week.

Click here to know more about the LEXUS DESIGN AWARD 2023

LEXUS DESIGN AWARD 2023 Winners Exhibition – Milan Design Week

Print Clay Humidifier by Jiaming Liu

Designed to highlight terracotta’s ability to disperse moisture into the atmosphere, the Print Clay Humidifier is a clever, non-electric product that easily humidifies while also uplifting spaces with its elegant design. Designer Jiaming Liu also experimented with using ‘recycled ceramic waste’ as a material choice to realize the humidifier’s design. “Having so many visitors, I was a little bit nervous in the beginning, but in the end, I could enjoy meeting and talking to visitors to show my idea,” Jiaming said. “I would like to have my own design studio and bring this project into the market in the future. I also have a lot of ideas that I would like to develop… so I will follow my passion and explore my creativity to build a Better Tomorrow through design.”

Touch the Valley by Temporary Office

Touch the Valley is a 3D puzzle designed for people with visual impairments. The puzzle consists of topographic pieces that can be assembled by matching adjacent contouring pieces. By piecing together the puzzle, individuals can gain a better understanding of the physical world through touch. The tactile experience encourages sensory perception and provides a unique opportunity for individuals to explore and interact with their environment. “Everything of this LEXUS DESIGN AWARD journey was challenging but also super rewarding for us. Having a timeframe pushes us out from our comfort zone. Hearing mentors’ feedback helps us a lot to keep sharpening our focus and clarify our priorities,” said the design duo Temporary Office. “As a next step for the project Touch the Valley, we would like to try a different type of landscape like Mt.Fuji, Monument Valley, or different national parks in the US…. We would like to see this puzzle in every home in the future since this is such an accessible product.”

Zero Bag by Kyeongho Park & Yejin Heo

The Zero Bag is a sustainable alternative to traditional plastic packaging for clothing and food items. It is made from water-soluble alginate plastic and features a paper detergent inner lining. The bag can be washed along with its contents, and the detergent helps to clean the items before use. Once washed, the bag disintegrates in water, reducing waste and environmental impact. “We were so happy and excited to be here and to showcase our project at Milan Design Week. This is my first time participating in such a global exhibition and it’s like a dream,” designers Kyeongho and Yejin mentioned. “Having received many questions from visitors, now we know which aspects of this project interest visitors and we feel that our explanations are getting better. We would like to keep developing this Zero Bag project and look for a potential partner such as a chemical company so that we can explore materials.”

Fog-X by Pavels Hedström

The Fog-X is a jacket that’s designed to help provide drinking water in arid environments by collecting atmospheric moisture or catching fog. The jacket comes with a “sail-like expandable antenna which captures fog droplets” and leads them into a water container that people can drink out of. To make the Fog-X more effective, it’s supplemented by a smartphone app that guides the user to optimal locations for harvesting fog. “I was super excited to showcase my project at Milan Design Week, meeting many people, receiving feedback. I feel like that they started to consider the issues that I addressed through the project which was exactly what I had intended,” Pavels mentioned. “The project Fog-X involves many different fields from architecture, fashion, materials and technologies… everything into one project, which means I can still explore a lot of possibilities and I feel that a lot of new doors opened in front of myself now.”

Declared the unanimous winner from the LEXUS DESIGN AWARD’s roster of four leading projects, the Fog-X by Pavels Hedström was awarded the coveted ‘Your Choice Award’. Introduced this year, the ‘Your Choice Award’ allowed people from across the world to vote for their favorite project that best represented the award program’s ethos of ‘Design for a Better Tomorrow’. “I’m very privileged to be chosen as this year’s Your Choice Award. It has been a fantastic journey. I couldn’t imagine a more honorable way of ending this journey and continuing the next one.” said Pavels. The Your Choice Award Winner, along with the three other winning designs were displayed for the thousands of attendees at Milan Design Week, giving them the perfect stepping stone into the creative industry, and their ideas the large platform it deserves!

Click here to know more about the LEXUS DESIGN AWARD 2023

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Celebrating its 11th edition, the LEXUS DESIGN AWARD was established to provide a platform for emerging creatives to invest their ideas and creativity in creating a ‘Better Tomorrow’. Aimed at finding unique solutions to global environmental and social problems, the program offers a unique opportunity for the next generation of creators to thrive under the guidance of leading industrial mentors, with Lexus providing grants to bring their innovative designs to life. This year, the award program introduces the “Your Choice Award”, where the public can vote for their favorite design. Check out the list of candidates below and don’t forget to cast your vote!

In the latter half of last year, Lexus announced the 2023 edition of its award program, focusing on key principles of “Anticipate, Innovate, and Captivate, while seamlessly enhancing the happiness of all” and promoting design through a unique mentorship approach. Industry mentors Marjan van Aubel (Solar Designer, Marjan van Aubel Studio), Joe Doucet (Founder, Joe Doucet x Partners), Yuri Suzuki (Artist and Designer/Partner, Pentagram), and Sumayya Vally (Architect/Principal, Counterspace) collaborate with winners, who present their designs to a distinguished jury panel featuring Paola Antonelli (Senior Curator for the Department of Architecture and Design at MoMA), Karim Rashid (Designer, Karim Rashid Inc.), and Simon Humphries (Chief Branding Officer, Toyota Motor Corporation). Winners are awarded up to 3 million Japanese yen to bring their ideas to life, with the four winning designs exhibited at Milan Design Week from April 17th to 23rd. With the Your Choice Award, YOU get to vote for your favorite design too!

Click Here to Vote for “Your Choice Award”. Hurry voting ends in 48 hours (April 23rd at 23:59 CET)

LEXUS DESIGN AWARD 2023 Winners

Fog-X by Pavels Hedström

The Fog-X is a unique piece of clothing that not only provides warmth but also doubles as a water harvester. Originally designed as a backpack, the Fog-X was transformed into a jacket during mentorship sessions due to its smaller and more versatile nature. The jacket’s design helps it collect atmospheric moisture, making it an ideal solution for arid environments where water is scarce. To maximize its water-catching abilities, the Fog-X comes with an app that guides the user to optimal locations for harvesting fog. The transforms into a fog-catcher, which collects micro-droplets of water from the wind, providing a clean source of drinking water even in the driest of deserts.

Print Clay Humidifier by Jiaming Liu

The Print Clay Humidifier is an inventive and sustainable non-electric humidifier that uses recycled ceramic waste as a raw material. Jiaming Liu’s fresh perspective helps recycle ceramic objects and pieces while retaining their evaporative properties, aiming to expand the use of ceramic recycling to bring the realization of a resource-recycling society. The humidifier is 3D-printed and uses the water-wicking properties of clay to deliver moisture into the air. Liu tested different combinations of ceramic powders and various iterations of the humidifier’s design. “I found that the petal structure combined with the rotating shape increased the material’s performance,” he mentioned, also highlighting how the product was designed to seamlessly balance aesthetics and function.

Touch the Valley by Temporary Office

Touch the Valley is a 3D puzzle game specifically designed for visually-impaired individuals. The puzzle consists of topographic pieces that can be assembled by matching adjacent contouring pieces, providing a tactile experience that encourages sensory perception and allows individuals to explore and interact with their environment. Temporary Office, the design duo behind the game, consulted with vision rehabilitation training specialists and the visually impaired community to refine the puzzle, resulting in the addition of magnetic haptic feedback, elevational grooves, smoother edges, and potentially extruded patterns to enhance the user’s experience. The goal of the puzzle is to create a joyful and immersive process of play and exploration without overwhelming cognitive load.

Zero Bag by Kyeongho Park & Yejin Heo

A unique combination of container and detergent, the Zero Bag boasts of a cradle-to-grave approach that allows the plastic packaging of a product to disintegrate once it serves its purposes. Designed to be used to package clothes, food, or any other item that would typically require plastic packaging, the Zero Bag is made from water-soluble alginate plastic, with a paper detergent lining. When you receive your items wrapped in a Zero Bag, simply wash them with the bag and the bag will dissolve in the water, leaving you with zero waste. The detergent/soap helps to clean the contents of the bag before consumption or use. The bag is versatile and can be used for both clothes and food, with a simple swap of the inner lining for a food-safe soap or baking soda. The Park and Heo’s aim is to also strengthen the waterproof abilities of the bag so it can sustain the journey from manufacturing to retail to consumer. The Zero Bag is a game-changer in the world of sustainable packaging and is sure to make a positive impact on the environment.

Have a favorite design? Cast your vote for the Your Choice Award using this link! (Voting is open till April 23rd 23:59 (CET))

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Now in its 11th year, the LEXUS DESIGN AWARD was envisioned as a platform to help next-generation creators invest their ideas and creativity in building a ‘Better Tomorrow’. Given the environmental and social issues concerning the upcoming generation of creators, the award program follows a unique format that allows them to grow and flourish under leading industrial mentors, with Lexus providing grants to help bring the game-changing design entries to life. The award program also announced a new “Your Choice Award” that allows people to vote for their favorite design. View the participants below!

In the latter half of last year, Lexus announced the 2023 edition of its award program with the theme echoing the Lexus brand’s key principles – “Anticipate, Innovate, and Captivate, while seamlessly enhancing the happiness of all”. Through the award program, Lexus extends its culture of design and innovation by fostering an ideal atmosphere for design to flourish, enabling the transformation of concepts into tangible and meaningful solutions. Winners of Lexus’ design competitions are awarded a grant of up to 3 million Japanese yen to help bring their ideas to life.

Judging and mentoring the participants’ designs form a core part of what makes the LEXUS DESIGN AWARD so special. This year, the esteemed jury panel included Paola Antonelli (Senior Curator for the Department of Architecture and Design at MoMA), Karim Rashid (Designer, Karim Rashid Inc.), and Simon Humphries (Chief Branding Officer, Toyota Motor Corporation), while four internationally renowned designers joined the mentoring platform – Marjan van Aubel (Solar Designer, Marjan van Aubel Studio), Joe Doucet (Founder, Joe Doucet x Partners), Yuri Suzuki (Artist and Designer/Partner, Pentagram), and Sumayya Vally (Architect/ Principal, Counterspace). The award’s procedure, however, went through a few changes with Lexus choosing four winners instead of a single Grand Prix Winner. All four winners went through the mentoring stage prior to their announcement in February, followed by a Prototype Development Phase in collaboration with the mentors. The finalized prototypes are now being showcased between April 17th and 23rd at the Milan Design Week, with the introduction of a new Your Choice Award. That’s where you, the reader, come in!

The LEXUS DESIGN AWARD is giving YOU the opportunity to cast your vote for your favorite design too… after all, it’s only a Better Tomorrow when everyone gets to share their opinion, right?! The new “Your Choice Award” is being launched during Milan Design Week (April 17-23) and Lexus invites the public from around the world to vote online for their favorite prototype that best represents Design for a Better Tomorrow.

Check out the designs below and click here to cast your vote! (Voting is open till April 23rd 23:59 (CET).

LEXUS DESIGN AWARD 2023 Winners

Fog-X by Pavels Hedström

A jacket with a rather novel added function, the Fog-X also turns into a water harvester. With a design that helps collect atmospheric moisture, the Fog-X provides the user with drinking water in arid environments where water is scarce. The idea for the Fog-X originally started out as a water-harvesting backpack but transitioned into a jacket during the mentorship sessions. The jacket is smaller, lighter, and a little more ubiquitous, making it an ideal pick. To effectively use the Fog-X’s water-catching abilities, it comes with a smartphone app that guides the user to optimal locations for harvesting fog. Once pitched, the jacket helps collect micro-droplets of water from the wind, providing a clean source of drinking water in even the driest of deserts.

Print Clay Humidifier by Jiaming Liu

Clay’s properties as a natural evaporative cooler have been known for millennia, although what the Print Clay Humidifier does is rather inventive. The humidifier explores ‘recycled ceramic waste’ as a raw material, instead of regular clay. Ceramics and fired terracotta objects are notoriously non-biodegradable (it’s why pottery from civilizations dating back thousands of years have still survived under the ground), but Jiaming Liu’s fresh perspective helps recycle ceramic objects and pieces while retaining their evaporative properties. “The aim of this project is to expand the use of ceramic recycling to bring the realization of a resource-recycling society,” says Liu. The Print Clay Humidifier is a 3D-printed sustainable non-electric humidifier that uses the water-wicking properties of clay to deliver moisture into the air. During the mentorship process, Liu tested different combinations of ceramic powders, along with various iterations of the humidifier’s design. “I found that the petal structure combined with the rotating shape increased the material’s performance,” he mentioned, also highlighting how the product was designed to seamlessly balance aesthetics and function.

Touch the Valley by Temporary Office

Touch the Valley is a 3D puzzle that’s designed for visually-impaired people. The puzzle comprises three-dimensional topographic pieces that can be assembled by matching adjacent contouring pieces. By piecing together the puzzle, individuals can gain a better understanding of the physical world through touch. The tactile experience encourages sensory perception and provides a unique opportunity for individuals to explore and interact with their environment. Under the advice of their mentors, the design duo Temporary Office reached out to vision rehabilitation training specialists and the visually impaired community to help refine their puzzle game. The result saw a few additions to the puzzle in the form of magnetic haptic feedback, elevational grooves, smoother edges, and potentially extruded patterns in the hope that users can joyfully immerse themselves in the process of play and exploration without too much cognitive load.

Zero Bag by Kyeongho Park & Yejin Heo

The Zero Bag is part-container, part-detergent, designed with a zero-waste cradle-to-grave approach. Made to serve as packaging for clothes, food, or anything else that you’d otherwise use plastic for, the Zero Bag comes manufactured from water-soluble alginate plastic, with a paper detergent inner lining. After receiving the clothes or fruits/vegetables wrapped in a Zero Bag, wash them with the bag and the bag disintegrates into the water, while the detergent/soap helps clean the contents of the bag before consumption/wearing. In the end, the bag dissolves into water, leaving you with ‘zero bag’! While the bag first started out as packaging for clothes, it’s through the mentorship sessions that designers Kyeongho Park & Yejin Heo also realized the bags could hold food too, with a simple swap of the inner detergent lining for a food-safe soap or baking soda. The designers’ aim is to also strengthen the waterproof abilities of the bag so it can sustain the journey from manufacturing to retail to consumer.

Have a favorite design? Cast your vote for the Your Choice Award using this link! (Voting is open till April 23rd 23:59 (CET)

The post LEXUS DESIGN AWARD switches up the brief for 2023 with 4 winning designs. Vote for the Your Choice Award Now! first appeared on Yanko Design.

Out of more than 4000 entries to the Red Dot Design Concept this year, the Hyundai Design Center (the in-house studio for Hyundai Motor Company) edged out a win for their Trailer Drone – a unique and innovative future mobility solution that combines fuel cells, trucks, trailers and robots on a single platform to make logistics easier, faster, safer, and more sustainable.

The Trailer Drone works on a fully autonomous framework, requiring absolutely no human intervention in the operational process. The large E-Bogies house the fuel cells as well as provide a large space for cargo, and are operated by the platform-shaped drones that plug into the front and rear, giving it increased and autonomous mobility. “The e-Bogie, derived from railroad car technology, is a driverless mobility concept that efficiently houses essential components such as propulsion, control, steering, and suspension units within a limited space”, say the Hyundai Design team led by team lead Lee SangYup.

Designer: Hyundai Design Center

The Trailer Drone is an exhaustive and modular ecosystem featuring E-Bogies and smart drone platforms that can operate them within warehouses as well as on roads with Level 5 autonomy. The lack of humans makes the entire operation safer and smarter, and the absence of a traditional ‘cockpit’ means more space to store cargo and additional room for fuel cells, boosting efficiency.

The E-Bogies house multiple hydrogen fuel cells, which provide power to the drone platforms while being 100% emission-free and safe for the environment. The hydrogen tanks, which are mounted at the front and bottom of the E-Bogies, provide a range of 1,600km per charge. The concept secured the Luminary Winner title at this year’s Red Dot Design Concept Award for its unique take on modularity and mobility. The team at Hyundai managed to build a self-sustaining emission-free framework that allows for the efficient transportation of cargo with little human intervention. The drones can transport cargo within storage yards as well as across cities/states, relying on smart level 5 autonomous technologies that allow them to efficiently get from A to B. In the event that multiple trailers need transporting, they link up wirelessly, forming an invisible train of sorts that can efficiently travel on roads and highways without having a human at the wheel.

The Trailer Drone is a Luminary Winner of the Red Dot Design Concept Award for the year 2022.

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Designed to be comfortably worn while a pregnant mother carries their child, the ‘Retractable Garment’ by IU+ Design features a unique fabric construction that expands aesthetically as the wearer’s body does. A winner of the Red Dot Design Concept Award, the garment relies on a series of uniquely positioned fabric cutouts that grow to form a pattern that is revealed the bigger the baby bump gets!

“Using pattern variations, the retractable garment meets the functional demands of pregnant women throughout the entire process”, say lead designers Shen Jiye and Chen Yujie. “In other words, the garment witnesses the entire pregnancy.”

Designer: ShenZhen IU+ Design Co., Ltd.

“The abdomen area of the garment is made to be flexible and adjustable to accommodate the various stages of pregnancy. It is made with a certain tension that allows the fabric to stretch over the baby bump, and the patterns expand to fit the shape of the stomach, creating a one-of-a-kind look”, the designers mention. Moreover, the garment can even be worn after a child is born, thereby reducing unnecessary fashion waste.

This concept, while unique, builds on an underlying idea that clothes should be designed to last as long as possible while accommodating growth and developmental factors. A similar project, titled Petit Pli, used pleated fabric that allowed the clothes to expand as a child grew, enabling them to wear the same clothes for years instead of mere months.

The Retractable Garment is a winner of the Red Dot Design Concept Award for the year 2022.

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The computer mouse today may look a bit different compared to its first incarnation, but the fundamental design of this important input device hasn’t exactly changed over the decades. That, unfortunately, also means that the problems associated with this old design haven’t really disappeared either, especially those that cause physical injury over time. There has been a great deal of interest lately in redesigning the mouse to be more ergonomic, but not everyone agrees that changing the shape is enough. This design concept, for example, takes a very different approach to resolving the problem of repetitive strain injury or RSI, mostly by shifting the movement away from the arm and wrists and giving your upper body a workout instead.

Designer: Simon Hochleitner

The computer mouse and even the computer keyboard are very unnatural interfaces as far as our bodies are concerned. Especially with the mouse, the hand and the arm it’s attached to are forced into an unnatural position, whether it is in motion or at rest. The movements associated with prolonged and repeated use of the mouse eventually lead to what is sometimes called “mouse arm,” as well as the injuries that come with it. You might think that your arm is getting some exercise, but it’s really the wrong kind of movement and resting position that actually causes those injuries.

Ergonomic mice can only do so much since it simply shifts the tension and strain to other parts of the hand and arm. Orthopedists and physiotherapists might have a different idea on how to solve this problem, and it unsurprisingly involves using correct movements and posture. What may come as a surprise, however, is how this can be done by simply changing the way we use the mouse.

James Dyson Award national winner Orbit redesigns the mouse not by changing its shape but by changing the way we move it across a flat surface. Instead of simply sliding over a mouse pad, Orbit has three resistance bands that hold the “mouse” in the center. To move the mouse, you have to exert a bit of effort to counter the resistance, which, in turn, shifts the force to other muscle groups, particularly the ones responsible for posture. With this system, the body is forced not to slouch and use those upper body muscles instead of relying on wrist and forearm muscles to move the mouse.

Orbit actually does change the design of the mouse by turning it into a joystick. Unlike a typical joystick, however, you still have to move it across the surface, much like a mouse. The only difference is that the joystick shape keeps the arm in a more natural position to reduce stress. The touch-sensitive ring on top acts as a mouse wheel so that you don’t have to change your hand’s position or stop the movement just to use it. There is also a “flat” version that more closely resembles a traditional mouse that’s designed for gamers.

Whether it’s changing the shape of the mouse or adding some resistance, it’s encouraging to see designers challenging the status quo when it comes to this input device. It might still take some time before the industry embraces these ideas, but increasing awareness about the problems with computer mice is an important first step in changing people’s perceptions.

The post Orbit PC mouse gives your upper body an exercise to avoid strain injuries first appeared on Yanko Design.

Every year, the LEXUS DESIGN AWARD invites students and up-and-coming designers to envision a ‘Brighter Future’ for the people and the planet. Free to participate in, the award’s unique format and mentorship program allow designers to grow and flourish under leading industrial mentors, with Lexus providing grants to help bring the game-changing design entries to life.

Earlier this month, Lexus announced the 11th edition of the LEXUS DESIGN AWARD. Through the award, Lexus hopes to seek innovative ideas that contribute to a thriving and better future for all through the power of design and technology. The theme for the award echoes the Lexus brand’s three key principles – “Anticipate, Innovate and Captivate, while seamlessly enhancing the happiness of all”. Creating the perfect environment for a design to grow, Lexus helps engineer ideas into real, impactful solutions. The brand’s strong association with design and innovation helps it accelerate ideas to achieve their full potential, and the brand even offers winners a grant of up to 3 million Japanese Yen or $25,000 USD to help prototype their ideas.

Mentorship remains core to the award, while also being its distinct differentiator. It isn’t too often that you see award programs that are invested in helping designers grow while giving them industry expertise to perfect their game-changing ideas. The award’s format is unique in that regard too. Entries go through one round of selection before an elite panel of judges selects 4 winners. The winners then go through a 3-month long course with internationally-recognized mentors who take the conceptual entries and help refine them for the real world. Each winner will also be allocated a research and development budget of up to 3 million Japanese yen as a design grant to cover not only prototype construction but also other relevant expenses involved in refining their concept and design and supporting the individual’s creative development. In the spring of 2023, the four winners will reveal their progress to judges and mentors by presenting their finished work for review.

“Over the past decade, environmental and other issues have ballooned along with the need for solutions. With the LEXUS DESIGN AWARD we have welcomed and recognized emerging creators of foresight and creative brilliance who apply the power of design to the challenges of building a better tomorrow for all. I eagerly await the fresh talent and impactful ideas that debut at LEXUS DESIGN AWARD 2023”, said Simon
Humphries, Head of Toyota & Lexus Global Design.

The LEXUS DESIGN AWARD 2023 is now open for entries. Click here to participate for free!

Lexus Design Award Past Winners

Rewind Motion-tracking Device by Poh Yun Ru (2022 Grand Prix Winner)

The idea for Rewind came to Poh Yun Ru after seeing her grandmother struggle with remembering how to perform basic day-to-day tasks as a result of dementia and failing memory. Designed to evoke memories, Rewind uses motion-tracking to guide seniors with dementia in re-enacting familiar gestures. Based loosely on the phrase that ‘practice makes perfect’, Rewind allows its user to engage in activities that would otherwise come intuitively. By creating a platform that allows them to constantly practice these activities (and even receive haptic feedback as a result), Rewind helps rebuild the neural pathways that get weak with age.

Portable Solar Distiller by Henry Glogau (2021 Grand Prix Winner)

The Portable Solar Distiller provides clean drinking water by filtering polluted water or overly saline seawater using sunlight. Merging local resource production with community architecture, this low-tech solution also serves as a shaded gathering place. Its large canopy serves a dual purpose – harvesting sunlight to help purify water through evaporation and acting as a community center for people to gather under during the day or even at night. The Portable Solar Distiller’s open-source schematic can easily be tweaked and implemented by anyone, allowing the design solution to have a wider reach and impact. The Portable Solar Distiller is designed in a way that can be carried, opened out, and assembled anywhere. Almost like a beach umbrella, it provides shade for groups of people, while having the added benefit of being able to purify water.

Open Source Communities by BellTower (2020 Grand Prix Winner)

A vast number of Kenyans suffer from a combination of problems like water shortage, diseases caused by consumption of unfiltered/unfit water, having to walk miles to get water on a daily basis, or alternatively having to pay high rates for local water distribution. “In Nairobi, high-tech coexists with urban poverty”, say the team at BellTower, who designed the Open Source Communities project which creates a new format of community-building that relies on efficient allocation of resources that help the lower-income communities get access to basic necessities like water. The project creates a centralized water-reservoir – a structure that sits between hundreds of homes, providing water to every single one of them. The structure’s innovative format allows it to harvest and conserve rainwater, while actively filtering it of dirt, microorganisms, and other impurities. During the monsoons, surplus water helps generate money for the communities too, allowing them to get an extra source of income while bridging the vast resource gap. However, the best part about the Open Source Communities is that it exists as a public-utility template. Its open-source nature gives it unlimited flexibility, allowing it to be modified to fit in practically any scenario.

Algorithmic Lace by Lisa Marks (2019 Grand Prix Winner)

Bringing Algorithms and Attire together in a beautifully crafted garment with a noble purpose, Algorithmic Lace uses advanced three-dimensional modeling to handcraft bespoke bras for breast cancer survivors who have undergone mastectomy surgery. Algorithms have a long-standing love-affair with the textile industry, as one of the first machines to use algorithms was the Jacquard Loom back in the 1800s. The loom was controlled by a series of punched cards, which contained information that the loom read. Different cards had different algorithms and by switching the cards in the loom, you could tell it to alternate between complex textile weaves like brocade, damask and matelassé. Algorithmic Lace builds on that rich history, by using lines of code to create bras that are custom-built for their wearers. These garments are made specifically to functionally suit women who’ve undergone surgery, and the algorithmic pattern helps create a well-fitted, comfortable brassiere that’s also incredibly aesthetic to look at, empowering the wearer with confidence, along with their new lease of life.

The LEXUS DESIGN AWARD 2023 is now open for entries. Click here to participate for free!

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With hundreds of entries over the 3-week competition time period, the YDxKeyShot Material Design Challenge finally came to a close with the winners being announced this week. The three winning entries showcase an incredibly versatile approach, proving exactly how capable KeyShot 11’s Material Graph and material designing abilities are.

The three winners distinctly stand in three separate categories. The Gold winning entry from Shahin Fathi explores the ability to put a realistic froth of bubbles on top of products, the Silver winning entry from Colin Ginn explored a unique parametric ‘chocolate chip cookie’ material with a lot of versatility, and the Bronze winning entry came from Nacho Riesco, who created an alluring cracked gold-leaf on wood texture that has great potential in furniture, interior, and even fashion rendering applications.

The judges declared Shahin the unanimous Gold Winner, but there were a few strong contenders for Silver and Bronze positions. Ultimately, the judges rated the entries on creativity as well as potential to be used across various industries. We congratulate the winners and are extremely grateful to everyone who participated!

Click Here to know more about KeyShot 11

Gold Winner – Shahin Fathi

Shahin Fathi (also known on Instagram by Predexign) was unanimously selected as the winning entry for its sheer creativity and impeccable execution. Jury member Sarang Sheth said, “Loved the idea and execution. This is exactly the kind of material I was expecting to come out of this competition.” The bubbles really push KeyShot 11’s textures to the limit. They’re incredibly realistic, and a simple drag and drop of the material onto a 3D object turns it into a foamy mass that has tonnes of applications in bathware, drinkware (think beer froth it coffee crema), and potentially even outdoor water scenes!
View Shahin’s winning entry below.

 

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A post shared by Shahin Fathi (@predexign)

Silver Winner – Colin Ginn

Colin Ginn secured the silver prize for his unique parametric chocolate chip cookie material. While the jury definitely found the material unique, they were impressed by the execution, the fact that it’s entirely parametric, and even the development animation that Colin created on his IG post. Jury member Janis Sne mentioned, “Collin did an outstanding job on this material challenge. I am very impressed by just looking at Collin’s Keyshot node material setup. He also made a great presentation, with a short animation of the texturing, that I highly appreciate. I think this designer really thought through everything and you can feel this love & passion into each 3D image.” The jury collectively also agreed that there was immense potential to adapt this material into a rocky, muddy ground material.
View Colin’s winning entry below.

 

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A post shared by Colin Ginn (@colin_ginn)

Bronze Winner – Nacho Riesco

The bronze prize was awarded to Nacho Riesco for his ‘cracked gold leaf on wood’ material. The material combined the best of both worlds, a realistic wooden texture and a cracked gold film on top. Jury member Preeti Jesudoss appreciated the “worn edges and organic-looking cracks” on the material and the jury collectively believed that the material also could potentially be used in creative art direction and even in fashion design applications.
View Nacho’s winning entry below.

 

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A post shared by Nacho •_• Riesco (@esculturadigital15)

Click Here to know more about KeyShot 11

The post Yanko Design and KeyShot announce the winners of the Material Design Challenge first appeared on Yanko Design.

I think the fact that YouTube has a selection of videos on ‘hilarious stretcher fails’ is proof enough that the current hospital stretcher is mildly problematic. The fabric ones are a little outdated, and the rigid plastic/metal ones don’t really do much to protect the patient from accidental drops. Designed by Yu-Hsin Wu, a student at Taiwan’s Shih Chien University, the Inflatable Stretcher provides a much more secure way to transport patients from the location of the incident to a hospital. Almost like wrapping someone in bubble-wrap, the Inflatable Stretcher cushions patients and even secures them in place with its unique design. Besides, it even comes with its own first-aid kit to help treat injuries that require immediate attention.

Designer: Yu-Hsin Wu

Armed with an inflator that helps you set the stretcher up in seconds, the Inflatable Stretcher serves a few key purposes. For starters, it’s a lot more comfortable than your average stretcher, given that it’s filled with air.  The stretcher also comes with side flaps that inflate to secure your head and body in position, making sure you don’t accidentally fall from the stretcher or move too much while in transit. Moreover (and most importantly), the stretcher’s inflated, almost human-enveloping design provides a great deal of stress-relief with the way it virtually hugs the patient (unlike the harnesses on regular stretchers that feel almost like you’re being restrained).

The stretcher comes with a rather compact design, but opens up into a fully-functional bed that’s large enough for one human. Each Inflatable Stretcher also comes with its own pump, a vacuum splint for fractures, and a first-aid kit for treating any wounds that may require immediate attention.

The Inflatable Stretcher is a winner of the Golden Pin Design Award for the year 2022.

The post Award-winning inflatable stretcher design helps secure and protect patients in transit first appeared on Yanko Design.