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“X” Marks The Spot! #20
By Le Vin Chin, with additional material by Ania Dardas
Two issues ago, we talked about how the integration of design and design precepts into strategic corporate activities is a necessary element in a company’s commercial success. Chances are, in your company, the word “innovation” is used a lot more often than “design” in prefiguring what’s essential for continued business success. However, Bruce Nussbaum argues in his Business Week article that “transformation” should replace “innovation” as the underlying, guiding concept behind industry. Do you agree? Or is it simply the semantic degradation of the meaning of “innovation” which has made it lose its luster?
The London Design Museum has announced their list of shortlisted candidates for the Brit Insurance Design Awards. The shortlist represents a great overview of the state of design today, in the fields of architecture, products, fashion, furniture, transportation and interactive and graphic design. Category winners will be announced at the end of February and the overall 2009 Brit Insurance Design of the Year winner will be announced on March 18, 2009.
We were pleased to see three designers we’ve recently featured also up for contention on this list. Shay Alkalay of Raw Edges’ Stack chest of drawers was nominated in the Furniture category; Singgih S. Kartono’s Magno wooden radio (featured in our review of Decorate Life: Tendence Autumn + Winter 2008) was nominated in the Product category; and Helen Storey was showing off her biodegradable materials right next to our stand at 100% Design last September.
Some other people we’ve featured have also been in the news recently. Jen Stark, whose colorful and mathematically beautiful cut-paper artwork was featured in INMYX 4, appears in a clip on YouTube. And the Magno wooden radio, again, has won a 2009 Design Plus award (to be presented at Ambiente)!
Researching Jen Stark’s work brought us to the You Thought We Wouldn’t Notice site – where blatant rip-offs of original design work are named and shamed. (To be clear, Stark was a victim, not a perpetrator!) A great platform for designers struggling for recognition!
With our interview with Dan Pache fresh in our minds, this month’s other featured websites are all about logo design. Logo Design Love is a blog with logo-related news and reviews. Check out the lively discussions at the end of every post! Meanwhile, Logo Lounge is a logo database with curated articles and features on the member designers. Check out especially the fascinating articles on logo trends of the past years.
Within just three seasons and one year, the Mercedes Benz Berlin Fashion week has already managed to establish itself as a must-go-to event. Being held from January 28 to February 1 at Bebelplatz right in the historic heart of Berlin, the event will showcase a long list of top designers, from Strenesse Blue and Sisi Wasabi though Joop! to Boss Black, Felder-Felder and UGG Australia – clearly something for everyone. This mix of established and up-and-coming national and international designers has turned out to be a very attractive proposition for buyers. It is complemented by the Premium, Stark and ProjektGalerie tradeshows as well as numerous offsite events throughout Berlin.