A’Design Award and Competition is one of the most relevant and respected design contests.
Every year they assign awards to the best designs in a wide range of categories, and designers from all over the world compete to win the coveted platinum award.
In this post we want to share with you our favorite picks out of the winners for the 2013 edition.
If you are a designer and you wish to participate to the next year awards, you are still in time for submitting your works to the competition. Entries are closing on February, 28th, and we will publish further winners on April 15, 2014.
If you want to know more about everything regarding the Awards, just take a look at their official website: designaward.com.
But now let’s take a look at our favorite winners for this year’s edition.
As usual, let us know your opinion and your favorite designs in the comments.
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Platinum Award Winners
Architecture, Building and Structure Design:
The Ring House and Atelier by Marwan Zgheib
An house-atelier designed to match the desires of a young Saudi jewelry artist, who wished to have a private living and working space. This building is located in her family’s main residence garden.
Graphics and Advertising Design:
Nankin Lab by Pau Garcia
We’ve found this corporate design for the design studio Nankin Lab absolutely unique. Their philosophy is considering destruction as a constructive weapon, and we must say that their corporate design totally matches their motto.
Packaging Design:
Leuven Beer Packaging by Wonchan Lee
This is by far the most incredible beer design we’ve ever seen. They managed to differentiate themselves from the competition, realizing this unique ice bag-inspired packaging, that also has some side advantages: it’s lighter, not breakable and it’s production is way cheaper than the classic glass bottles.
Packaging Design:
Blue Goose Product Packaging by Sid Lee
This is a state-of-the-art product packaging. They have succeeded in elevating mere meat packaging to a whole new level. Blue Goose is specialized in high-quality products and their new packaging absolutely matches their target.
Bathroom Furniture and Sanitary Ware Design:
Up Bathroom Collection by Emanuele Pangrazi
This is exactly the bathroom we’d like to have in our house. The whole concept revolves around the slightly tilted lines that you can find as a common denominator in various elements of this design.
Street Furniture Design:
Smartstreets-Cyclepark™ Transformational Bike Parking by Chris Garcin and Andrew Farish Smartstreets Ltd
A clever street furniture project born to fix the problem of unauthorized bicycle parking. As the pavement is not disturbed during the installation, it’s a non invasive and inexpensive way to add bicycle parking spots to the city. Smartstreets-Cyclepark are being deployed across the UK and Local Authorities are in favor of this solution.
Graphics and Advertising Design:
Nissan Calendar 2013 Calendar by E-Graphics Communications
The yearly calendar of the popular car manufacturer Nissan. The 2013 edition, inspired as usual by the brand’s tagline Excitement unlike any other, is the result of the collaboration with the amazing dance-painting artist Saori Kanda.
Golden Award Winners
Architecture, Building and Structure Design:
Organic Cities by Luca Curci
We’ve been totally impressed by Luca Curci’s Organic Cities. Wether it’s probably a “love it or hate it” project (like every extreme concept), in our opinion it’s esthetically really pleasing.
Interior Space and Exhibition Design:
Times Bund Clubhouse Club House by Kris Lin
Located in Guanghzhou, China, this is a clubhouse concept that breaks the traditional horizontal and vertical space vision, and approaches interior design in an innovative way. We personally fell in love with the sports area, with a basketball court that is probably one of the finest we’ve ever seen.
Building Materials, Construction Components, Structures and Systems Design:
Piano Design Switch by David Dos Santos
Raise your hand if you wouldn’t like to have one of these switches on display at your place. Elegant, minimal, built with the finest materials. In this case the word “Piano” has a double meaning: it’s the Italian word for “flat” and it obviously also recalls the shape of a piano.
Furniture, Decorative Items and Homeware Design:
Anti-Loneliness Ramen Bowl by Daisuke Nagatomo
This is one of the products that we definitely’d like to own: a ramen bowl that also works as an iPhone stand. Truth be told, we don’t eat a lot of noodles at home, so we’d probably use it as a breakfast cup for milk and cereals. Nevertheless, it’s still a great concept for us.
Street Furniture Design:
Nessie by George Drakakis
Street furniture often looks ugly, but this is not the case of Nessie, an urban bench that could beautify every grey and flat town. We totally love its sinuous shape, and we’d definitely like to see it in our city.
Vehicle, Mobility and Transportation Design:
Icon E-Flyer by Jonathan Ward
An electric bicycle that at a first sight looks like a vintage motorcycle. But look closer: the details of this design communicate that this is more a revisitation of a classic motorcycle in a modern context. Jonathan Ward has been maniacal about details, and the quality of the final product is incredibly high.
Architecture, Building and Structure Design:
W Doha Hotel & Residences by Marwan Zgheib
It opened to the public in March 2009 as the W brand’s first signature hotel in the Middle East. With its unique design it stands out in the West Bay area of Doha.
Silver Award Winners
Interior Space and Exhibition Design:
House in Shatin Residential Design by Michael Liu
When you first look at this stylish Hong Kong house you are probably going to think it’s just a cool modern construction. You’d be partially right, in fact esthetics apart, what’s incredible about this house is that the architects managed to transform an old-fashioned style house into a urban-style home entirely maintaining the original construction. Wouldn’t you love to live here?
Interior Space and Exhibition Design:
Nature Residence by Yu Wen Chiu
The main goal for Yu Wen Chiu and his company is creating spaces that could make you feel the relax and the sound of nature, and that’s why this Taiwanese house is called Nature Residence. The materials used, like wood and stone, make the lucky owners of the house feel like their habitation is completely merged with the surrounding nature.
Packaging Design:
Omni Clip Sustainable Shoe Holder by Young Joo Tak
A smart, eco-friendly shoes packaging. It eliminates the need of boxes and plastic bags and it’s made of 100% recycled PETG material. We love clever designs, and Omni Clip is definitely one of these.
Bronze Award Winners
Fashion and Travel Accessories Design:
Itrox Multifunctional Magnetic Bag For Tablets by Maurel Frederic
One of the most clever tablet bags we’ve seen so far. It’s equipped with 4 multi-stretchable pockets, so you can carry other devices like smartphones or even credit cards, passport or hard drives, keeping them safe inside the bag. It can stand up in 6 different positions and (how cool) it’s magnetic, so you won’t have to stuck your tablet in it but just gently lay it on the internal surface of the bag.
Bakeware, Tableware, Drinkware and Cookware Design:
Loa Coffee Cup Drink Coffee and Saucer by Josue Rivera Gandia
It’s difficult to think different about an object that has already been designed in almost every possible way, but Josue Rivera Gandia did it. He created this coffee cup designed in a way we’ve never seen before.
If you liked these designs and want to see more, here is the complete list of the winners from 2010 to 2013: A’ Design Award & competition’s Awarded Designs.
