London’s Design Museum Awards 'Designs of the Year 2014'

London’s Design Museum recently announced the winners for every category of the Designs of the Year 2014. 

The award-giving body, which is organized every year, is set to recognize the best, the most original and the most innovative works in design in seven categories, namely architecture, digital design, fashion design, furniture design, graphic design, product design and transport.

This year’s panel of judges include Ben Terett, Ekow Eshun and Kim Colin.

The Best in Architectural Design was awarded to Heydar Aliyev Center in Baku, Azerbaijian. This structure which is made-up of undulating and elaborate forms that integrate into the multifunctional building was designed by Zaha Hadid and Patrick Schumacher.

PEEK or Portable Eye Examination Kit developed by Dr. Andrew Bastawrous, Stewart Jordan, Dr. Mario Giardini and Dr. Iain Livingstone is the awardee for the best in Digital Design category. PEEK is a user-friendly smartphone application which can help the user conduct a portable and comprehensive eye examination.

For Fashion, the Prada Spring/Summer 2014 Collection took the award. Miuccia Prada created a collection of structured shapes with sporty details and pop-art prints which proved to be bold and very powerful. 

Konstantin Grcic’s Pro Chair Family was proclaimed to be the Best in Furniture Design. It features state of the art ergonomics wherein the chair does not only allow movements in different directions but also helps the user get a more comfortable and healthier seating position through its design.

The installation series of a full-scale military drone called Drone Shadows by James Bridle took the awards in the Graphic Design category. The installation was already shown in different countries including USA, the UK, and Brazil.

The Seaboard Grand by Roland Lam and Hong-Yeul Eom took the Product Design Award. The Seaboard is a reinvented piano keyboard wherein the keys are represented as soft waves. The resulting design is a beautiful combination of traditional handcrafted and contemporary minimalism. 

For Transport Design, Volkswagen’s XL1 Car was hailed best in its category. It is by far the most efficient liquid-fuelled car to be produced currently. It can run at a constant speed of 100 km/hour with just 8.4 PS to sustain it.

All winning entries as well as the shortlisted projects for this year’s awards are currently being exhibited at the London Design Museum until August 25. The winners for this year will be awarded on June 30 at St. Martins Lane Hotel in London.