Home NEWS DesignEuropa announces Lifetime Achievement Award winner

DesignEuropa announces Lifetime Achievement Award winner

Oct 23, 2018

Eight finalist designs shortlisted, representing the best of European industrial and product design
Lifetime Achievement Award winner is Hartmut Esslinger, renowned for his collaboration with Steve Jobs and Apple
The DesignEuropa Award ceremony takes place in Warsaw on 27 November 2018

The DesignEuropa Awards finalists in the Industry and Small and Emerging Companies categories are revealed today, along with the winner of the Lifetime Achievement Award.

The DesignEuropa Awards are organised by the European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO), and celebrate excellence in design and design management among Registered Community Design (RCD) holders.

The DesignEuropa Awards have three categories: Industry; Small and Emerging Companies and Lifetime Achievement. The finalists and the winner of the Lifetime Achievement Award were chosen by the DesignEuropa Awards jury; a prestigious panel drawn from the fields of business, design and intellectual property.

The winners of the Industry and Small and Emerging Companies categories will be announced on 27 November, at the DesignEuropa Awards ceremony in Warsaw. On that date, the Lifetime Achievement Award will be presented to one of the most influential industrial designers of the late 20^th and early 21^st centuries, Hartmut Esslinger.

Commenting on the finalist selection, the jury Chairwoman, Luisa Bocchietto, said:

“Choosing eight finalists from so many excellent entries was a challenging but rewarding task for our jury. The finalist designs all contribute to their companies’ performance and represent good intellectual property rights management, as well as having high levels of aesthetic value.”

The Executive Director of the European Union Intellectual Property Office, Christian Archambeau, said:

“Our eight excellent finalists showcase the variety of industrial design and its application across a wide range of economic sectors. This is testament to the importance of design as a valuable business asset, and as a motor of job creation and economic growth. Our Lifetime Achievement winner Hartmut Esslinger has shown, through his extraordinary career, the impact that one European designer can have in the USA, in Asia and at global level. His life and work underline the transformative power of design, not just for one industry but for the world.”

The finalist designs in the Industry category are:

ARTIS pheno robotic C-arm angiography system (RCD owner and manufacturer: Siemens Healthcare GmbH; designer: Nadja Roth (in-house design) and Tobias Reese (at-design GbR):

The jury appreciated the consistency of design language in this product, as well as the overall composition, both of which are oriented around patient needs. The ARTIS pheno’s design allows medical staff to perform procedures with optimal access to the patient, and helps to combat infection and increase patient safety.

Docks modular outdoor furniture (RCD owner and manufacturer: Gandía Blasco S.A.; designer: Romero Vallejo):

Gandía Blasco is a well-known presence in the outdoor furniture market, and the Docks design allows users to easily create different furniture arrangements within the set, according to their tastes and needs. The jury underlined the rich range of compositions that could be created with a relatively small number of modules.

Intercom smart video doorbell (RCD owner and manufacturer: Fibar Group, S.A.; designer: Maciej Fiedler):

Developed by FIBARO, a Polish-based company which operates in the Internet of Things sector, Intercom allows users to remotely manage access to their homes via high quality, full HD video using a very wide angle camera. The jury highlighted the integration of digital technologies with new functionalities and formal solutions in this design.

Origami folding radiator (RCD owner and manufacturer: Tubes Radiatori SrL; designer: Alberto Meda):

Inspired by the Japanese art of origami, the product is an extendable, foldable radiator from a design-intensive company with a strong presence in this sector at European and international level. The quality of the design application and the dynamic nature and flexibility of the product’s design were both praised by the jury

The finalist designs in the Small and Emerging Companies category are:

Air.Go.2.0 automatic bag drop solution for airports (RCD owner: Marcus P Holding, manufacturer: Marcus Pederson ApS; designer: Sara Clement):

Air.Go.2.0 is a fully automatic self-service bag drop solution, which helps airports remove queues in the check-in area. The jury highlighted the design of the product as “catering to a user need and solving a problem,” and underlined how the design merged with its environment, for the benefit of the end user.

Braster in-home breast examination system (RCD owner and manufacturer: Braster S.A.; designers: Arif Veendijk, Grzegorz Ciupiński, Jakub Oller, Jeroen de Graaf, Michał Biernat, Reiner Halbertsma, Rogier Braak, Sander Patje):

The Braster System allows women to perform reliable, painless and effective breast examination in the comfort of their homes. The device monitors distribution of temperature in the breast tissue and records areas of higher temperatures, which may indicate malignant changes which should be diagnosed further. The system consists of the Braster device, mobile app and AI algorithms for automatic interpretation of the result in the telemedical centre. The jury appreciated the user-friendly functionality of the product and its modern design.

Loclock bicycle parking system (RCD owner and manufacturer: Durbanis SLU; designer: Alex Fernández Camps):

Loclock is a bicycle parking system, designed to be highly resistant and durable, with smooth, soft surfaces to reduce stress and damage to bicycle frames. It is available in six different colours, and is very easy to install. The jury praised the simplicity and functionality of the design.

Nico Less chair (RCD owner and manufacturer: DONAR d.o.o.; designer: Primož Jeza):

The Nico Less is a simple, but unique, chair made of felt (70% of which is made from recycled plastic bottles). The chair’s shape is achieved by a combination of heat and pressure, to produce a comfortable design that adapts to the shape of the human body. The jury underlined the product’s sustainability and ease of use.

The Lifetime Achievement Award winner: Hartmut Esslinger

The DesignEuropa Lifetime Achievement Award will be presented to Hartmut Esslinger, a German industrial designer with a global career spanning five decades. Perhaps best known for his creation of the “Snow White” design language for Apple in the 1980s, Mr Esslinger’s motto has always been “form follows emotion.”

From his early days creating products for Wega and Sony to his close collaboration with Steve Jobs at Apple, Mr Esslinger has blazed a trail as one of the world’s most influential and innovative design professionals. The design studio he founded in 1969, frog design, is now an international firm with a presence in 11 countries. Apart from Apple, he has worked with a huge array of international clients, including Disney, Siemens, Lufthansa and Louis Vuitton. After retiring from frog in 2006, he dedicated his time to teaching, latterly at the University of Shanghai in China. He has, in the assessment of the DesignEuropa Awards jury: “changed thinking on design, which has impacted the whole world.”