03
December
2014
|
18:00
Europe/Amsterdam

1,171 designers compete for the third lexus design award

  • 1,171 submissions from 72 countries received from August 11 to November 3 through Designboom
  • Selection of finalists by judges and mentors started on 24 Nov at INTERSECT Tokyo. Finalists to be announced in January 2015
  • Exhibition of finalists, judging and announcement of grand prix winner to be held at Milan Design Week 2015

On November 24, 2014, judges and mentors for the Lexus Design Award 2015 gathered at INTERSECT BY LEXUS Tokyo to assess this year's 1,171 submissions from 72 countries. Lexus International issued a short video illustrating this roundtable discussion, which can be seen at the following address: http://youtu.be/SFPlP_A8YRw

The Lexus Design Award competition was first launched in 2013. This international competition aims to foster young creators that use design to solve problems. The award has received worldwide attention for its unique mentoring program that enables entrants to produce working prototypes of their innovative ideas.

The Lexus Design Award chooses themes that encourage broad thinking. The theme of the Lexus Design Award 2015 is "Senses". Senses are intrinsic to life: they allow perception of the world. Under this broad theme of seeing, hearing, feeling, smelling and tasting, a wide range of possibilities open.

Respondents are invited to explore the five senses in pioneering ways. Judging criteria include the depth of understanding and unique interpretation of the competition theme, as well as the uniqueness of perspective and originality of the proposed design concept.

This theme is particularly relevant to Lexus, as the whole driving experience is about senses: from seeing the vehicle styling, to hearing the sound of the finely tuned engine, and to feeling the luxurious leather seats.

The Lexus Design Award provides an opportunity for twelve finalists and their works to receive wide exposure in the design community and beyond. The finalists will be announced in January 2015 with their entries to be exhibited at Milan Design Week 2015.

In addition, four of the finalists — twice as many as last year — will receive support from international design mentors as they develop their prototypes. This year's mentors will be architect/engineer Arthur Huang, game designer Robin Hunicke, architects and interdisplinary designers Neri & Hu and designer Max Lamb. The designers of the four entries will create prototypes between January and March 2015 through sessions with their assigned mentors. Financial support of up to 2.5 million yen each will be provided to cover prototype production costs.

At Milan Design Week 2015, the creators of the four prototypes will present their designs at the Lexus booth, after which a single Grand Prix winner will be named.

The jury includes curator Paola Antonelli, curator Aric Chen, architect Toyo Ito, designboom chief editor Birgit Lohmann, design commentator Alice Rawsthorn and Lexus International president Tokuo Fukuichi.

More details can be found on the following webpage: http://www.lexus-int.com/design/lda/