19
January
2023
|
10:00
Europe/Amsterdam

LEXUS DESIGN AWARD PROVIDES UNIQUE GLOBAL PLATFORM TO LAUNCH CAREER SUCCESS

  • Hideki Yoshimoto, first winner of the first Lexus Design Award in 2013 gives a personal insight into how the competition helps new creatives develop their talents and realise their ambitions
  • Finalists in the 2023 Lexus Design Award to be announced on February 2nd  

As the Lexus Design Award prepares to announce its 2023 finalists on February 2nd at 06:00am CET, the competition’s status as a unique platform for emerging talent has been reaffirmed by its first winner. Hideki Yoshimoto features in a new short film, available to view below here, giving insights into how the award helped him build a successful international career, and the unique opportunities it offers today’s young designers.

Yoshimoto received the Lexus Design Award in 2013 for his distinctive and original lighting installation INAHO, inspired by golden rice paddy fields moving in the wind. Since that success, he has established Tangent, a London-based design and engineering studio, working on projects for major international business clients.

Reflecting on his experience winning the award, he highlights the special value of being able to work with some of the world’s best-respected and most experienced designers as mentors. Each year, the finalists are personally supported by a team of mentors who help them craft their concept into a design prototype.

“The mentoring session was great and unique. Like most of the finalists, I was a student at the time and had never seen or experienced how a professional designer thinks or works,” says Yoshimoto.

“The uniqueness of the Lexus Design Award is that it gives the winner the opportunity to start their career. I started Tangent as a business in 2016 but in fact was using the name from 2013, so it was also born when I won the award. My advice to the winners is to make use of the experience. You are on the top-level stage of the design industry with many people looking at your ideas and expecting what comes next from you. Make the most of this achievement and the opportunity Lexus has given you.”

Yoshimoto now has a lasting legacy in the Lexus Design Award, having been commissioned to design a new trophy for the competition in 2020.

Hideki Yoshimoto
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