Locus Research Programme Director Blythe Rees-Jones was selected to Judge the Annual Design Awards simply entitled 'the Bests'. He tracks the Judging process through for the uninitiated below:
The Best Design Awards is the annual showcase of excellence in graphic, spatial, product and interactive design. And this year was no different to previous years – the ideas and creativity on showcase was exceptional. This year Programme Director Blythe Rees-Jones was a Judge
Last week the product judges which included Jamie McLellan (of Studio Jamie McLellan), Amanda Wilkinson (from MillieWilko), Rick Fala (CEO at Methven), Dr. Isaac Flitta (Senior Lecturer and Programme Director at Unitec) and myself assembled in Auckland for two intense days of judging. Things kicked off with a great evening on Wednesday where all of the judges across all design disciplines met with the key sponsors for the awards (by the way thanks guys for all your support, I know that your support is well received by the design community).
On Thursday (Day 1) the hard work started. The Student section was first and there were an incredible number of entries (65 student entries), among them were some really cool ideas and designs that looked like very interesting university projects. The Conceptual & Experimental design category was next after some site visits, before we judged Consumer and Design Object categories. On Day 2 (Friday) we recapped over earlier thoughts from the previous day before judging Furniture, Non-Consumer, and the Sustainable Design entries (intense!).
The process was interesting and professionally supported by DINZ. All 130 entries were studied in detail and well considered for their context, use and function, materials, manufacturing, quality, aesthetics stylec and overall design intent, not to mention their environmental credentials.
This process provided a lot of discussion between judges before each made their scoring to arrive at a selection of entries worthy of carrying the mantel of the Best NZ Product Designs for 2011. Much of the work entered this year was of a very high standard which made the process tough (I was absolutely exhausted by the time I left Auckland Friday evening).
As for winning entries and the best of – well my lips are sealed and you will have to wait until the awards ceremony on the 7th October. What I can say is there is some fantastic work coming out of NZ right now of a truly world class standard. Keep up the great work! For more details visit the Best Awards website: http://bestawards.co.nz/about/
