50 years on from its inception, the 20th BraunPrize 2018 took place last week [12th September 2018] and saw 10 finalists present their design concepts to a live Jury, including legendary industrial designer and former Braun Design Director, Dieter Rams, at Braun’s Innovation Centre in Kronberg. The award ceremony, a culmination of the yearlong entry and judging process, gave prizes worth a total of $75,000 to exceptional talents, and marks five decades of Braun celebrating and promoting creativity and good design.
This year’s competition challenged creative minds to develop designs that really matter; those that can improve and innovate, and put the focus back on what is really essential in today’s increasingly complex world in order to create better solutions and experiences. 2018 saw more submissions than ever, with 3,087 entrants coming from 107 counties, marking a record year for BraunPrize, the longest running international prize for product design concepts.
Established in 1968 by Erwin Braun, the premise of BraunPrize is as relevant today as it was then: to nurture and support young, up-and-coming designers and inventors that take on the challenge of making the world a better place with their creativity and craft. BraunPrize Chairman, and Braun Design Director, Oliver Grabes, says: “We have seen record participation for BraunPrize 2018. This fantastic result showcases the increasing relevance of good design that matters in today’s and tomorrow’s world. This is what we seek to support, because it is close to our hearts and our brand.”
BraunPrize 2018: The Journey So Far
BraunPrize 2018 has bestowed 10 Awards across two categories – Students and Young Talent. An international Jury of top design and technology experts came together in June 2018 to evaluate all the entries and create a shortlist of 10 finalists who were chosen to present their concepts at the Final Judging Forum on 12th September 2018. In addition, the jury also selected fifty further outstanding projects that they felt deserved recognition as ‘Special Mentions’, to be displayed in the BraunPrize exhibition.
Of the judging process, Alexandra Deschamps-Sonsino, Designer, Consultant and IOT Expert and 2018 BraunPrize Jury Member, says: “The competition has attracted talent from all over the world. Different continents, different types of universities and different types of young talent – and the BraunPrize has brought all that to the table for us to look at.”
Stefan Schamberg, Director R&D for Braun Global, Managing Director of R&D for P&G and BraunPrize 2018 Jury Member adds: “There are a lot of things the entrants have addressed in the area of social responsibility, health and concern about the future of the world. I was overwhelmed with the impression of how responsible these people are and what is really important to them.”
BraunPrize 2018: The Winners
At the Final Judging Forum, each finalist was invited to present their product design concepts to the BraunPrize 2018 Jury, as well as a selected audience of over 100 guest jurors from companies, universities and media in the field of design and innovation. Live voting then took place for the Forum to select the final Gold, Silver, Bronze and Sustainability winners.
In the Student category, advancements in health and the environment were chosen as the deserving Finalists. WIM was awarded the Gold Prize of $15,000. The Silver Prize of $10,000 went to Otto, and finally, Pluvo was chosen as the Bronze Prize winner of $5,000.
The Winning Student Product Concepts:
Gold: WIM, by Thomas Helmer and Jenny Holmsten
Silver: Otto, by Gabriel Uggla, Selvi Ol-gac and Birnur Sahin
Bronze: Pluvo, by Lewis Hornby, Nicholas Hooton and Claudia Arnold
GOLD – WIM, by Thomas Helmer and Jenny Holmsten, is a new type of interactive stroke therapy, designed to empower and support patients’ recovery at home. Thanks to its tracking armband, it offers advanced personalised therapy, and a shared application enables constant communication between the patient and therapist, helping to make therapy fun and interesting for the patient throughout the lengthy period of home recovery.
SILVER – Otto, by Gabriel Uggla, Selvi Ol-gac and Birnur Sahin, is designed to improve the daily management of asthma through streamlining the process of monitoring, logging and medicating into one seamless experience. Otto guides users through the process using lights and sounds to take measurements and adjust medicine dosage all through the same mouthpiece, as well as logging the data into the patient’s digital journal.
BRONZE- Pluvo, by Lewis Hornby, Nicholas Hooton and Claudia Arnold, is a cost neutral solution to urban air pollution. The patent pending technology uses an enclosed mist of water droplets to remove dangerous pollutants from the air, and pays for itself by using this mist to create a stunning new holographic-like advertising medium.
In the Young Talent category, innovation in children’s health and environmental improvements were the focus of the Finalists chosen by the Jury.
The Winning Young Talent Product Concepts:
Gold: ASHA, by Peter Alwin
Silver: Colo, by Matus Chlpek
Bronze: INST.ant, by Andreas Munk
ASHA, by Peter Alwin, was honoured with the Gold Prize of $15,000. ASHA is a device designed to monitor low birth weight babies in rural India. This simple portable device measures the baby’s weight and temperature using an in-built digital weighing scale powered by solar cells and a non-touch infrared thermometer to avoid cross contamination. The baby’s growth progress can be closely monitored and ensures timely, local care in the child’s crucial early weeks.
The Silver Prize of $10,000 was awarded to Colo, by Matus Chlpek. Colo is a new concept of sneakers designed to correct foot deformities and improve bad walking habits aimed at children between three and 12 years old. The design consists of shoes, a smartphone app and custom 3D printed insoles and the main feature of Colo is that the sole is designed to passively track walking habits either visually or more precisely through the app. It is a playful solution for children with foot health issues and also a product with a message that everybody is different and such diversity should be embraced.
And finally, the Bronze Prize winner of $5,000 was announced as INST.ant, by Andreas Munk. INST.ant is a trunk concept that turns every bicycle into a cargo bike, to overcome the storage benefits offered by cars and encourage people to use bikes more often. The folding technique of the trailer is based on the telescope principle, and its very compact design means it is available at any time without disturbing cycling – allowing transport of loads up to 50kg.
The Sustainability Category is a new addition to the BraunPrize 2018, in acknowledgement of Braun’s philosophy of ‘less is more’ and recognition that sustainability really matters in today’s world.
In the Student Category, Ö was awarded the first prize of $5,000, and ACORN the second prize of $2,500.
Ö, by Constance Richard, is a sustainable humanitarian aid, designed to make contaminated water drinkable. It is an open source project for filtering unhealthy water, using low technologies in the form of a ceramic filer and a sand filter, which eliminates pathogens present in the water to give people the necessary conditions to regain their autonomy.
ACORN, by Liye Zhang, Xucheng Yan, Zihan Xie, Ximing Jiang and Jiaqing Zhang, is an urban greening landscape for desert cities. This fertilizer-compressed sheet can provide fertilizer to plants after ACORN has been planted in the sand and has a strong ability to absorb and retain water. ACORN not only reduces the cost of afforestation is desert areas, but also improves planting efficiency and beautification.
In the Young Talent category, FIYLTER was awarded the first prize of $5,000, and Wireframe the second prize of $2,500.
FIYLTER, by Simon Desnerck, is a DIY microplastics filter for washing machines designed to reduce the microplastic fibres that end up in the ocean through the washing of synthetic clothes. The FIYLTER solution is like a manual for a filter system that mixes and matches components that are cheap and accessible to most people, allowing people to adjust it to their own needs and requirements in order to get as many people as possible filtering their washing machine’s waste water and reduce the ‘plastic soup’ of our oceans.
Wireframe, by Ben Körös, helps villagers in developing countries to build and maintain affordable wind turbines, in order to generate enough electricity and set up an essential communication network. This allows them to talk to each other via radio, warn the next village in case of emergency and share weather forecasts, as well as giving them light after sunset, allowing them to have more productive hours each day.
In a world full of clutter, complexities and concerns, the design principles at the heart of Braun – functionality, quality, simplicity and durability – are more important than ever. Through continuing to champion good design, and promoting the role of industrial design in overcoming the challenges modern life presents, Braun and the BraunPrize aim to give a platform to young talent to ensure the next generation of designers continue Braun’s mission of creating design for what matters.
See https://www.braunprize.org/en/for more information.