Design of the Year 2013: People’s Choice
2013 has seen the first opportunity for the public to vote for their Design of the Year at the Design Museum. From an impressive and wide ranging 99 entries to choose from, the exhibition threw power to the people to choose their favourite product of 2012/2013.
The public chose a product that is at once heartwarming and genuinely amazing in its simple innovation. The Child ViSion glasses feature a revolutionary fluid-filled lens that allows children to self-adjust the prescription of their glasses. It is aimed at children aged 12-18, as this age is when vision can be at its most volatile. The obvious benefits of a product which fulfils a basic and vital need - empowering children to see - won out over high profile projects such as Renzo Piano's Shard in London.
The public chose a product that is at once heartwarming and genuinely amazing in its simple innovation. The Child ViSion glasses feature a revolutionary fluid-filled lens that allows children to self-adjust the prescription of their glasses. It is aimed at children aged 12-18, as this age is when vision can be at its most volatile. The obvious benefits of a product which fulfils a basic and vital need - empowering children to see - won out over high profile projects such as Renzo Piano's Shard in London.
Their designer, Professor Josh Silver, says:
'We are delighted to have won the Visitor Vote [...] Our challenge now is to get these glasses to the tens of millions of children whose education is hampered by their inability to see a blackboard in class clearly - a problem our self-refraction glasses will solve.'
The Visitor Vote section of the Design of the Year exhibition consisted of a giant grid where visitors identified their favourite nomination using stickers. This was a nod to the Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama's interactive installation at the Tate Modern in 2012, whereby visitors were asked to participate in the transformation of an entirely white space with multi-coloured stickers.
The overall winner of Design of the Year 2013, as voted by a panel of critics in April this year, was the new Government website GOV.UK - featuring a clean and simple interface allowing the public to access information with ease (See Jeremy Till's exclusive comment on this decision). Both the critic's vote and the popular vote - as well as several shortlisted designs - have in common an empowering agenda - enabling the greatest number of people to benefit from good design.
Celebrating the best of projects across a wide range of disciplines, the seven category winners for 2013 are:
- Architecture: TOUR BOIS-LE-PRÊTRE, PARIS - Designed by Frédéric Druot, Anne Lacaton and Jean-Philippe Vassal
- Digital: GOV.UK WEBSITE - Designed by Government Digital Service
- Fashion: DIANA VREELAND: THE EYE HAS TO TRAVEL - a documentary film directed by Lisa Immordino Vreeland
- Furniture: MEDICI CHAIR - Designed by Konstantin Grcic for Mattiazzi
- Graphics: VENICE ARCHITECTURE BIENNALE IDENTITY - Designed by John Morgan Studio
- Products: KIT YAMOYO - Designed by ColaLife and PI Global
- Transport: MORPH FOLDING WHEEL - Designed by Vitamins for Maddak Inc.
Grace Quah
