A Handful of Our Favorites from the Core77 Design Awards
As designers, we always like to check out the latest design competitions. The 2014 Core77 Award Winners were recently selected and a handful of the winners that caught our eye are mentioned below.
SOMA WATER FILTER AND CARAFE
Designed by Michael Miller, IDSA, Ryan Hall, IDSA, and Bennett Daley of Radius Product Development; and Markus Diebel and Joe Tan of Moreless for Soma.
Current water filter pitchers perform a valuable function, but you don’t think of them as eco-friendly design objects, and you certainly wouldn’t put one out at a dinner party. Soma wants to change that. Soma is a modern and elegant glass carafe with a compostable water filter, delivered right to your door via subscription service. Not only does it deliver the best hydration experience, but the all-natural filter takes advantage of sustainable materials, Malaysian coconut shell carbon and silk, all in a plant-based filter casing.
Soma creates a balance between a water filter that has functionality, maintains a simple and elegant design language, and stays true to sustainable design.
DS4800 SERIES BAR CODE SCANNER
Having worked with Zebra on several different bar code scanners, both portable and desktop, we were intrigued by the DS4800 Series Bar Code Scanner. It is a bar code scanner for retail and hospitality markets that offers style and function. It is a very impressive design, with a great form factor, that definitely catches your eye. The developers said that every element of the existing bar code experience was reconsidered including the lights, behaviors, and sounds. They were not only trying to promote the customers brand, but also improve the value of a product which many customers view as a commodity. We would love to test this one out for ourselves.
CARTON HOUSE
Every semester, a group of students and faculty from the University of Massachusetts embark on a task of sustainable proportions, otherwise known as the Semester in Sustainable Design/Build program. Their project from Fall 2013, Carton House, was recently named a Professional Notable in the Educational Initiatives category of the 2014 Core77 Design Awards. That specific semester, 11 students and three faculty members were assigned to help their client in Bennington, Vermont, take on a more sustainable lifestyle through the home she lived in and worked from.
Drawing on client needs, transportation constraints, and environmental responsibility, students defined priorities for a small, flexible dwelling. In just 16 weeks, the team designed a 350 s.f. mobile home that also incorporates an office space for group or individual therapy sessions. The Carton House balances aesthetics and feasibility while creating a space that is highly functional for their client.
MULTI DINE HIGH CHAIR
We like this chair. Not only is the design innovative in style, but it provides solutions for different development stages of the child by being able to serve as three different products: a high chair, booster and junior chair. Seems like something every parent needs. The shape allows for quick transformation between the different seating options and for compact storage of legs and accessories, thus saving much needed space. The seat cover can be easily and quickly detached, washed and dried due to its flexible polymer material.
TINK
We like hearing about the innovative ways children can interact with and learn about the world around us. Tink is a child-friendly toolkit that allows kids to engage with familiar objects in new ways. The kit includes six sensors (light, sound, tilt, vibration, motion, temperature), six plugs, and an iPad application that connects the sensors with the plugs. Using Tink, kids can control items in their environments using sensory input, such as “if dad comes home, surprise him with his favorite song,” or “if someone opens my diary, scare them with a sound.”
It does not require any physical or electronic connections, which makes it even more appealing. Its designed to be implemented in your own environment and with devices and objects that surround you. It’s a great tool for a wide range of ages and encourages strategic thinking for kids.
To learn more about these projects, as well as the other winners of the Core77 Design Awards, check out their site here.
Top
