Dutch Design Awards 2021 winners show design ‘power of change’

Impact on people, nature and society: these are the criteria that guided the jury of the Dutch Design Awards 2021, announced in Eindhoven during the Dutch Design Week (until October 24). The seven winners, the judges wrote in a statement, “mark new momentum for the design world with a lot of innovation and the power to change. This year’s winners emphasize that designers thrive on change and pollination. crossed and exude a hopeful optimism. ‘

Dutch Design Awards 2021 winners

Byborre Create

The Dutch Design Awards are divided into seven categories, covering creative disciplines ranging from product design to fashion and graphic design.

The winner of the product design category was Borre Akkersdijk, founder of the innovative textile label Byborre, for his project Byborre Create. The initiative is an accessible tool and platform that simplifies textile design for customers, prevents textile waste and enables creative freedom. “ByBorre Create clearly shows that an intrinsic problem in textile production can be solved, while paving the way for greater innovation,” said the jury.

“Stay sane, stay safe” by Studio Lennarts & De Bruijn

The award in the communication category went to Studio Lennarts & De Bruijn for their “Stay Sane, Stay Safe” campaign, developed at the start of the pandemic as an open platform for users to upload, download , print or share posters. The project has so far brought together 2,200 posters from 87 countries and has been described as “an outlet for designers and anyone who needs a little support”. The initiative, said the jury, “shows how valuable the responsive role of designers can be in the times.”

The Wadden marker. Photography: Théo Baart

The Marker Wadden (an artificial archipelago developed within Lake Markermeer) won the award in the habitat category, as “urgent and exemplary project; an impressive and non-human approach which largely leaves nature to shape the landscape ”. The newly developed nature reserve has been developed with nature itself and consists of five islands with marshes and shallow waters protected by two rows of dunes, with the aim of recovering the ecology and biodiversity of the region.

Warenhuis flyer

Created by Raw Color, Popma ter Steege Architects and Buro Bordo, the Circulair Warenhuis is a project in collaboration with the largest second-hand store in the Netherlands, created to explore new ways of reusing everyday objects in collaboration with de great designers such as Max Lipsey and Studio Makkink & Bey. The project involved more than three million kilograms of merchandise from the store, which was then reused in scalable furniture designs. “It is the application of design in its broadest sense,” reads a statement from the nominating jury. “The Circulair Warenhuis is not based only on a few pre-designed products or flavor formulas, but on a variety of inputs, processes and possible outcomes. It encourages a varied approach to tackling waste streams and making them relevant. ‘

Other awards include Affect Lab’s Good Neighbors, a timely project exploring community building; Leela, a beta test of a new digital fashion platform by digital fashion house The Manufacturer; and Globalance World, a project sponsored by the Swiss private bank Globalance that demonstrates the global impact of investments (hence the nickname “Google Earth for Investors”).

Dutch Design Awards Young Designer 2021

Work of Audrey Large

The Young Designer Prize of the Dutch Design Awards went to Audrey Large, whose sculptural 3D printed works are the result of extensive research into digital cinema and image theory. The French designer combines animation and 3D software to create her colorful abstract objects, merging techniques, function and the viewer’s perception. “Audrey Large is at the height of the times with the new visual language she is creating,” said the jury. “It makes tangible the blurring of the boundaries between digital and physical. §