Spotlight on Australian International Design Awards 2010

| June 8, 2010
Standards Australia Design Award logo

Standards Australia Design Award logo

Open Forum is proud to present this Spotlight on the Australian International Design Awards with thanks to our sponsors Standards Australia.

At last count there were more than 50 design award schemes operating in Australia alone, but none more enduring than the Australian International Design Awards.

Founded by the Industrial Design Council of Australia, an agency first established in 1958 to support Australia’s local industrial design community, the program experienced much change before its 1991 acquisition by Australia’s peak Standards body, Standards Australia. 

Today, the Australian International Design Awards plays a vital role in stimulating innovation and a culture of creativity and competitiveness in Australian and overseas business.

Countless designers, manufacturers and multinationals from Australia and overseas have found success through the Australian International Design Awards. The key to this success continues to be investment in professional design together with iterative benchmarking and improvement driven by such schemes.

Winners in the 2010 Australian International Design Awards were announced in Sydney on Friday 4 June at a gala event for the design industry. The Honourable Richard Marles MP, Parliamentary Secretary for Innovation and Industry officially launched the event, delivering the opening address on the importance of professional design and innovation to Australia’s social, cultural, economic and environmental sustainability.

The 2010 program attracted a record 202 industry entries and a further 98 student entries, representing a 27% increase on 2009.

Judges awarded 42 Design Awards in recognition of design excellence, with the Australian International Design Award of the Year presented to New Zealand-based hospital bed manufacturer Howard Wright for its M8 Intensive Care bed.

Judges were impressed by the attention to detail given to all aspects of the bed from the aesthetics and functionality through to the safety and comfort for all users. Particularly noteworthy is the ability for a range of medical procedures to be undertaken without shifting the patient from the bed, reducing patient handling and risk of injury.

The judges were also impressed by Howard Wright’s commitment to design as an integral part of the company’s business growth strategy. Encouraging and supporting investment in design is a key role of the Australian International Design Awards.

The full list of winners in the 2010 Australian International Design Awards, including the winner of the Award for Excellence in Sustainable Design, 42 Design Award winners and 69 Design Mark winners can be viewed on at www.designawards.com.au.

Winners in the student category, recognising emerging industrial design talent, can be viewed online at www.student.designawards.com.au.

We hope you’ll enjoy this opportunity to hear directly from a few of the 111 finalists. Simply follow the links below to read what they have to say about good design in their own words, login to leave them your comments and questions.

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