There were more than 3,500 architect, interior and design projects submitted for the first ever Dezeen Awards.
The international Dezeen Awards will identify the world’s best talent, showcasing the most unique pieces.
A total of 207 interior design projects have now been selected for the long list including a revamp of a house built by Frank Gehry, a loft apartment in a former tank station and the offices of IKEA’s creative team.
The Anima collection, by Kosuke Araki
The shortlist will be announced in August and it will be judged by a panel of leading industry figures, including Terence Conran, Je Ahn of Studio Weave, DH Liberty founder Dara Huang and India Mahdavi.
In the design projects category, a total of 171 entries were submitted including an array of quirky pieces such as a table cloth made from flexible concrete cloth and a garment that could allows humans to breathe underwater.
The category features industry-leading names such as Nendo, Barber and Osgerby, Marc Newson and Patricia Urquiola.
It also includes leading brands like Google and IKEA, plus rising talents such as Normal Studio, Tom Fereday and Envisions.
Other highlights from the list include a wax chair pockmarked by melting balls of resin, clothes that grow as a child does, a UV sensor that tracks sun exposure and a reusable tampon applicator.
Clothes that grow with your child, by Petit Pli
Dezeen says the winners of each category will also compete to be named design project of the year – one of nine Ultimate Design Awards, a top tier of accolades that will honour the most outstanding design talent of the year.
The architecture long lists have also been announced and include Swiss firm Christ & Gantenbein, UK studio Jamie Fobert Architects and Mexican office Rojkind Arquitectos, while contenders for emerging architect of the year include US studio The Living and South American office MAPA.
Joto, by Those
For the full list of each category visit the Dezeen website.
For most artists the pathway into the art industry is through a university degree or foundation course, but junior designer Torsten Power took the apprenticeship route.
Torsten who has worked as a junior designer at Ocado is now venturing into the freelance world.
“After leaving school, I did an apprenticeship because at this point in my life I was really interested in coding, so I signed up to a recruitment agency in the hope they would find something in web development for me”, he said.
“I’m a strong endorser of the apprenticeship system but it is still relatively new in this country and therefore doesn’t always work entirely as intended.
“I was placed in an apprenticeship with an ad agency in Shoreditch to do some coding for a company”, Torsten said.
Torsten Power
It was then Torsten realised coding wasn’t an area he wanted to explore and he decided to go into graphic design.
The 20-year-old said: “I never looked back after this. It is funny because throughout the whole time I was into the coding stuff, my granddad, who is an artist and designer, would always say I would go into something creative and design related.
“I kept telling him “no I want to code, I want to be a developer” and now design is the love of my life. My granddad obviously knew me better than I know myself.”
After finishing his apprenticeship, Torsten spent time practicing and producing designs, fiction companies and creating brand identities to enhance his portfolio.
Torsten’s portfolio: Brand Showcase
He said: “It was tough and quite nerve-racking as I don’t have a degree or any other type of official design qualification and I got told by countless people that I was making a mistake by not going to university.
“There are many ways other than university to get your foot into the industry. Apprenticeships are a great route and I’m sure there are other methods that I don’t know about.
“The main thing I learnt is that you just need to find a way to make yourself look valuable and to demonstrate the passion you have.”
Torsten said the freelance route has worked well for him because his workload is “diverse” and each “project is different”.
“I just love the satisfaction I get when I’ve put hours of hard work into a project and then I get to see the final version in print or live on a website.
Torsten’s Portfolio: Summer Design Campaign
“Design is so personal; you get really attached to what you’re working on. Each project feels like my baby. I get to watch it grow from nothing into hopefully this beautiful finished piece that I’m proud of.
“The primary downside is probably that you don’t have the same amount of security as you would if you worked in a permanent position.
“Knowing exactly how much you’ll earn each month is reassuring and stuff like getting paid for annual leave is a luxury that I missed when I was freelance.
“The creative team at Ocado were great and I would often forget that they’re colleagues and not just mates, they were such a nice bunch of people.”
Torsten’s Portfolio: Fabled
Torsten finds his main source of inspiration from online websites and forums like Behance.
He also reads design books and magazine, going to exhibition talks and creative meet-ups.
Torsten is currently working on setting up a minimalist illustration-based clothing brand, which includes designing t-shirts and creating brand identities.
“I’m also trying to get a large amount of the production done locally and I want to ensure we’re an environmentally conscious brand so we will not us any plastic in the delivery process”, Torsten added.
“Overall the project has been a challenge but I’m so close to getting it finished now so I’m getting really excited about it all.
“I hope to have the website up and running and the first batch of t-shirts printed by late August – hopefully all my work will pay off.
“I have also done some recent work for FADE – a fashion and art magazine.”
Torsten’s Portfolio: Fabled
Torsten is hoping to do more personal projects and keep up with the freelance work.
He said: “As someone who ended up doing a job I love so much almost completely by accident, I try not to set in stone too many goals for myself, as I know how unpredictable life is.
“However, there are definitely things I’m really interested in at the moment that I’m going to pursue.
“Branding is a huge passion of mine – I’m always mesmerised by the work of agencies like DesignStudio, Spinach, NB Studio, Snask and Bold. I’d also love to start doing more art direction. It’s such a fascinating area.”
Graphic designer, Charlotte Anderson-Barrow impressed the judges from D&AD’s New Blood Festival 2018 with her London Bollards project and took home with her a Graphite Pencil award.
Charlotte is a hand-on designer who enjoys exploring and developing her work using processes such as screen printing and letterpress. She admits she refines her pieces using digital tools, but she prefers manual processes as they excite and inspire her to be creative. The designer finds her ideas in familiar objects, in the things that are out there for everyone to see, but she is also influenced by human behaviour and social commentary.
The project that caught the eyes of the judges is proof of her practical approach to design. To interpret the brief set by D&AD, “Hotel Indigo”, Charlotte studied thoroughly the location of the hotel, Tower Hill, to gain inspiration for her printmaking. Her aim was to accomplish the mission stated in the brief, to “bring the outside in”.
What started out as illustrative screen prints turned into a potential integrated campaign for Hotel Indigo. Charlotte views London’s Bollards as part of London’s street furniture acting as guides for the visitors of this city. This perfectly illustrates her manner of discovering concepts in familiar objects as well as her desire to allow her work to go beyond a self-contained design.
She said, “My work is something that often aims to follow through into a range of applications; a wider context. From the design itself, to the user experience and impact beyond the first impression of a design.”
London Bollards project won her a Graphite Pencil award, which, according to D&AD’s website, means that the designer met the three most important criteria “a good idea, well executed, and relevant to the brief”.
Charlotte is currently working freelance from her home studio named “Studio Stax” in Essex, whilst looking for placements/employment with London agencies.
June Caldwell, is a recent graduate of BA Hons Graphic Design at Glasgow Clyde College. June not only has agreat appreciation and understanding of white and negative space, but knows every Simpsons quote there is. Now having graduated and recently exhibited at D+AD New Blood, June aims to focus on her design practice to explore and develop the skills she has acquired in education. June states her desire revolves around editorial and publication design “I am just at the beginning of my career, but I would love to end up in publishing or editorial design one day, as this is where my passion truly shines.”
June’s focus within design is understanding and implementing the beauty and intelligence of typography. This was recently tested through her collaboration with author Alison Page on her illustrated children’s book “The Westie Fest”. This project gave June the opportunity to design and create the typographic layout and hierarchy throughout.
We spoke to June about her final major project: Consume. Consume is a modern take on the traditional Bible, reflecting on issues found in today’s society, it explores the idea of the consequences of consuming too much of one thing and how it can have a negative effect on our physical and emotional health. June used the concept ‘the Seven Deadly Sins’ to allow a format that is relatable, as the concept of sinning has been consistently characterised through the media. Each sin echoes on a individual issue found in contemporary society, such as over-consuming alcohol, eating fast food too often or even the social media craze of “clean-eating”. To bring together the concept of sinning and over-consumption, June used her typographic knowledge to form an A5 perfect bound book.
June explains the ideology behind the A5 Zine was because of its similarity to the bible in its size, shape and form. We asked June about the materials and techniques used to creative the book.
“The cover of the Bible is typically a black leather with gold letter foiling. To reflect on this holy book in a modern way, I used GF Smith’s Plike paper, which has a rubber-like texture. A clear toner effect was used on the cover heading to have a greasy-look, which can be seen when moved in and out of light, reflecting on the message of “whoever conceals their sin does not prosper, but the one who confesses and renounces them finds mercy”, which is stated on the first page.”
June transformed simple images of food into graphic shapes, shown at the start of each chapter and reflects on the number of sins discussed. The reasoning behind simplifying each food was to discourage the target market from taking part in these unhealthy habits. June tells us “I did not want the food and drink discussed to be appealing because I wanted to discourage the target market from taking part in these unhealthy habits. Therefore, I turned simple images of food into graphic forms”
James Rich, a recent graduate of University of Gloucestershire’s course in BA Graphic Design, has made an independent cafe working solely in egg dishes. Shell Shock is an innovative and unique brand that correlates with its target audience of young adults through informal language, bold aesthetics and positivity.
James’ main interests revolve around brand communications, promotional material and copy writing, however he often works with packaging designs and corporate identities. James‘ current objective is to pursue a career in the design industry with the knowledge and skillset he has developed throughout education.
Context: Trendy cafes with quirky themes are becoming increasingly frequent in towns and cities around the world. From breakfast cereals, to board games, themed cafes are constantly opening to fill gaps in the market and appeal to a wide range of audiences.
Brief: I set myself the brief of creating my own independent, themed cafe that appeals to young adults in urban areas. Rather than blend in with the themed cafe category, I wanted to create a personality that sets my brand apart from the competitive landscape.
Shell Shock: The Shell Shock style is inspired by video games and cartoons, a modern design style that has been adapted to suit a different medium. A collaboration with MyProtein combines the main benefits of eggs (protein) with a brand loved by gym-goers. This expands our audience into new areas, whilst giving a visual representation of how a Shell Shock product could look in a supermarket. The eggnog flavour protein powder and protein bars are a clever way of tying these two brands together. Shell Shock has endless potential to grow – features such as: menus, toilet signs and interior features of the cafe are all in the works as I continue to expand this project and continue my enjoyment of working on it.
See more of James work over at his Instagram – Jamesrichdesigner
Morten Olufsen is a 27 year old Graphic Designer from Northern Norway now establishing his design career in London, where he just finished his bachelor degree in Graphic Design at Middlesex University.
Morten recently exhibited at D+AD New Blood, a non-profit advertising and design association, inspiring the next generation of creative talent through the New Blood exhibition. Morten showcased his final major project from university “Internet Searching Experience”. Morten explains how the internet can be such a complex thing, due to its endless limits and possibilities and how it inspired his latest project.
“The internet can be quite overwhelming and for me, just a simple search for something particular can take me on a long journey through new windows, new tabs and endless links that can be clicked, videos to watch, the distractions are everywhere. In the end I forget what I was searching for and not aware about how much time I spent doing everything else but what I intended to do. So, I wanted to visualize this experience by taking the reader through more and more “windows” and let them eventually become so many that they stop being individual windows and more a pattern of virtual chaos”
Through his project, Morten wanted to create the feeling of diving into the internet and make these windows and all this chaos turn into something different. He goes on to explain how he turned this information in to something visual. “I ended up with these really cool looking spreads which I added text to. These were words I had in my notebook that I wrote while doing research about our relationship to the internet, and how it takes us to this chaotic world we don’t really manage to navigate without getting lost in the process.”
Morten’s work reinterprets the obscure, producing meticulously researched projects that span the digital world we live in. In order to communicate and display the complexity of the internet and the bombardment of information we receive from our screens, Morten created striking imagery consisting of a monotone color palette, focussing on twisting, combining and manipulating geometric shapes presented in the form of a zine.
Internet Searching ExperienceInternet Searching Experience
You can see more of Mortens work at: Www.behance.net/mortenolufsen
Amelia Dimoldenberg, also known as the CEO of Chicken Shop Date, revealed in a talk held at New Blood Festival organized by D&AD her 5 rules to help those who are starting their career in the creative industries.
Amelia Dimoldenberg at New Blood Festival 2018
If you haven’t heard of the Chicken Shop Date already, then you should know it’s Amelia’s YouTube channel where she posts videos of herself going on embarrassing dates in chicken shops with grime artists and other popular figures from UK’s music scene. She “dated” (or interviewed) on her channnel celebrities such as Maya Jama, Big Narstie and Chabuddy G, a fictional character very much loved by Britain.
Chicken Shop Date: Amelia interviews Chabuddy G | Copyright: Chicken Shop Date YouTube
What makes her channel unique is her rather awkward personality mixed with her ironic sense of humor, both of which came across evidently even in her talk entitled “How I turned my side project at uni into a career?”. This extraordinary combination renders her content hilarious and very relatable to everyone who went on a date that didn’t go too well.
The Chicken Shop Date started for Dimoldenberg as a side project she did during her Fashion Journalism course from Central St. Martin, only she turned it into a career. Her YouTube channel helped her start collaborations with big companies such as Channel 4 and Nike.
Here are Amelia’s golden rules to develop your creative career:
#1. Don’t be afraid to ask for help
When Amelia started working as a journalist for a magazine, she met other creative people with all sorts of different skills. And she made the courage to ask them to help her create her dream project – a satirical form of journalism. So her channel is the result of her work, but also other people’s abilities. She warned, however, that you have to be mindful and not demand too much of your connections. This leads us to the next rule.
Amelia Dimoldenberg at New Blood Festival 2018
#2. Be respectful of others
Amelia said she wouldn’t have been able to realize her project without her connections. But you have to understand that they too have a life of their own, that they have their own work to focus on, and you have to be respectful of that. If you respect this rule, you are likely to gain your collaborators trust and loyalty.
#3. Persevere
Being rejected or not getting any replies can be very disheartening, to the point where you just want to give up. Don’t do it if it’s your dream career. You have to realize it is a long journey and being persistent is a quality you will need to hang on to if you want to make that journey worthwhile. Take Amelia for example. It took her around 2 years until she was able to secure interviews with high-profile artists. She emailed a lot of people, and sometimes she didn’t get anything back. When this happens, she suggests following up with people without being too insistent. One of her emails landed her video on LadBible’s page, which helped her channel grow enormously.
#4. Strive to be different
Dimoldenberg said the first comments she received on her videos were something along the lines “Why am I watching this? What is this?”. But that didn’t discourage her. On the contrary, those comments confirmed what she already knew. That what she was doing was something different, and that was going to set her apart from other YouTubers.
#5. Work on your own projects
If you want to start a career in the creative industries a CV and a cover letter won’t do it. You need something that will show your skills and your initiative. The motto here is: show it, don’t say it. That’s why Amelia recommends working on a side project that will showcase your abilities as well as the fact that you have initiative, that you are a can-doer.
If you want to subscribe to Amelia’s YouTube channel you can do so by clicking here. You might see her one day interviewing Drake, or at least she hopes so. Fingers crossed for her!
