With DMY Berlin 2014 up and running the field is open for the 2014 DMY Award.
An award that this year has a little extra value given that the trophies have been designed by last years "Young Talent" winner Philipp Weber. And made in Berlin by Berlin Glas e.V.
As ever ten nominees have been selected from all exhibitors at this years DMY festival: and from the ten the international jury will select three winners.
One of whom will be Dutch.
That's not part of the competition rules. Just a fact. We can't remember a single year when a Dutch designer hasn't won.
And with a third of the 2014 nominations coming from the Netherlands, we're not expecting that unbroken record to change.
We'll have more on one or the other of the more interesting nominated projects later, but for now a brief introduction to the runners and riders for the DMY Award 2014. In no particular order....
Street Food Kitchen by Anna Liesch, Basel, Switzerland
Inspired by the slow demise of local fruit and vegetable varieties Anna Liesch developed a mobile, analogue, kitchen system that reduces the process of cooking and eating down to a minimum.
Algaemy- crafting our future food by Blond & Bieber, Berlin, Germany
Despite the projects sub-title Algaemy is, at least at this stage, not about our future food. But our future textile dyes. Developed jointly by Essi Johanna Glomb and Rasa Weber Algaemy harnesses the ease and speed with which algae grow to produce dyes for textiles.
Seeing Glass by Brit van Nerven & Sabine Marcelis, Rotterdam, Netherlands
As previously seen at the Dutch Invertuals show "Happy Future" during Milan 2014, Seeing Glass by Brit van Nerven & Sabine Marcelis explores differing approaches to working with glass. And how the results can not only produce new product families but alter our understanding and perception of that most familiar of materials.
Gegenstand | Widerstand by Heide Dittmann, Marksuhl, Germany
A family of wooden stools each with the same basic form, but an individual charterer.....
Flowers for Slovakia: Lost & Found by Vitra
15 Slovakian design students were asked to combine traditional Slovakian folk furniture, with elements from Vitra furniture. No honest....
Minsun Kim: Home for a Moment, The Hague, Netherlands In a continually developing installation Minsun Kim will discuss "home" with festival visitors and then create a miniature "home" for each using her model furniture. Over the course of the festival a collaborative, collective, "home" develops....
Cabinet Pop-Up Linen by Studio Renate Nederpel, Amsterdam, Netherlands
When is a wardrobe not a wardrobe? When it's a collapsible linen wardrobe by Academie van Beeldende Kunsten Den Haag graduate Renate Nederpel.
TON
Delighted as Vitra will no doubt be with the nomination for Flowers of Slovakia, we know another manufacturer we who will be as amused as Queen Victoria by TON's nomination. Yet cheeky as TON unquestionably are, you cannot argue with the quality of work by designers such as Alexander Gufler.
Mao & Piu by Yena Young, Berlin, Germany
A family of light sculptures created from layers of mulberry paper glued together by a home-made natural flour glue which absorb sunlight by day and release it back as light at night.
P.Lamp' by Yifan Zhang, Halle, Germany
A modular hanging lamp system that negates the accepted need for wires and connectors. And thus allows more flexibility in the composition of the elements.