We recently attended a very interesting talk from Munich based designer Stefan Diez at the Vitra Design Museum in which, amongst other subjects, he briefly queried why design journalists are happy to write about furniture and accessories, but no one writes about, for example, safety helmets.......
Ranger by Joe Engelhard and Michael Schuler for German manufacturer ENHA is, according to the designers, the first ever safety helmet to incorporate a double wall construction principle; thus increasing protection for the wearer. The so-called Crash Box sits atop the helmet and upon impact sets a mechanical process in motion which absorbs the majority of the shock and so, hopefully, limits the damage to the wearer.
Ranger is DIN EN 397 certified.
And one of the objects that can currently be viewed as part of the Designpreis der Bundesrepublik Deutschland - The German Design Award - exhibition running parallel to DMY Berlin.
As previously noted, following the transfer of the organisation of the German Design Award from the German Design Council to DMY Berlin a decision was made that all submitted projects would be presented in an exhibition at the DMY festival. The aim being to allow as broad a public as possible the chance to view the submitted projects.
"Submitted" doesn't mean "nominated", that decision is the responsibility of the Award Jury, a body who duly met at the start of the week and have now announced the nominees.
The joy of the German Design Award exhibition is that the nominated projects and the non-nominated projects are presented inter-mixed, thus allowing visitors the chance to compare, contrast and wonder at how the jury could ignore this, that or the other project.
Such as Ranger. Which wasn't nominated.
The winners of the German Design Award 2014 will be announced in the autumn, and so for now a few impressions from the exhibition in Berlin.
