LEXUS DESIGN AWARD

WHERE IMAGINATION & CRAFTSMANSHIP MEET

Since 2013, the annual Lexus Design Award has supported designers and creators to foster ideas and innovation that help shape a better future.

THE LDA 2020 STORY

PART 1

MEET THE JUDGES AND MENTORS

Lexus Design Award gives young creators the unique opportunity to be guided by world-renowned leaders from a variety of design fields. Our judges and mentors for LDA 2020 share how they hope to inspire the next generation of designers to push boundaries, dream big and design for a better tomorrow.

PART 2

DISCOVERING NEW VISIONARIES

For the inaugural winner Hideki Yoshimoto, Lexus Design Award was his launch pad into the world of design. Using the experience he gained from working with professional designers during the LDA mentoring sessions, he set up the design-engineering studio, Tangent, and has collaborated with many global brands, including Hermes and Globe Trotter.

PART 3

MENTORING FOR A BETTER TOMORROW

In preparation for the virtual 2020 LDA Grand Prix, the six finalists travel to the Intersect by Lexus gallery in New York. Here, they attend a two-day workshop where they are mentored by top designers from around the world. After the in-person workshop, the finalists move to a one-on-one online consultation process with the same mentors to continually fine-tune their concepts – all in hopes of winning the competition.

PART 4

THE GRAND PRIX

We have reached the pinnacle of the competition – the final Grand Prix. The six finalists describe their journey so far and how their designs have evolved through the guidance of their mentors. Finally, the judges and mentors connect virtually to see the finalists present their work one last time before announcing the winner of the Lexus Design Award 2020.

LEXUS DESIGN AWARD 2020 FINALISTS

    • Six finalists were chosen to work under the guidance of the mentors to develop their prototypes that will lead to a better tomorrow.

      The Grand Prix Winner of Lexus Design Award 2020 — Open Source Communities by Belltower — was announced by Lexus International on 1st September 2020.

  • Open Source Communities

    BellTower
    Kenya

    GRAND
    PRIX
    WINNER

    BellTower

    Kenya

    Open Source Communities is a proposal outlining an efficient way of designing communities in developing countries based on smart open-source plans. The designer’s endeavor is to see how these concepts may be refined to create connected homes that are sustainable.

  • Feltscape

    Théophile Peju & Salvatore Cicero
    France & Italy

    Théophile Peju & Salvatore Cicero

    France & Italy

    Feltscape is a breathing cloud that fosters the philosophical idea of isolation by creating a safe atmosphere for you to relax and meditate. It is made of felt and recycled bio-plastic using innovative robotic fabrication process. By the implementation of sensors and kinetic mechanisms, the cloud will follow the visitor's breath. The membrane rhythm gradually accelerates or decelerates guiding the occupant to inhale/exhale at a slower pace.

  • Flash Pak

    Yaokun Wu
    China

    Yaokun Wu

    China

    Flash Pak is a smart survival apparatus installed on lamp posts to make life jackets easily accessible to people in areas that are at high risk of flooding. By utilizing their natural buoyancy, Flash Pak allows life vests to rise to the water’s surface so they can be reached regardless of how high the water level is.

  • L.I.C.K

    Irina Samolilova
    Russia

    Irina Samolilova

    Russia

    L.I.C.K is designed to be a portable body cleaner at your fingertips. The device utilizes a cat’s tongue-like cleaning surface to capture liquid and impurities on the skin, allowing those without the opportunity or access to bathe or shower to easily clean themselves. Small and compact, it can effectively clean hard-to-reach areas such as armpits.

  • Pursewit

    Aqsa Ajmal
    Pakistan

    Aqsa Ajmal

    Pakistan

    The Pursewit is an accessible sewing machine that just invites you to sew! Its sleek, new design has an intuitive and tactile operation that improves the cumbersome process of sewing. This can provide increased employment opportunities for the visually impaired, particularly in Pakistan where nearly 45 percent of the working population are involved in the textile industry.

  • Biocraft

    Paul and Garrett Sutherlin Santo
    USA

    Paul and Garrett Sutherlin Santo

    USA

    Biocraft materials combine natural biopolymers with emerging technology to produce materials with advanced capabilities that better our health and the environment. They are intended to replace the inert products in our daily lives with ones that actively engage with their surroundings by removing CO2 from the air and disseminating nutrients.

MEET THE MENTORS

  • JOE DOUCET

    Founder,
    Joe Doucet X Partners

    JOE DOUCET

    Founder, Joe Doucet X Partners

    As a designer, entrepreneur, inventor and creative director, Joe Doucet finds solutions for daily and societal challenges through design as he believes that design and a designer’s thought process can play a larger role in innovation and problem solving. His work has been exhibited in the London Design Museum and the Biennale International Design in Saint-Etienne. In 2017, he was named the winner of the Smithsonian Cooper-Hewitt National Design Award for product design, the highest honor in his field.

  • BETHAN GRAY

    Creative Director,
    Bethan Gray Design

    BETHAN GRAY

    Creative Director, Bethan Gray Design

    One of the UK’s most celebrated furniture and homeware designers, Bethan Gray weaves contemporary relevance with the traditional techniques she has picked up from her travels and love for art and culture. Her studio creates luxury handcrafted collections of furniture and home accessories that are sold by global retailers such as Harrods and Liberty. She was named Best British Designer by Elle Decoration in 2013 and has exhibited her work in London, Milan, Paris, New York and Dubai.

  • PHILIPPE MALOUIN

    Director,
    Philippe Malouin Studio

    PHILIPPE MALOUIN

    Director, Philippe Malouin Studio

    British-Canadian designer Philippe Malouin has a diverse portfolio that includes tables, rugs, chairs, lights, art objects and installations. The Design Academy Eindhoven graduate counts SCP, Marsotto Edizioni, Resident, Hem and Ace Hotel amongst his clients. He was crowned Designer of the Year by Wallpaper* magazine in 2018 and taught at the Royal College of Art in London from 2012 to 2015.

  • SHOHEI SHIGEMATSU

    Partner & Director,
    OMA New York

    SHOHEI SHIGEMATSU

    Partner & Director, OMA New York

    Shohei Shigematsu has provided design leadership and direction for the renovation of Sotheby’s New York headquarters, Quebec National Beaux Art Museum and the Faena Arts Center in Miami Beach, leading the projects from conceptual onset to completed construction. He has also designed exhibitions for Prada, the Venice Architecture Biennale and the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and is a design critic in architecture at the Harvard Graduate School of Design.

MEET THE JUDGES

  • SIMON HUMPHRIES

    Head, Toyota & Lexus Global Design

    SIMON HUMPHRIES

    Head of Toyota & Lexus Global Design, with more than 15 years of design experience at Toyota Motor Corporation.

  • PAOLA ANTONELLI

    Senior Curator of Architecture & Design, MoMA

    PAOLA ANTONELLI

    Celebrated author and lecturer who was listed as one of the 100 most influential people of the art world by Surface magazine.

  • Jeanne Gang

    Founding principal and partner, Studio Gang

    Jeanne Gang

    Award-winning architect behind the Aqua Tower in Chicago. Named one of the 100 most influential people of 2019 by TIME.

  • JOHN MAEDA

    Chief Experience Officer, Publicis Sapient

    JOHN MAEDA

    Design evangelist, TED talk speaker and former president of the Rhode Island School of Design.

  • LEXUS DESIGN AWARD 2021 NOW OPEN

    1. Application period
      Jun 30 th - Oct 11 th 2020
    2. Finalist screening session
      Nov 2020
      Lexus Design Award mentors and judges will gather to deliberate the finalist nominees.
    3. Announcement of six finalists
      Jan 2021
      Six designs will be announced as finalists and will be invited to the mentoring workshop at Intersect by Lexus NYC. They will also receive funding to develop prototypes of their design.
    4. Milan Design Week
      Apr 2021
      The Lexus pavilion will showcase the work of the six finalists and the Grand Prix Winner will be announced.

    SUBMIT YOUR IDEAS HERE

LEXUS DESIGN AWARD 2019

HIGHLIGHTS

LEXUS DESIGN AWARD 2018

HIGHLIGHTS

2018 PROTOTYPE WINNERS

  • CO-RKs


    DIGITALAB

    Portugal

    Learn more

  • Honest Egg


    aesthetid

    Malaysia

    Learn more

  • Recycled
    Fiber Planter

    Eriko Yokoi

    Japan

    Learn more

  • Testing
    Hypotheticals

    Extrapolation Factory

    USA

    Learn more

    GRAND
    PRIX
    WINNER

THE PROTOTYPE WINNERS

Four designers were chosen from among the 12 panel finalists to prototype their designs under the mentorship of an elite team of established creators.

The Grand Prix Winner of Lexus Design Award 2018 — Testing Hypotheticals by Extrapolation Factory — was announced at the Milan Design Week in April 2018.

aesthetid/ Malaysia

Mentor: Jessica Walsh

Connecting Technology (Intelligent Ink Pigment) and Design (Indicator) to show an egg’s edibility.

Honest Egg is an intuitive and simple indicator of when an egg has reached its recommended consumption date. Users can observe a graphical image or word on the egg shell to determine the egg's edibility.

DIGITALAB/ Portugal

Mentor: Lindsey Adelman

A system connecting cork thread and computational process that generates design products.

CO-RKs is a generative system that uses an advanced algorithm to create optimized shapes and spaces from fiber made from cork. This allows for the creation of products and spaces (lamps, chairs, tables and exhibition systems) adapted to specific functions.

Eriko Yokoi/ Japan

Mentor: Sou Fujimoto

Co-fusion textile and green design to repurpose used clothes.

This project seeks to create a substitute for soil called fiber soil by recycling old clothes made from polyester fiber. By combining a material with low recycling potential with more recyclable materials, the chances of reuse are increased.

Extrapolation Factory / USA

Mentor: Formafantasma

A collaboratively imagined test site that explores relationships between people and their surroundings.

Exploration Factory proposes to set up a futures workshop to work with locals in neighborhoods in envisioning spaces that could be used as test grounds for new ways of living. They will then develop ideas to explore and address identified issues through development within a testing site.

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