The design industry is teeming with competitions and contests with rewards as enticing as $25,000, a grant for student travel, an exhibition at a London museum and a feature in a regional shelter magazine. Organizations are looking to recognize great young talents and new ideas and give back to the community.
New England Home Magazine has issued a call for nominations for its “5 Under 40” awards. The magazine is looking for New England’s brightest and most talented young design stars in residential interiors and architecture as well as landscape architecture, furniture, lighting, accessories and general home product design. Nominations can be made online through February 14.
2013 Designers in Residence
London’s Design Museum is looking for this year’s Designers in Residence. The selected designers will participate in an annual exhibition, themed “disruptive,” which opens in September. This year the museum is asking the Designers in Residence to reflect on and explore the multiple possibilities expressed by the concept of disruption and the disruptive. “Disruptive innovation interrupts established ways of thinking, diverges from traditional practices and proposes new, unexpected ideas,” said Design Museum director Deyan Sudjic. The residency is open to designers who have graduated from college within the last five years (in the academic year 2009/10 or more recently) and who have been working professionally (either paid or voluntarily) in some form of design or architecture practice for a minimum of one year. Designers can apply online through February 28.
Herman Miller has launched its 2014 student video contest, asking full-time students who attend a two or four year contest in the United States or Canada to answer the question “Why Does Your Campus Matter?” Using a video camera and their imaginations, students are invited to make their case in three minutes or less. Representatives from Herman Miller will select three finalists and a public vote will then decide the final ranking for the top three submissions. The first place winner will be awarded $2,500, second place $1,500 and third place $1,000. Click here to enter before the March 21 deadline.
Robert Smithson's Spiral Jetty
The Cultural Landscape Foundation has issued a call for nominations for Landslide, its annual thematic compendium of landscapes and landscape features threatened with destruction or irreversible damage. This year's broad category ranges from sites such as ancient petroglyphs and Robert Smithson's Spiral Jetty, to Herbert Bayer's sculpted earthworks, the Modernist installations of Athena Tacha, and site-specific art installations found in remote locales and urban centers. Landslide is designed to make the threats to these sites visible and promote informed stewardship. The 2014 compendium of sites will be the subject of a special feature on TCLF's website and nominations can be submitted online or emailed to Amanda Shull by April 1.
RIBA’s 2014 Norman Foster Travelling Scholarship is accepting applications from architecture students at RIBA/CAA-validated schools around the world. The scholarship is inspired by Foster’s study abroad trips to Europe during his time in school. Foster hopes offering this scholarship will give students the same type of inspiration and discovery he found at that age. A £6,000 grant will be awarded to one student to fund international research on a topic related to the survival of towns or cities. The deadline for submissions is April 25.
The International Design Guild’s (IDG) “Design for a Difference” national contest has kicked off, encouraging interior designers to give back to their local communities through design makeovers for local charities. The contest is open to interior designers, architects and design students and will provide the chosen winners with the products and services to fulfill their design vision for a local nonprofit. One winner will earn the grand prize of $25,000 in retail goods and services; a professionally produced video of the makeover will be provided to the winner and winning charity for use to promote their work; and the design will be included in IDG marketing materials. Four regional prizes will also be given, including an all-expense paid trip to the grand prize city while participating in the project; the opportunity to be a part of the makeover team along with the winner; and a $2,000 prize package from the local IDG Showroom to support the makeover for their nominated charity. Contest entries will be accepted online until June 1 and the winners will be announced on August 1.
