Lexus has designs on a better tomorrow

MEDIA RELEASE

MONDAY, AUGUST 27, 2018

Entries have officially opened for the globally prestigious Lexus Design Award 2019 and Kiwi designers, creators, inventors and engineers, who can anticipate the needs of people and society, are encouraged to enter now.

Using the power of creativity to change the world has always been the objective of the Lexus Design Award.

Six finalists will be invited to develop their ideas into functional prototypes, under the supervision of mentors, using a production budget of $US 25,000 each. The resulting prototypes will be displayed at the prestigious Milan Design Week from 8 - 14 April 2019, where the winner will be announced.

“The annual Lexus Design Awards has always supported designers and creators to foster ideas and innovation that help shape a better future,” says Lexus New Zealand Senior General Manager Paul Carroll. “This time the objective is clearer than ever before with the theme: design for a better tomorrow.”

“The next generation of designers, including those from the technical and engineering fields will need to consider how their creative ideas incorporate three principles of the Lexus brand: “Anticipate”, “Innovate” and “Captivate”.

“New Zealand has a reputation for creative people in a wide variety of fields,” says Mr Carroll. “From electric fence inventor Bill Gallagher, jet boat pioneer Bill Hamilton, atomic scientist Ernest Rutherford, Ernest Goddard, the inventor of the humble hairpin and egg beater and William Atack who invented the whistle which is now used to control sports games worldwide.

“The global judges are looking for entries that are consistent with Lexus’s design belief that the power of creativity can change the world,” said Mr Carroll.

First launched in 2013, the Lexus Design Award is an international competition that last year attracted over 1,300 entries from up and coming creators from 68 countries to foster the growth of ideas and designs that can contribute to society by shaping a better future.

The finalists included honest egg, an intuitive and simple indicator when an egg has reached its recommended consumption date; a re-cycled fibre planter made from discarded polyester clothing; a system connecting cork thread, a sustainable material and computational process that generates design products and the winning entry of a collaboratively imagined test site that explores speculative relationships between society, technology and the environment.

Prospective creators can access the Lexus Design Award 2019 brief via https://www.lexus.co.nz/en/discover-lexus/lexus-design-award.html. The closing date for entries is 28 October 2018.

Competition judges and mentors for the six grand finalists will be appointed in September 2018 and the finalists will be announced in January 2019.

The winner will receive further support from Lexus in the marketing of the winning entry as crafted by Lexus and further exposure to the world’s design media.

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