Brit Insurance Design Awards announces category winners

8 March, 2010

By Jamie Mitchell

Formally announced today, the seven category winners of the prestigious Brit Insurance Designs of the Year Awards was revealed last night on BBC Two's The Culture Show. The programme gave us a taste of the lively and often heated discussion that went into choosing the winners when the seven formidable judges, including designer Tom Dixon, journalist and broadcaster Janet Street-Porter, and Sculptor Anthony Gormley, met. But did they do a good job?

Well, the judges certainly managed to look beyond the more attention grabbing offerings such as Jason Bruges Studio's entrancing installation Panda Eyes, to more practical products which the casual observer might not even notice, such as Min-Kyu Choi's Folding Plug, the winner in the product design category.

In the furniture category, too, innovation won over showiness: flat pack furniture may not have a reputation for great design, but the judges loved Jair Straschnow's Grassworks, a range of furniture made entirely of bamboo - one of the world's fastest growing plants, and therefore one of our most sustainable materials.

A worthy design for customisable social housing in Mexico, Monterrey Housing by Elemental S.A, beat Zaha Hadid's National Museum of the XXI Century Arts in Rome in the architecture category to show that it was practicality and social responsibility that wowed the judges this year.

As Gormley, who chaired the jury said, 'The seven winners provide a snapshot of some of the most outstanding designs from the past 12 months and reflect the important role design plays in improving people's lives.'

We won't know the overall winner until 16 March, but for now, here are the seven category winners in full. Why not tell us what you think of them and which you think deserves to win?

Brit Insurance Architecture Award 2010: Monterrey Housing, Mexico. By Elemental. Chile.

Brit Insurance Fashion Award 2010: Alexander McQueen Spring / Summer '10 and Spring / Summer Catwalk presentation Plato's Atlantis. UK

Brit Insurance Furniture Award 2010: Grassworks. By Jair Straschnow. Netherlands.

Brit Insurance Graphic Award 2010: The Newspaper Club. By Ben Terrett, Russell Davies and Tom Taylor. UK

Brit Insurance Interactive Award 2010: The EyeWriter. By members of Free Art and Technology, openFrameworks, Graffiti Research La, The Ebeling Group and Tony Quan. USA

Brit Insurance Product Award 2010: Folding Plug. By Min-Kyu Choi.UK

Brit Insurance Transport Award 2010: E430 Electric Aircraft. By Yuneec International. China.

Photographs courtesy of the Design Museum's Designs of the Year exhibition.

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Brit Insurance Design Awards announces category winners