Introducing the 2017 Henry van de Velde Award nominees!

On 18 January 2018, Flanders DC will present the 2017 Henry van de Velde Awards at BOZAR.

This is the first time that an international jury, chaired by Jan Boelen, will decide who will get to ascend the stage as winner on Wednesday, 6 September.

Flanders DC was able to find four top-class designers to sit on the jury: Michael Anastassiades (GB), Simon Hadjidimoff (Decathlon, FR), Chris Kabel (NL) and Michael Young (GB), as well as four internationally acclaimed design experts. In addition to the chairman of the jury and director of Z33, Jan Boelen, sustainability expert Serge de Gheldere (Futureproofed), curator and communications expert Giovanna Massoni and academic director of Industrial Product Design at the HOWEST University College of West Flanders Ronald Bastiaens will help comprise the jury.

Nomination of a product, project or service for a 2017 Henry van de Velde Award is no simple affair. This spring, Flanders DC launched a call targeting designers, companies, public bodies and organisations. Precondition: it has to involve a design project with a special tie to Flanders, and that hadn’t been put on the market before April 2016. Over 180 designers and players in the design industry seized the opportunity and submitted their projects.

There’s no question that this resulted in a unique sample card of what design, creativity and innovation are capable of. It was quite a challenge for the national jury to select the 18 best from such an abundance and diversity of nominations, each of which epitomises what good design should be.

In November and December, the general public will also have an opportunity to select their favourites from these 18 finalists via the website www.henryvandevelde.be. The 2017 Henry van de Velde Awards Nominee with the most votes is also eligible to win the 2017 Henry van de Velde Public Award.

In addition to this contest, three Special Awards are still to be awarded for the Career, Company and Young Talent categories. These have already been selected by the national jury. That means we already know who they are, but we want to keep it a big surprise until 18 January 2018, when their names will be announced together with the other six winners (Design Solution Awards).

 

Introducing the eighteen 2017 Henry van de Velde Label nominees for all six categories:

COMMUNICATION AWARD

• Reopening of the Plantin-Moretus Museum: Kastaar (Stoffel Van den Bergh & An Eisendrath) for the Plantin-Moretus Museum
• Football magazine Puskas: Pjotr Grafisch Ontwerp (Pieter Willems & Brecht Van Stappen) for Heren Vertrekt 
• Vollebak Vennestraat: a comprehensive street festival concept by vzw LABO (Linde Hermans, Noortje De la haye, Patrick Reuvis, Jo Klaps, Huub Berger, Peter Firman, Annick de Waal, Nienke Van der Reijden, Hanne Keirse, Gaëtan Coolen, Martine Geladi, Jeff Rutten, Jochen Cypers & Simon Jones) for the City of Genk

 

DESIGN-LED CRAFTS AWARD

• A+A BOWLS: changing social dynamics with ceramics, Ann Van Hoey for Den Ateljee
• Monsieur Tricot Lighting: lighting collection, Monsieur Tricot (Ilia Sigi Eckhardt)
• Tableskin, tablecloth and napkins, Studio Lore Langendries for Verilin
   

ECODESIGN AWARD by OVAM

• H-bench: seating concept for public spaces, Studio Segers (Wim Segers & Bob Segers) for ECO-oh!
• Xant M: mid-size windturbine, Xant (Alex De Broe, Xavier Vanwijck & Frédéric Nannan)
• Post-Couture Antwerp: clothing on demand, The Post-Couture Collective (Martijn van Strien) for martijnvanstrien.com

EFFICIENCY AWARD

• Dubio: external brickwork/brick, It’s a Roel (Roel Vandebeek) for Nelissen Steenfabrieken
• Dynamx: control valve, Achilles Design (Raf Schoors & Tim Ruytjens) for Belparts
• June: energy assistant, Bagaar (Mathias De Winter & Georges Lieben) for June

EVERYDAY LIFE AWARD

• Stubs: 4 stackable stools, Frank Ternier for Labt
• Tam Tam fire basket: fire basket, Studio Achoo (Bart Van houcke) for Copain
• Virus: picnic table, Dirk Wynants Design Works for Extremis

HEALTHCARE AWARD

• Aperi: alarm system / communications platform, pilipili product design & engineering for Aperi
• Colli-Pee: first-void urine sample collection device, Voxdale (Kristof Sorgeloos, Koen Beyers, Bart Verleije & Wim Boudewyns) for Novosanis NV
• Theom@tic: tool to enable people with only one functional arm to eat independently, Boonen Design Studio (Frédéric Boonen), concept by Theo Willen, for the JESSA Hospital vzw

 

Important dates:

As from 6 November 2017 the general public can cast their votes on www.henryvandevelde.be

On 18 January 2018, Flanders DC will present the 2017 Henry van de Velde Awards at BOZAR. In addition to the six winners from the categories listed above, the winners of the 2017 Henry van de Velde Lifetime Achievement, Young Talent, Company and Public Awards will also be announced. The award presentation also marks the start of the free 2017 Henry van de Velde Awards exhibition in BOZAR from 19 January 2018 to 18 March 2018.