Hungarian Design Award Winners 2019
Product category
TEQBALL SMART
The Teqball One table as a sports equipment (and Teqball as a new sport) embarked upon its journey to conquer the world a few years ago. The word Smart added to the latest model refers to the table being collapsible. Thanks to the new construction, the table takes up little room when fully collapsed, while left half open it is suitable for a one-man game. The innovative value of Teqball was protected by international patents already at its launch, which was essential before it entered the international markets. The table, which can be used indoors and outdoors alike, has a plexi plate in the middle which functions like a net and divides the area into two. The design is compact and easy to move, while its materials are heavy-duty and weatherproof. Teqball can be used for several special ball games: teqball as well as tennis and tabletennis with new rules.
Jury statement
Teqball SMART is a remarkably designed, innovative sports equipment and the collapsible version of the Teqball ONE table, which serves as the basis of teqball, a new, football-based sport. This table can also be used for four other sports: teqis, teqpong, qatch and teqvoly. If only one side of the table is turned upright, we get a vertical curved surface, a wall, from which the ball bounces back, allowing users to play and practice even on their own. The well thought-through design and product development work paying attention to every detail, including the logo, the colour scheme of the product, the choice of materials and the location of nodes, is immediately apparent in the case of the Teqball table. The makers did not compromise in the execution of the product either. The Teqball table meets the highest standards of quality and durability, while being collapsible it is easy to transport and store. It is also UV- and water
resistant, enabling indoor and outdoor use alike. Teqball is a course book example of brand building: the unified identity design can be seen from the website, through the product and the company cars all the way to the minutest detials. The Teqball SMART table has a distinct image with an outstanding originality, predestining it to success in the global market.
Frigate chair product family
Plydesign Ltd has developed several seating furniture designs in collaboration with András Kerékgyártó in recent years. The company’s profile is mainly defined by plywood products. The armrestless and stackable Frigate chair is also absolutely innovative in regard to its
production technology and has taken the business to a new level. Plydesign has partly replaced its former moulded plywood technology with 3D veneer technology, while combining these two in manufacturing the chair shell. The seating part is manufactured with a complex pressing technology, and used plywood made by the German Danzer company for the backrest, thus achieving a new aesthetic quality while enhancing the chair’s ergonomic value. The manufacturer gained such considerable know-how during the development of the Frigate chair by combining old and new technologies that it advanced from the status of implementing partner to the position of developmental partner. The product development resulted in a competitively priced chair suitable for largescale production and for providing a high level of comfort.
Jury statement
The Frigate chair is the latest addition to PlyDesign’s furniture collection. The design, modelling and preproduction of a chair is one of the most exciting and at the same time toughest challenges for designers. Multitudes of new chairs appear on the global market exploiting the opportunities provided by new materials, new technologies and new forms and new, so it is a real challenge to make a new product visible even on the domestic market. The designer – and also the manufacturer – of the Frigate chair met the domestic expectations and, filling a gap, it has introduced a seating furniture family covering an entire segment of the market. Utilising its previous experience and the benefits of ’3D plywood’, Plydesign guarantees the freedom of form and a high level of ergonomic quality. The key to the company’s success is a formally impeccably constructed shell built onto three markedly different leg structures. Every member of the jury praised this marketable Hungarian development.
Minerva porcelain tableware collection
Hollóháza was an important workshop in 20th-century Hungarian porcelain art, while in recent decades the business has been looking for its own path and the way to redefine itself artistically and strategically. The Minerva collection is the outcome of three years of product development. While providing an impressive example of the company’s ability to renew itself, it also sums up the characteristics and legacy of the Hollóháza porcelain, which is no less than a Hungaricum. Erika Sütő and Ferenc Golovics designed the collection in the spirit of making it into a classic and at the same time kept the expectations of modern consumers and the taste of a potential, younger target group at the forefront of their concept. The design process was preceded by extensive market research, trend analysis and technological experimentation. The Minerva sets combine organic and geometric forms and motifs, thus can be equally seen as modern and classical. The collection is adapted to contemporary requirements: they are stackable, space-efficient, dishwasher proof and variable, while many of its elements are multifunctional and some of them are microwave compatible. The Minerva collection is available in three designs targeting three consumer groups, each with a different taste: the Marrakesh style is marked by elegance and is intended for use on special events; the modern Asanoha appeals to the younger generation, and the Flora set is made for the factory’s customary buyers.
Jury statement
The Minerva porcelain dinner service is outstanding in several respects: it is designed for the long term and targets several consumer groups. This set is modern, while its classical forms fit in well with the interiors of the target consumers both in regard to its design and aesthetic
qualities. The development was preceded by extensive market research as well as a study of international trends and technological solutions. The forms of the objects are driven not only by aesthetic but also functional and production technology considerations. It was evident from the submitted project documentation that the product family is designed as a system, optimising the various object types and providing combinational variations. A designer needs to be familiar not only with the formal characteristic represented by a brand but has to understand the manufacturing process and create an optimally manufacturable product family
within an already functioning system. The objective is to preserve old traditions while creating new ones. New products, therefore, should address not only new target groups (an exciting challenge itself) but also consider the expectations of the old ones. The Minerva dinner service, which was met with success in professional circles as well as on the market, is the result of such intensive work.
Geometric Wallpapers for NLXL
The wallpaper design made for a competition announced by NLXL – a prominent Dutch brand in the market of designer wallpapers and the holder of numerous interior design awards – had its international debut in April 2019 at the world’s most important design event: the Milan Furniture Fair. Éva Valicsek and Ildikó Valicsek made their wallpaper design specifically for the NLXL competition and it has become part of a product range that contains designs by many design superstars. The Valicsek sisters, both of them designers and graphic designers, developed their original geometric pattern system in the past five years, attracting the attention of many international companies. Their dynamic world, rich in detail and offering something new in every square inch, was created in layers: overlaying basic patterns and shifting their scale. Uniquely, there are no repeated surfaces within the rolls as the pattern is in constant flux like a living organism. Winning the right to design wallpaper for NLXL means that the Valicsek sisters understand interior design megatrends, while speaking a visual language that excites the international design scene and deserves to be launched on the global market as a premium category product.
Jury statement
The internationally acclaimed geometric pattern system designed by the Valicsek sisters, Éva and Ildikó, was developed from the concept of Ildikó’s university degree project of 2014. The sisters founded a studio called Overlap One Another and their kaleidoscopic patterns became their signature. They had already worked for international magazines, made packaging and stationary designs as well as book illustrations, when in the spring of 2019 they won the international tender announced by the Dutch wallpaper manufacturer NLXL and their designs were produced and are now available in hundreds of locations in the world. The premium category, exclusive designer wallpapers restarted NLXL’s geometrical collection, and elevated the Valicsek sisters to being among the world’s most renowned designers (the select designers of the Dutch company) and joining the ranks of Studio Job, Piet Hein Eek and Paola
Navone. The Dutch design works for prestigious clients such as Ralph Lauren, Google, Amazon, Twitter and Starbucks, and many of their products are now permanent pieces of the design collections of prominent museums. The wallpapers of Éva and Ildikó can veritably compete with the creations of the top notch names; what is more, they are among the best products thanks to their inexhaustible and exciting visual diversity, while there is no repetition in their set of designs. The Valicsek sisters confidently exploit the combinational potential inherent in layers as well as scale and colour shifts. Their creative attitude is a combination of precision and playfulness: their world is equally geometrical and dreamily imaginative. Looking at their wallpapers puts you in a state of flow.
Concept category
Hoito, the smart formula maker
Hoito, a device providing a solution for making formula milk and powder-based drinks for children in a closed system and ideal for infants aged 0-3, was designed by the engineering office X-Plast. The smart version of Hoito is an alternative for similar devices that are difficult to clean and require disinfection. Indeed, it is more than just a smart device: its designers went further than simply using environmentally friendly materials, they designed a baby-bottle recycling system. Thanks to the specially packaged formula and the device’s closed powder formula container, the formula milk can be made in an airtight system (i.e. the ingredients do not come into contact with air) so at the end of the preparation process only the baby bottle needs to be cleaned and disinfected, but not the device itself. Hoito can be operated remotely, can store the profiles of several children, comes with an app and can identify the formulas thanks to its RFID label recognition system. The innovative mixing technology as well as the filtered and accurately dispensed water of the desired temperature result in the highest quality baby formula.
Jury statement
It was a pleasure to take this smart device in our hands, and read its documentation, which reveals that the design was developed based on a comprehensive analysis of the various aspects of formula making, taking into consideration the hygienic and usage factors of the preparation process. After proposing different solutions, the final concept is that of a product that is innovative and one of its kind in its category. The technical parameters, production technology and the selection of the materials are built on this concept. The design is carefully developed in every detail and represents a high standard; its language of form avoids ’baby talk’ and the props of ‘babydom’, while the implementation is distinguished by simplicity, elegance, quality and durability. The project is close to the stage of becoming a product. Hoito is competitive in every regard with the similar category products of the big world brands.
Visual communication category
Silence inside – the Hungarian pavilion at the Leipzig Bookfair 2017
The pavilion designed by Lead82 Ltd was conceived in an interdisciplinary vein and distinguished itself in the cavalcade of the book fair by providing a total artwork experience. The centre of the designers’ concept was space, a civilizational invention introduced into written texts in Western cultures in the 11th century, making reading as well as structuring and interpreting the world easier. The Hungarian pavilion’s labyrinth appealing to all the senses and thus providing a tactile, kinaesthetic, acoustic, visual and intellectual experience was defined by a silence and philosophical, sacred dimension that made it stand out from among conventional book stands and helped visitors to experience spiritual immersion and find their inner silence. Silence, nothing and invisible space between words were metaphorically presented and given meaning through various branches of art (design, architecture, typography, graphic art and music) as well as creative tools, demonstrating that complex messages come into being through the synergy of different areas of creativity.
Jury statement
The project’s core value is transdisciplinary thinking, which provides an easy cross-over between genres and drawing on the basic tools of typography, architecture and sound design created a total artwork that, despite its strivings towards autonomy, did not lose sight of its primary objective, namely to provide a context and environment for Hungary’s representation at the Leipzig Book Fair. An especially praiseworthy element of the design is the sensitive and harmonised use of the different media (book, space forming, sound, event) manifest in gestures closely linked to the book fair’s/project’s theme, for example its original visual interpretation of a peculiar phase in the development of culture and writing, through which it puts the event in the widest possible context of pan-European written culture.
Student category
ANYSCAN Medical Product Family Redesign for Mediso Ltd
Mediso, an internationally recognised developer of medical diagnostics equipment, was founded almost ten years ago. The three-modality (CT, PET/CT, SPECT/CT) redesign of their AnyScan imaging product group, i.e. making it configurable to meet different needs, was a challenge requiring high level and complex design competence. The redesign was necessitated by the development of user needs and by technological development. In regard to its forms, Mediso’s most complex equipment is the key product of its identity, therefore sensitivity and a sense of proportion were essential in its redesign. The new design simultaneously meets the expectations of continuity and recognisability, while clearly indicating that it is a new generation equipment. The former, traditional fibreglass-enforced shell was replaced by an environmentally friendly, flax or hemp biocomposite, and the traditional control panel by magnetically fitted tablets. A new addition is the introduction of green as a supplementary colour, which not only perfected the ergonomy of the equipment but also facilitates a calmer and more comfortable imaging routine for both patients and doctors.
Jury session
The Student category of the Hungarian Design Award has produced the most colourful palette in recent years. This category equally contains experimental concepts challenging the limits and projects that maximally meet market needs and can be realised within a short span of time in collaboration with partner companies. This year’s winner belongs to the latter type. It was great to see that there are Hungarian companies that find it important to share their experience with design students and provide them with themes for their degree projects. Mediso Ltd is an especially design-sensitive company since one of the fundamentals of the competitiveness of their medical instruments and equipment is world class design, which won the Hungarian Design Award on several occasions in recent years. The submitted project – the design of the AnyScan product family – exemplifies optimal cooperation between a company, an institution of higher education and a design student in a model fashion. The final result is a design based on thorough research, well thought-through in its function, ergonomy and technical construction, and on a par with its global rivals in regard to its form, even surpassing them at certain points. The AnyScan redesign is the outcome of finding the form for a highly complex set of problems at a level that challenges the limits of the Student category.