Advertisement

  • News
  • Columns
  • Interviews
  • BW Communities
  • Events
  • BW TV
  • Subscribe to Print
BW Businessworld

Jury Meet: Salutations To The Designer Bard

An eminent jury and hundreds of impressive entries for the shortlist brought back the coveted BW Future of Design Awards

Photo Credit : Umesh Goswami

Design is poetry in motion - for a great design can melt the toughest critics and spur unbridled creativity. In keeping with a long tradition of celebrating the creme de la creme in designs, BW Businessworld once again instituted the BW Future of Design Awards.

Scores of companies and professionals participated in this revamped first edition of BW Future of Design Awards. To evaluate their works and entries, a high profile jury braced the morning rush-hour traffic in Mumbai to pour over hundreds of outstanding designs from all walks of business and industry.

The jury comprised veteran design experts, architects and fashion designers. Pradyumna Vyas, Director, National Institute of Design, chaired the Jury Meet. Lulu Raghavan, Managing Director, Landor, Bharat Yamsanwar, Principal Architect, Team One Architects, Yatin Patel, Director Design, DSP Design Associates, Preeti Vyas, Chairperson, VGC, Preeti Singh, Director Highlight and Nafisa Rachel Williams, owner of the label Nafisa Rachel Williams, were among prominent jury members.  

Shortlisting winners in a long list of wonderful designs is no easy task. Entries had to live up to the promise of being useful, unique, innovative, and yet be cutting-edge in design and aesthetics. The jury, thus, proceeded with an elimination round that pruned the list down to only the best entries. Some designs were passed, but many others were subject to further intense scrutiny and debate. Finally, towards the close of the evening, the jury settled on the world-class designs.
It was a long day, but the jury members were ecstatic about the award process - at the same time coming up with ideas to improve the process. Commenting on the entries, Pradyumna Vyas, who was also a part of the jury back in the days when the design awards were first held, said, “Today design plays a crucial role in all spheres. Design thinking and strategy will certainly make a difference in manufacturing and to ‘Make in India’. Moreover, we have to use design effectively to take businesses to the next level.”  

Agrees Preeti Singh, “A good design is user-friendly and simple and yet, gives attention to detail.” While Lulu Raghavan commented, “I feel a good design serves the purpose it’s created for: it needs to have an impact and an emotional response. BW Future of Design is a great initiative to bring out the best in the designing world.”

Yatin Patel commended the entries and the way they were put up, while Nafisa Williams noted that given the vast categories of awards and that design entries were not limited to specific fields, was itself incredible. Bharat Yamsanwar noted that recognising the best in designs requires great vision. Preeti Vyas commended the awards function as a great initiative. “The categories were quite wide and we saw some good sparks in product design. I look forward to more entries with greater innovative designs in the coming years,” she averred.

The winners will be announced at a gala BW Future of Design Awards 2018 evening in October in Mumbai to salute the designer bard.