Who are the Designers of the Future?
The highlights of Miami / Basel Design this year was the Swarovski Designers of the Future Award Commissions.
The Swarovski Designers of the Future Award honors a select group of emerging designers who have won the opportunity to present to the influential audience at Design Miami / Basel.
This year's winners were Frank Kolkman, O Portable Study and Yosuke Ushigome of Takram. They were unveiled at Design Miami / Basel 2018 and its fourth year that Swarovski and Design Miami / Basel have collaborated with this prestigious award, which was established in 2006.
Designers of the Future Annual dinner
Sweetheart Hosted by Nadja Swarovski, Richard Leyens Vice President, Craig Robins creator of Design District Miami and the sister fair Miami / Basel Design, Rodman Primack Chief Creative Director of Miami / Basel Design, Daniel Arsham Artist, Virgil Abloh the Art Director of Louis Vuitton Menswear and Ceo of Off-White, Philippe Combres Publisher of The Official St Barth and Jenny Mannerheim Art Director of The Official St Barth and the Frank Kolkman winners, Study O Portable and Yosuke Ushigome of Takram.
"This year's innovative, dynamic and thought-provoking creations use crystal to explore our relationship with technology and the home. It is also a pleasure to showcase the inspiring work of the winners of the award.
Nadja Swarovski
In picture with Craig Robins
About The Swarovski Designers of the Future Winners Award
The three young designers were commissioned to create a new design on the design brief: 'smart living', exploiting the scientific and aesthetic properties of crystal. With this design challenge Swarovski and Design Miami / asked the question if crystal innovations can we make our lives smarter, more interactive, sustainable, immersive and accessible? The designers worked closely with Swarovski's engineers and master cutters to explore how craftsmanship, cutting-edge technology and visionary design can result in imaginative works that will shape future living.
Our "heart stroke" for Frank Kolkman and his Dream Machine, An homage to the Beat Generation poets Brion Gysin and William Burroughs, the immersive crystal installation generates light and sound patterns from Swarovski Crystals that synchronize with alpha and theta brainwaves to allow individuals enter a state of deep relaxation or 'artificial dreaming'.
Frank Kolkman (NL) is an experimental designer whose latest projects include: an out-of-body experience simulator, a Domestic Drug Screening Kit, a DIY Surgical Robot and proposals for a Humane Caviar Super Yacht Extraction & a Synthetic Rhino Horn Growing Device. Trying to combine his curiosity towards the inner workings of things with analytical thinking and intuitive making, Frank aims to challenge our understanding of current and near-future technologies and their sociopolitical implications.
www.frankkolkman.nl
Study O Portable, founded by Bernadette Deddens (NL) and Tetsuo Mukai (JP), is a research-based practice that makes objects in the environment of our ideas toward objects.
www.studyoportable.com
Yosuke Ushigome (JP) is currently working at a Japanese design studio. Takram's London office as a creative technologist. His primary interests are centered around emerging technologies. He will see future visions that they promise, reveal the cultural and political mechanisms behind them, and the insights through making physical and digital prototypes. By doing so, it aims to facilitate understanding of the implications of emerging technologies and encourages better-informed decision-making on our future.
www.yosukeushigo.me
For more information, please visit designmiami.com and www.swarovskigroup.com
