awards + competitions

At a gala held last night at New York's Skylight Studios, designer Sophie Théallet was named the winner of the sixth annual Council of Fashion Designers of America (CFDA)/Vogue Fashion Fund Prize, besting nine other finalists to take home $200,000 and a steady stream of business mentoring from industry veterans. Runner-up honors (and $50,000 each) went to jewelry designer Monique Péan and menswear designer Patrik Ervell. Other finalists included Flora Gill and Alexa Adams (Ohne Titel), Natalie Chanin (Alabama Chanin), Waris Ahluwalia (House of Waris), and Wayne Lee (Wayne).

French-born, Brooklyn-based Théallet is known for her luxe bohemian aesthetic and has recently garnered more mainstream attention as a favorite of First Lady Michelle Obama (or at least of her fashion svengali, Ikram Goldman). Although Théallet's label is just three years old, her hefty resume defies the usual Fashion Fund wunderkind winner profile (think Alexander Wang and Proenza Schouler's Lazaro Hernandez and Jack McCollough). After graduating from Studio Bercot, Théallet designed a successful line for Parisan department store Le Printemps before going to work for Jean-Paul Gaultier and then Azzedine Alaia, who she assisted for ten years. More recently, Théallet teamed with makeup mogul Francois Nars on Motu Tane, a resort collection inspired by Nars's private Tahitian island.

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(Photo: Prix Pictet)

It's been quite a year for London-based photographer Nadav Kander. In January, he made a splash with the special inauguration issue of The New York Times Magazine, which devoted its entire feature well to his 52 full-page color portraits of "Obama's People." The quirky portfolio garnered him the title of International Photographer of the Year in the International Photography Awards, announced last month during the Lucie Awards Gala. Kander's latest honor spotlights a body of work far beyond the Beltway. He is the winner of the 2009 Prix Pictet for his photographs of the life and landscape along the banks of China's Yangtze River, which he traced from its mouth in Shanghai to its source—about 4,000 miles away—in Qinghai Province. Kander was presented with the CHF 100,000 (approximately $98,000) award by former United Nations Secretary Kofi Annan at a ceremony held last week in Paris.

Now in its second year, the Prix Pictet is a Pictet & Cie-sponsored global photography competition that seeks to promote sustainability. This year's theme was "Earth." The twelve photographers shortlisted for the 2009 prize included Andreas Gursky, Edward Burtynsky, Naoya Hatakeyama, and Ed Kashi, who was awarded the 2009 Prix Pictet Commission. The American photographer will travel to Madagascar and produce a series of photographs to bolster the work of Azafady, a charity that works to eradicate poverty, suffering, and environmental damage in the island nation. An exhibition of work shortlisted for Prix Pictet is on view through November 23 at the Passage de Retz in Paris and then tours to Thessaloniki (December), Dubai (January), and Eindhoven (March). Go here for an online preview.

Previously on UnBeige:

(Logo: Young Guns 6 winner Craig Ward of Words Are Pictures)

The jury has spoken, and the Art Directors Club has announced its newest group of Young Guns: 50 creative sharp-shooters from around the globe that are doing great things in discplines ranging from graphic design and art direction to environmental design and video. The winners, all under 30, hail from 14 countries, including Lithuania (PetPunk), Denmark (Peter Michael Willer), and Japan (NOSIGNER). More than half (26) of this class of Young Guns are based in North America, and many are already working for some big guns: among those now in possession of coveted award cubes are Timothy Goodman (a designer with COLLINS:), Karim Charlebois-Zariffa (Sagmeister, Inc.), Qian Qian (McCann Erickson), and Ben Wiseman (Rodrigo Corral Design). Others are doing great things on their own, including U.S. winners Jessica Hische, Mixtape Club, Dan Saelinger, and Matt Smithson. Check out the full list of Young Guns 7 winners here. Those in the New York area can head to the ADC Gallery, where a selection of the winners' eye-poppingly good work is on view through Friday, November 6.

We're not sure how to feel about this one. When we posted a few weeks back about famous pastor/writer Rick Warren holding a quick contest for people to design his new book's cover, it seemed to have grabbed some attention, largely from those against any form of spec work. Now the same company he worked with to handle that contest, 99Designs, itself created to foster a spec model of working, has launched another high-profile contest, this time with South by Southwest, asking people to design an official t-shirt for the 2010 edition of the popular film, music, and interactive festival. So we leave it up for you to decide if this is perfectly fine (it's just a copy of the popular Threadless model, after all) or it feels a little odd considering SXSW's focus on getting independent contractors (in a sense) working together, as opposed to pitting them against one another for a few bucks (the prize is $500).

(Photos: UnBeige)

When we spotted the distinctive figure of John Waters among the cocktail crowd at last night's Cooper-Hewitt National Design Awards gala, we knew we were in for a treat. The filmmaker, artist, writer, and subversive Baltimore native took to the votive candle-lined stage at Cipriani 42nd Street late in the evening. Having made quick work of their scrumptious chocolate soufflés with chantilly cream, guests were sipping coffee, grazing on petits fours, and growing antsy. Then Waters appeared.

In presenting the award for product design to Constantin and Laurene Boym of Boym Partners, he galanized the crowd with rat-a-tat praise for the design studio's wildly successful Buildings of Disaster series, miniature replicas of famous structures where tragic or terrible events occurred—or as Waters described them, "scaled-down souvenirs of Hell." He is an avid collector. "Whenever I need an idea for a new movie, I look over at the Boyms' burning Waco compound miniature and feel a surge of creativity," said Waters, who added that he often gives the Boyms' Alma Tunnel (where Princess Diana met her untimely end) as a wedding gift. "The brides always write me the most glowing thank-you notes."

Waters also singled out the Boyms' 2008 Unabomber birdhouse, a sparrow-scaled version of Ted Kaczynski's Montana cabin. "It's fully functional, whatever that means," he said, eliciting a huge laugh from the audience. "Do the birds fly in and die? I don't know. I keep mine on the mantel in my living room."

Photos: Trek Bicycle Corporation (above) and UnBeige (below)

As followers of the UnBeige Twitter feed learned only minutes after it was announced last night, Trek's Lime bike edged out 197 other nominees to win the 2009 People's Design Award from the Smithsonian's Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum. Established in 2006, the award is chosen by the public through online voting. The Lime bike joins past winners the Zon Hearing Aid, Toms Shoes, and the Katrina Cottage.

In the final and highly-anticipated segment of the tenth annual National Design Awards ceremony held yesterday evening at Cipriani in New York City, chef and Food Network star Tyler Florence presented the People's Design Award to Hans Eckholm (pictured above), senior industrial designer for Trek Bicycles. Eckholm was quick to credit the research of design consultancy IDEO (whose co-founder Bill Moggridge picked up the National Design Award for Lifetime Achievement) and components manufacurer Shimano as critical to the development of the Lime, a coasting bike designed for the casual rider interested in biking for recreation and convenience.

After the ceremony, we tracked down Trek's Michael Leighton, who has the enviable title of "Industrial Design Iconeer," to learn more about the development and design of the Lime bike, which was introduced in 2007 and sells for approximately $500. The project came about after Shimano hired IDEO to analyze its business with an eye to customers that it was not already reaching, namely the 65 percent of Americans who do not currently own or ride a bike. "IDEO came back with this electronic shifting componentry, so when the rider goes faster on the bike, the gears basically shift automatically," explained Leighton. "The user doesn't have to think about it at all."

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Yes, it's National Design Week, but it's also a busy time for the world of photography. On Monday evening, Lincoln Center's newly spiffed-up Alice Tully Hall was filled with photogs for the presentation of the Lucie Awards. This year's honorees included legendary fashion photographer and art director Jean-Paul Goude, photojournalist Gilles Peress, and the multi-talented Mark Seliger, who was recognized for his achievement in portraiture.

The evening's dramatic tension came in the-envelope-please-style announcements of winners in award categories including curator/exhibition of the year (Sarah Greenough for "Looking In: Robert Frank's The Americans," on view through January 3 at the Metropolitan Museum of Art), fashion layout of the year (Harper's Bazaar for Terry Richardson's "Thriller Fashion" portfolio), and print advertising campaign of the year (the dreamy "We Are Animals" Wrangler campaign, photographed by Ryan McGinley). Also feted at the Lucies were International Photography Award winners, among them Nadav Kander (International Photographer of the Year), Elliott Willcox (Discovery of the Year), and Rachel Papo (Deeper Perspective Photographer of the Year).

The shutterfun rolls on with today's kick-off of the PDN PhotoPlus Expo, featuring the latest and greatest in photography, at New York's Jacob Javits Center. The Nikon booth never fails to make us all light-headed and covetous, so we'll focus on the photographers themselves, including talks by Harry Benson (who will probably be happy to autograph copies of the November issue of Architectural Digest if asked nicely), Joel Meyerowitz, James Nachtwey, and Eileen Gittins.

Previously on UnBeige:

It's time to brush up on our pronounciation of "Apichatpong Weerasethakul," because the Thai filmmaker is among the six artists shortlisted for the 2010 Hugo Boss Prize. Administered by the Guggenheim Foundation, the $100,000 prize is awarded every other year to an artist who has made an important contribution to contemporary art. Past winners include Emily Jacir, Matthew Barney, and Pierre Huyghe. The finalists for the prize's eighth incarnation are Weerasethakul, Cao Fei, Hans-Peter Feldmann, Natascha Sadr Haghighian, Roman Ondák, and Walid Raad. The winner will be selected by a jury chaired by Guggenheim curator Nancy Spector and announced next fall. In addition to a cool tetrahedral trophy that resembles the coveted Triforce from The Legend of Zelda, the winning artist also gets a show at New York's Guggenheim Museum in 2011.

Previously on UnBeige:

While Oscar Niemeyer, at 102, might hold the title for oldest-living starchitect, he's closely trailed by the great I.M. Pei, who at 92, is still working. And for all those years of work, he's had a bang up week thus far with the announcement that he will be receiving the Royal Institute of British Architects' highest honor (as well as in the field itself), the Royal Gold Medal:

Given in recognition of a lifetime's work, the Royal Gold Medal is approved personally by Her Majesty the Queen and is given to a person or group of people who have had a significant influence "either directly or indirectly on the advancement of architecture".

Pei, who is perhaps best known for creating the National Gallery of Art, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and the Louvre Pyramid (long before the McDonald's addition), was nominated by newer starchitect David Adjaye, "who described the architect as a 'giant in the canon of greats'." Pei will receive the award in person this upcoming February, on the 11th, at the RIBA's headquarters in London.

Just a couple of weeks ago, we told you about the quickie "design my book cover" contest famous pastor/author Rick Warren had put together. It was so quick, running over a very, very short couple of days, that it didn't seem to catch much flak from the no-spec crowd (likely also helped that Warren's book probably falls outside the norm for spec work). Now, just a few days after the contest closed, and 3,542 entries in its wake, the winner has been chosen: it's a husband and wife team named Simona Dall'Argine and Simone Salardi. The pair used a transparent copy of a prayer that fills up the whole background, just behind the book's title. For their work? $5000. What surprised us about all of this is that the two are professional designers who work for "national and international clients." By default, aren't most established, regularly employed designers fairly anti-spec? Or, because they're abroad, is the movement against spec largely just an American phenomenon? All very interesting. Discuss at your leisure.