awards + competitions

Core77 is back with the second edition of its dazzlingly ambitious Design Awards program. In addition to progressive categories (social impact, speculative), professional and student entry fields, globally distributed juries, in-depth video testimonials, and (whew!) live-webcast jury announcements, the 2012 awards feature two new categories: food design and writing & commentary. Among the 74 international design luminaries tapped as judges are Bruce Sterling, Alice Twemlow, Michael Sorkin, Sulki and Min Choi, and Zoe Ryan.

“The Core77 Design Awards celebrates the richness of the design profession and its practitioners, expanding categories, leveraging online scale, increasing transparency and decreasing plane fuel,” says Allan Chochinov. So what’s in it for you, provided that you submit your entry by the April 10 deadline? Fame and fortune, or at least the former: honorees will be published in the 2012 awards gallery, across the Core77 online network, and in the awards publication. Then there’s that swell trophy (pictured), created by Rich Brilliant Willing with an eye to the team-based nature of design. “In our discussions with Core77, we came to realize that an inherent pitfall of the iconic trophy is that it is shared by a group, yet not literally divisible among that group,” say the designers, who seized on the image and symbol of a mold. “Our solution for the Core77 Design Awards trophy has a functional value: winning teams can create ingots from the trophy, and provide these cast facsimiles to their collaborators, clients, and staff.”

Anymore when a large urban landscape project is in the works, you could fairly safely guess that New York’s High Line co-designers, James Corner Field Operations, would either be on the short list or had just won (it’s even been speculated that all the High Line enthusiasm could be the next “Bilbao effect”). And so it has happened again, right here in Chicago. Back in September you might recall, the organization behind the city’s Navy Pier, which juts out into Lake Michigan and offers spectacular views of the skyline and therefore should be an inviting experience but is, instead, a soul crushing tourist trap, announced plans for a major, let’s-actually-make-this-place-inviting redesign competition. The original list included teams upon teams of industry heavies, which was then whittled down, somewhat surprisingly, to some less household name teams. In the end, this week it was revealed that James Corner’s group, which also includes Bruce Mau Design, nArchitects, and Ed Marszewski, along with twelve other firms, has won the project. We were initially very excited, but then reason prevailed in the form of the Tribune‘s Blair Kamin, who writes that the project provides both “great promise — and peril” given that “pier officials’ historic tendency to favor pragmatics over aesthetics” which “could undercut a thoughtful conceptual plan.” If you’ve been to Navy Pier at any point, you’ll likely come to that worry as well. And with a relatively small budget as well, we’ll hope for the best, but we’ll do so with fingers tightly crossed. Here’s Corner and Co.’s lengthy presentation video from back in February, and here’s the quicker, animated plans:

Here at UnBeige, we’ve been known to select dining establishments based on their chairs and typefaces, so when the James Beard Foundation announces its annual slate of award nominees, we head straight for the design and graphics categories. A posh swimming pool in Las Vegas (the celebrity chef version of Branson, Missouri) was the setting for yesterday’s announcement of the 2012 contenders, selected by committees of industry professionals in each of the categories. Duking it out for the James Beard Award for outstanding restaurant design (for North American establishments designed or renovated since January 1, 2009) are a trio of Gotham heavyweights: Thomas Schlesser of Design Bureaux for Boulud-on-the-Bowery DBGB Kitchen and Bar, Bentel & Bentel for their overhaul of famed Le Bernardin, and Glen Coben of Glen & Company for the breath of fresh air that is Miguel Sanchez‘s Romera. The restaurant graphics category is also dominated by New Yorkers: graphic gourmand Richard Pandiscio gets a nod for the Americano at Hotel Americano, while Jon Santos of Common Space Studio made the shortlist for the boldly nostalgic brand he cooked up for The Dutch. The left coast avoided a shut-out thanks to Clive Piercy, who keeps it cool at Air Conditioned and is nominated for whipping up tasty graphics for Farmshop in Santa Monica. Winners of the 2012 James Beard Foundation Awards will be announced on May 7 at a Lincoln Center ceremony hosted by Alton Brown. Wear your fanciest clogs!

The Hammer Museum (of art), which is not to be confused with the Hammer Museum (of hammers), is introducing an $100,000 award as part of its “Made in L.A. 2012” biennial, opening June 2 across three venues: the Hammer, LAXART, and the Department of Cultural Affairs’ Los Angeles Municipal Art Gallery at Barnsdall Park. Funded by art-loving philanthropists Jarl and Pamela Mohn, the Mohn Prize will be awarded to one of the 60 artists from the exhibition and will be accompanied by the publication of a book on the winner’s work. The twist? A jury including MoMA’s Doryun Chong and Rita Gonzalez of LACMA will select the five finalists, but after that, it’s up to the people. The winner will be chosen by visitors to the exhibition through online voting. Would-be voters can register during their visit (photo ID will be required, so there’s no monkey business) before declaring their top pick using a highly secure digital platform.

Council of Fashion Designers of America (CFDA) president and GapKids collaborator Diane von Furstenberg last night opened up her Meatpacking District wonderland to host a party at which the nominees and honorees for this year’s CFDA Fashion Awards were announced. Saturday Night Live head writer and Weekend Updater Seth Meyers will host this year’s awards ceremony, set for June 4 at Lincoln Center. Among the other surprises: Mary Kate and Ashley Olsen’s The Row has made the leap from Swarovski Award contender (the five-year-old label was nominated last year but bested by Prabal Gurung) to the big show: womenswear designer of the year, where the diminutive duo will duke it out against veteran winners Jack McCollough and Lazaro Hernandez of Proenza Schouler (the boys are going for a three-peat) and Marc Jacobs, who already has a trio of womenswear trophies at home. The main menswear field consists of Billy Reid, Patrik Ervell, and Simon Spurr, and Reid may pull off an upset of his two oft-nominated peers. Over in accessory design, Wang and the Proenza boys will, for the second year in a row, compete against Reed Krakoff, who deserves the win just as much as he did last year. As for this year’s special honorees, Tommy Hilfiger will receive the lifetime achievement award, Johnny Depp will be feted as a fashion icon (the first male recipient to receive that honor), and street styling couple Scott “The Sartorialist” Schuman and Garance Doré will be honored with the media award. Taking home the international award: the one and only Rei Kawakubo of Comme des Garçons (note to the CFDA: get John Waters to present this one). Keep reading for the Swarovski Award nominees.
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(Photos from left: Estefania Meana, two untitled works from Graham’s End of an Age series)

This just in: British photographer Paul Graham is the recipient of the 2012 Hasselblad Foundation International Award in Photography. Past winners range from Irving Penn and Robert Frank to Jeff Wall and Sophie Calle. The prize, announced this morning, includes 1 million Swedish Krona (approximately $150,000, at current exchange), a diploma, and a gold medal, all of which will be presented to Graham this evening at a ceremony in London. “Who can say no to a bit of bling?!” said the photographer via online chat a few hours after the Gothenburg, Sweden-based foundation announced the award, which Graham described as “a great honor and surprise.”

This fall, the Hasselblad Center at the Gothenburg Museum of Art will mount an exhibition of his work. “I think it could be interesting to show some work from 30 years ago and the most recent photographs,” said Graham, 56, whose latest work—New York street photography—is on view through March 24 at Pace/MacGill. When asked about what drives him these days, he cited the desire “to make a contribution to that wonderful unique genre of street photography, that so many of my photographic heroes worked in.” Added Graham, “It’s a mountain range that the foolhardy will throw themselves upon. And I’m that fool.”

(Photos: Roberto Dutesco, courtesy Thomas Woltz, Paul Gilmore, David S. Rubin)

It’s almost time to spring ahead, into a fresh season of honoring distinguished achievements in art and design. Let’s start with the New York School of Interior Design, which on April 18 will present a lifetime achievement award to textile whiz and all-around design star Jack Lenor Larsen and bestow its inaugural Thomas N. Armstrong III Award in landscape design upon Thomas Woltz of Nelson Byrd Woltz Landscape Architects (projects include the Peggy Guggenheim Sculpture Garden in Venice). Meanwhile, the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, has chosen Annie Leibovitz as the recipient of this year’s MOCA Award to Distinguished Women in the Arts. The photographer will join the ranks of past honorees such as Twyla Tharp, Yoko Ono, and Barbara Kruger. And speaking of distinguished women, Fern Mallis will be honored with the Pratt Institute Fashion Industry Lifetime Achievement Award at an April 26 show of designs by graduating seniors. Calvin Klein will present the award to Mallis, the creator of New York Fashion Week, former executive director of the Council of Fashion Designers of America, and former senior vice president of IMG Fashion.

The competition that spotted Stefan Sagmeister, James Victore, and Mike Mills when they were but wee design/art powerhouses-to-be is back for its tenth go-round. Behold Young Guns 10 (or X, as the Romans would have it), the Art Directors Club‘s international, cross-disciplinary, portfolio-based competition to identify the young creative vanguard. By “young,” they mean 30 or under, and by “creatives,” they mean those doing great things in graphic design, photography, illustration, advertising and art direction, environmental design, film, animation, video, interactive design, object design, and/or typography. What’s so special about Young Guns? It recognizes an individual, and considers a body of work, not a single ad or design. Also, you get a really cool cube if you win.

Young Guns 10 is open to ADC members and non-members worldwide (last year’s competition saw entrants from 43 countries). A jury of past ADC Young Guns including Emily Oberman, Mike Bishop, and Jennifer Tzar will select the 50 winners. Entries will be accepted beginning Tuesday, March 13, when the ADC will host an opening party with a show of original “X”-related artwork prints from the likes of Arem Duplessis and Irma Boom. Coincidentally, the ADC’s New York City HQ was recently covered in giant graffiti Xs—OK, it was the ADC-sanctioned work of Dress Code‘s Andre Andreev and Dan Covert, but it’s still fun to watch:

The Society of Publication Designers has announced the finalists in its annual design competition, now in its 47th year. On the print side—chaired by Luke Hayman (Pentagram), Jeremy Leslie (MagCulture), and Richard Turley (Bloomberg Businessweek)—the hotly anticipated “Magazine of the Year” category is dominated by men’s titles, including last year’s big winner, GQ, along with three chiseled faces from abroad: IL – Intelligence in Lifestyle (a magazine of Italian business daily Il Sole 24 ORE), Lotus, and Port. They’ll duke it out against a trio of nimble weeklies: fresh-faced Bloomberg Businessweek, TIME, and ever-snappy New York. Also among the well-deserved finalists in various print categories: The New York Times Magazine‘s inspired “Can the Bulldog Be Saved?” cover, the terrific “Forever Kate” issue of Elle Collections (UK), September W portfolios by the unstoppable Stevens (Meisel and Klein), and the “United States of Design” feature in Fast Company, which is also a contender for best redesign. And over in the digital category, co-chairs Scher Ford (Time Inc.) and Joe Zeff (Joe Zeff Design) virtually sifted through a record number of entries. Among the tablet apps that emerged at the top are those of Bloomberg Businessweek, GQ, and SPIN. Click here to download the full list of SPD finalists. The gold and silver medal winners in each category will be announced on May 11 at a gala in New York.

Forget the Oscars (but didn’t Gwyneth look stunning in that Tom Ford number?), it’s Pritzker time. This year’s architectural megaprize goes to Wang Shu, whose practice is based in Hangzhou, China. He’ll receive the prize—$100,000 and a swell bronze medallion inscribed with the Vitruvian ideal of “firmness, commodity, and delight” —on May 25 in a ceremony in Beijing. “This is really a big surprise,” said Wang, 48, when he learned that he would be joining past Pritzker laureates such as Philip Johnson (1979), Tadao Ando (1995), and Zaha Hadid (2004), who served on the nine-member jury for this year’s prize along with the likes of Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer and 2002 laureate Glenn Murcutt. “I am tremendously honored to receive the Pritzker Architecture Prize. I suddenly realized that I’ve done many things over the last decade. It proves that earnest hard work and persistence lead to positive outcomes.” The jury praised Wang’s buildings, which include the Library of Wenzheng College at Suzhou University (below, at left) and the Ningbo Contemporary Art Museum (at right), for their “unique ability to evoke the past, without making direct references to history” and “strong sense of cultural continuity and re-invigorated tradition.”

(Photos from left: Lu Wenyu and Lv Hengzhong, courtesy Amateur Architecture Studio)