TORRANCE, Calif.., Nov. 27, 2012 – The Lexus International Division of Toyota Motor Corporation announces the launch of the Lexus Design Award, an international design competition targeting designers around the world.
 
The Lexus Design Award is aimed to provide an opportunity for the next generation of designers to work with a world-famous designer as a mentor to create prototypes of their designs. Through this initiative, Lexus hopes to contribute to nurturing and supporting creativity.
 
The theme of the Lexus Design Award 2012 is motion—a word and concept directly connected to people’s everyday lives. Under this award program, Lexus welcomes innovative design and calls for works that display a deep understanding of Lexus’ design philosophy, uniquely interpret concepts and provide original perspectives on and solutions to various issues of daily life. Lexus welcomes entries from designers in fields such as architecture, product design and fashion.
 
The application period runs through Dec. 31, 2012. The winners are to be announced and their works exhibited during Milan Design Week in April 2013.
 
About the Lexus Brand
With the vision of Progressive Luxury, Lexus has been pursuing and presenting values different from those of conventional luxury makes. Lexus has been striving not only to create a more luxurious experience through automobiles, but also, through such technological advancements as the Lexus Hybrid Drive, to contribute to efforts to solve numerous issues that have surfaced in the modern world.
 
Lexus believes that designfor this competition goes beyond mastery of form and is a process in problem solving and an effort to propose solutions to shape a better society and future. Lexus therefore welcomes applications that propose a wide variety of innovative designs to overcome challenges in fields such as architecture, product design and fashion.
 
 
Call for Entries for Lexus Design Award 2012 Competition

Applications	Oct. 30,2012 –Dec. 31,2012
Theme	Motion
Judging criteria	•Depth of understanding of the design concepts of the competition and a unique interpretation of those concepts. •Uniqueness of perspective and originality of solutions proposed under the theme.
Judges	Paola Antonelli, Aric Chen, Jaime Hayon, Toyo Ito, Birgit Lohmann, Kiyotaka Ise (Lexus International president)
Mentors	Sam Hecht, Junya Ishigami
Prizes/benefits	•Ten entries will win awards. The creators of the awarded works will be invited to the Milan Design Week*. •Two entries from the ten winners will receive up to five million yen each to cover prototype production costs. The designers of the two entries will create prototypes of their award winning designs between February and March 2013 through sessions with two assigned mentors. •The two prototypes and also panel displays of the other eight winning entries will be exhibited in the Lexus space at the Milan Design Week in 2013.
Organizer	Lexus International, a division of Toyota Motor Corporation
In cooperation with	designboom and DESIGN ASSOCIATIONNPO
Applications	Through the designboom website (URL below) www.designboom.com/lexus-design-award-2012.html
For more information	Visit www.lexus-global.com/design/lda
*In the case of individual applicants, the winner will be invited. In the case of group applicants, up to two people will be invited.

# # #