TORRANCE, Calif. – Aug. 13, 2014 – Ah, the sights, smells, sounds, tastes and feel of Milan in the spring!  Designers who have innovative ideas can enter the 2015 Lexus Design Award for a chance to display their works at the 2015 Milan Design Week, be mentored by international creatives and receive up to ¥2.5 million to build a prototype of their own. The third Lexus Design Award competition is open for entries!

First launched in 2013, the Lexus Design Award is an international competition that supports young creatives who tackle problems using design. It features a unique mentoring program for four entrants that helps them produce working prototypes of their innovative ideas and showcase their concepts to an elite design community.

The theme of the 2015 Lexus Design Award is “Senses.” A wide range of possibilities open with a broad subject that influences perception and is intrinsic to life. This year the theme also bridges design with the driving experience, something with which Lexus is very familiar. All senses are engaged with eye-catching vehicle styling, the sound of the finely tuned engine, the feel of semi-aniline leather seats, and the “new car smell.” By considering this array of examples, Lexus seeks to illicit extraordinary responses that explore the five senses.

The Lexus Design Award provides an opportunity for 12 finalists and their works to receive wide exposure in the design community and beyond through exposure at 2015 Milan Design Week. In addition, four of the finalists — twice as many as last year — will receive up to ¥2.5 million and support from international design mentors as they develop their prototypes. This year’s mentors are Arthur Huang, Robin Hunicke, Neri & Hu, and Max Lamb. At 2015 Milan Design Week, the creators of the four prototypes will present their designs at the Lexus pavilion before the Grand Prix winner is announced.

Entries to the 2015 Lexus Design Award competition will be accepted through November 3, 2014 at http://www.designboom.com/competition/Lexus-design-award-2015.  The 12 finalists will be announced in early 2015.

Call for Entries to 2015 Lexus Design Award Competition

Title	2015 Lexus Design Award
Application period	August 11, 2014 – November 3, 2014
Theme	Senses
Judging criteria	Depth of understanding of the design concepts for 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 Toyo Ito Birgit Lohmann Alice Rawsthorn Tokuo Fukuichi (Lexus International)
Mentors	Arthur Huang Robin Hunicke Neri & Hu Max Lamb
Award categories	Lexus Design Award 2015 — 12 finalists Grand Prix — One winner (selected from the four prototype exhibitors) Prototype exhibitors — Four prototype winners (selected from the 12 finalists) Panel exhibitors — Eight finalists
Prizes/benefits	12 finalists will be invited to Milan Design Week 2015. Four entries from the 12 finalists will receive up to 2.5 million yen each to cover prototype production costs. The designers of the four entries will create prototypes between January and March 2015 through sessions with their assigned mentors. The four prototypes and eight panels will be exhibited at a Lexus exhibition space during Milan Design Week 2015. Each of the four prototype winners will be asked to give a presentation at Milan Design Week 2015, after which a single Grand Prix winner will be named. Note: Only one individual per entry will be invited, regardless of whether the winning entries are submitted by an individual or a group.
Organizer	Lexus International
In cooperation with	designboom Design Association NPO
Application process	Apply through the designboom website at: http://www.designboom.com/competition/Lexus-design-award-2015
For more information	Visit  LexusDesignAward.com

Judge and Mentor Profiles
Judges:

Paola Antonelli / Curator
Antonelli joined The Museum of Modern Art in 1994 and is a Senior Curator in the Department of Architecture and Design, as well as MoMA’s Director of Research and Development. Her first exhibition for MoMA, Mutant Materials in Contemporary Design (1995), was followed by Thresholds. She has lectured the World Economic Forum in Davos, and has served on several international architecture and design juries. Her goal is to insistently promote understanding of design until its positive influence on the world is fully acknowledged and exploited. She is currently working on several shows on contemporary design, and on Design Bites, a book about foods from all over the world, appreciated as examples of outstanding design.

Aric Chen / Curator
Originally from the United States, Chen is the newly appointed Curator of Design and Architecture at M+, the future museum for visual culture in the West Kowloon Cultural District of Hong Kong. Before that, he served as Creative Director of Beijing Design Week in 2011 and 2012. He had earlier been an independent curator and design writer in New York, contributing to dozens of publications including The New York Times, Metropolis, Fast Company, Architectural Record, and PIN-UP.

Alice Rawsthorn / Design Commentator
Alice Rawsthorn is the design critic of the International New York Times. Her weekly Design column, published every Monday, is syndicated to other media worldwide. Alice is a trustee of the Whitechapel Gallery and the Michael Clark Dance Company, and chair of trustees at the Chisenhale Gallery. Her latest book, the critically acclaimed Hello World: Where Design Meets Life published by Hamish Hamilton, explores design’s influence on our lives past, present and future.

Toyo Ito / Architect
Ito graduated from the University of Tokyo, Department of Architecture in 1965. His main works include:  Sendai Mediatheque, Tama Art University Library (Hachioji), The Main Stadium for the World Games 2009 in Kaohsiung (Taiwan R.O.C). Under development are: Taichung Metropolitan Opera House (Taiwan R.O.C) and others. Among his many honors are the Architectural Institute of Japan Prize, Golden Lion Award for Lifetime Achievement from the 8th International Architecture Exhibition “NEXT” at the Venice Biennale, Royal Gold Medal from The Royal Institute of British Architects and the Pritzker Architecture Prize.

Birgit Lohmann / Chief Editor of designboom
Born in Hamburg. Lohmann studied industrial design in Florence before moving to Milan, where she has lived and worked since 1987. She worked as a designer and product development manager for a number of Italian architects and master designers. She has also worked as a design historian for justice departments and international auction houses. As a researcher and lecturer, she has conducted seminars on industrial design at a number of prestigious international universities. In 1999, she co-founded designboom, where she is currently the Chief Editor, Head of Educational Programming and Curator for International Exhibitions.

Tokuo Fukuichi / President of Lexus International
Graduated with a bachelor’s degree in art and design from Tama Art University. He has held many design-related positions at Toyota Motor Corporation, leading up to his current position as the president of Lexus International.

Mentors:

Arthur Huang / Architect/Engineer
Educated in Cornell University’s B-ARCH and Harvard’s Graduate M-Arch II programs, Huang developed a multi-disciplinary maker-doer ethos at a young age inspired by history, structural engineering and biology. With no industry precedents in sight, he decided to start a company to pioneer the transformation of universally accepted carbon minimizing concepts into physical products/materials. Huang established MINIWIZ in 2005 in New York and in 2006 in Hong Kong. Since then, the company has grown into an international eco-material, building-module and design company.

Robin Hunicke / Game Designer
Robin Hunicke is a game designer and producer, with a background in fine art, computer science and applied game studies. Her titles include the award-winning PSN downloadable title, Journey, Steven Spielberg’s Boom Blox series for the Nintendo Wii, MySims, and The Sims2. In the fall of 2012, she co-founded Funomena, an independent game development studio in San Francisco. Recognized as an influential Woman in Games, Robin is an evangelist for diversity of thought and participation in game design and game culture. She promotes the MDA approach to game design, co-organizes the annual Experimental Gameplay Workshop, has chaired the IndieCade Festival of independent games.

Neri & Hu / Architects and Interdisciplinary Designers
Lyndon Neri and Rossana Hu, cofounders of Neri & Hu Design and Research based in Shanghai, have been working on projects around the world which incorporate overlapping design disciplines to create a new paradigm in architecture.  In 2014, Wallpaper* announced Neri & Hu as 2014 Designer of The Year. In 2013, they were inducted into the U.S. Interior Design Hall of Fame. Neri & Hu believes strongly that research is a key design tool as each project brings its own unique set of contextual issues.  Providing architecture, interior, master planning, graphic and product design services, Neri & Hu recognizes that contemporary problems relating to buildings extend beyond the boundaries of traditional architecture. Rather than starting from a formulaic design, Neri & Hu’s work is anchored in the dynamic interaction of experience, detail, material, form and light.

Max Lamb / Designer
A modern day craftsman, Max Lamb is a furniture designer whose design sensibility is informed by his extensive knowledge of manufacturing techniques, respect for materials, and skill as a maker.
A native of Cornwall, Max has been tinkering with objects and engaging with the physical landscape since he was a small boy, a curiosity that led to an MA in Design Products at the Royal College and subsequently the foundation of his workshop-based design practice. Max explores both traditional and unconventional materials and processes, blending experimentation and rationale to create furniture and products that are both honest and intelligible.
Max teaches Design Products at the Royal College of Art and runs regular design workshops for companies and institutions around the world.