Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum announced the winners of the 2020 National Design Awards. "From shaping our parks and buildings to transforming the creative infrastructure and the ways we tell our stories, the remarkable work of this year's winners demonstrates the power of design in everyday life," stated John Davis, interim director of the museum.
This year's recipients are:
Kickstarter, Design Visionary
The Design Visionary award, recognizing an individual, company or organization who has made a profound contribution to advancing the field, is given to Kickstarter. Since its launch in 2009, Kickstarter has become a key piece of the internet's creative infrastructure, serving as a powerful tool for designers and other creative people to take their ideas directly to the public, bypassing traditional gatekeepers.
Sponge Park, Climate Action
The Climate Action award recognizes a design project for its significant contributions to addressing the global climate crisis. The winner of the inaugural award is Sponge Park, designed by DLANDstudio. Sponge Park, in Brooklyn, New York, is a proven new form of green infrastructure that captures and cleans dirty urban stormwater runoff and addresses the global problem of contaminated streams, rivers, aquifers and oceans.
Studio One Eighty Nine, Emerging Designer
The Emerging Designer award is given in recognition of a designer who has demonstrated profound talent in the early stages of his or her career. The 2020 Emerging Designer award is presented to Studio One Eighty Nine, an artisan-produced fashion lifestyle brand and social enterprise co-founded by Rosario Dawson and Abrima Erwiah in 2013. The luxury brand creates African and African-inspired content and clothing, working with artisanal communities in Africa that specialize in traditional craftsmanship techniques and focusing on empowerment, job creation, education and skills training.
Snøhetta, Architecture
Given to an individual or firm for the design of public, commercial and residential interior and exterior spaces, this year's National Design Award for Architecture goes to Snøhetta. For over 30 years, Snøhetta has designed some of the world's most notable projects integrating architecture, landscape, interiors, branding and product design. The firm is dedicated to building equitable and sustainable places to enhance human society and natural habitat.
Scott Dadich, Communication Design
The Communication Design award recognizes an individual or firm for the design of information and messages. The 2020 recipient is Scott Dadich, a founder and co-CEO of Godfrey Dadich Partners, a communications design and strategy firm headquartered in San Francisco, that helps organizations tell better stories-from documentary films and longform journalism to corporate strategies and brand marketing campaigns.
Design I/O, Digital Design
The Digital Design award, given to an individual or firm for the design of interactive digital products, environments, systems, experiences and services, honors Design I/O. Founded in 2010, Design I/O is a small studio passionate about creating immersive interactive environments, new forms of storytelling and developing prototypes that lead toward a more magical future. Led by partners Emily Gobeille and Theodore Watson along with Nicholas Hardeman and Anna Cataldo, the studio takes a playful approach to its work with the goal of developing experiences that support open play and exploration in a collaborative environment.
TELFAR, Fashion Design
The Fashion Design award is given to an individual or firm for the design of apparel, accessory, jewelry, footwear and textiles. The recipient of the 2020 National Design Award for Fashion Design is TELFAR.
OJB Landscape Architecture, Landscape Architecture
The Landscape Architecture award recognizes an individual or firm for the design of outdoor environments and urban planning. This year's award is presented to OJB Landscape Architecture, a collective landscape architecture and urban planning practice inspired to create beauty and find unexpected moments in the natural world. Founded by James Burnett in 1989 in Houston and led today by Burnett and his partners in offices around the country, OJB shapes public spaces into community resources that rejuvenate the human spirit, promote discovery and wellness, celebrate the genus of place, restore connectivity and respect natural ecologies.
Catapult Design, Product Design
The National Design Award for Product Design, given to an individual or firm for the design of goods, furniture, lighting and materials, is awarded to Catapult Design. Founded in 2008, Catapult Design is a nonprofit design consultancy that works with organizations around the globe to support the development of market-based solutions for sustainable well-being and resilience. Through its work, Catapult Design addresses the challenges facing humanity, such as food security, water and sanitation access, quality healthcare, mobility and climate change.