Prix Émile Hermès International Design Award

Deadline: 17 November 2013
Open to: designers and engineers aged under 40 from any country
Award: 1st prize 50 000 euro; 2nd prize 25 000 euro; 3rd prize 15 000 euro

Description

Since its creation in 2007, the Prix Émile Hermès has supported innovative work by talented young designers, responding to society’s changing needs and lifestyles. For the third annual competition, the Fondation d’entreprise Hermès has chosen a theme reflecting our increasingly vital need for a moment of peace, some time out, a brief pause – a chance to escape the relentless activity, ideas and obligations of the super-highway of modern life.

The Prize aims to discover and encourage emerging design talent, reflecting the parallel aims of the Foundation’s programmes in the visual and performing arts. Inevitably, this major international Prize reflects considerations central to development in all its forms: the manufacturing and industrial expertise required to produce the designs entered, and most importantly of all, their environmental impact, in the context of mankind’s continuing quest for better quality of life.

Eligibility

The Prix Émile Hermès is open to designers and engineers aged under 40 on 17 November 2013, in the following categories:

• professional graduates from schools of design, engineering, architecture, and the visual or applied arts
• non-graduate professionals with at least three years’ proven experience in professional design
• final-year students at schools of design, engineering, architecture, and the visual or applied arts

Participants may enter individually or in teams (up to five people).

The Prix Émile Hermès is an international award open to entrants from all countries.

Award

Three finalists will receive a total of 90,000 Euro, from which 50,000 Euro are reserved for the 1st award. Prize amounts for the Prix Émile Hermès:

• 1st prize: 50 000 euros
• 2nd prize: 25 000 euros
• 3rd prize: 15 000 euros

Application

Entrants are invited to submit designs for an object, machine, utensil, piece of furniture, architectural concept etc., carefully devised and formulated for a specific, practical function while at the same time proposing a formal, aesthetic concept of the highest quality. Each design should offer a lasting, sustainable alternative to existing everyday objects performing the functions stated in the competition’s theme: giving “time to yourself”. Multi-purpose, adaptable designs are also invited, incorporating uses and applications which may be discovered over the life the object.

Entrants must register and submit their projects online HERE. Submissions must be received before November 17th, 2013 until midnight Paris (France) time.

Each participant is required to complete and submit the entry form together with the following documents (scanned and uploaded on the Web site of the Prix Émile Hermès):

• 1 photocopy of the candidate’s ID card or passport
• 1 proof of address
• 1 CV in English
• 1 photocopy of the candidate’s student card (for final year masters students at schools of design, engineering, architecture, or the visual or applied arts), or written confirmation from their school or college.

For more information please visit the official website.