News: Kiwi industrial designers invited to enter Electrolux Design Lab 2009

Young Kiwi industrial designers are being invited to let their futuristic imaginations run wild in the Electrolux Design Lab 2009 global design competition.

In the year that Electrolux is celebrating its 90th anniversary with a theme that has echoes of futuristic cartoon family the Jetsons, the brand is asking young designers from all over the world to create designs for the next 90 years.

The brief for the seventh edition of the global appliance leader’s competition is to create thoughtfully designed home appliances that will shape how people prepare and store food, wash clothes, and do dishes over the next nine decades.

Their designs should address key consumer insights such as adapting to time and space, provide learning and allow for individualisation.

“We’re looking for really daring ideas and solutions,” says Henrik Otto, Senior Vice-President of Global Design at Electrolux, who explains more about the competition in his “Call for entries” video.

New Zealand product design students from Massey University, Victoria University and AUT as well as other independent design schools are eligible to enter the prestigious global competition.

Finalists will be invited to the final event in London September 24, 2009, to present their entries to a jury of high-level designers and experts. The jury will judge the entries based on intuitive design, innovation and consumer insight.

The winner will take home €5,000 and be offered a six-month paid internship at one of the Electrolux global design centres. The second prize is €3,000 and third prize €2,000.

“Working with young, talented designers provides inspiration for future products and solutions,” adds Otto. “It also helps Electrolux spot the hottest, new talent out there.”

Rosalie Davison of Electrolux New Zealand says such a forward-thinking design brief means students can give their imaginations free rein to create home appliances of the future.

“In the 1960s, Hanna-Barbera’s creative minds came up with the prophetic ideas of video conferencing and robotic vacuum cleaners that at the time seemed space age but are reality today. This year’s DesignLab students are likely to dream up equally exciting concepts for a world beyond our imagination,” says Davison.

The entry deadline for Design Lab ’09 is May 31, 2009. Students may enter one design via the Design Lab website at www.electrolux.com/design.