Public invited to vote for favourite design in annual exhibition
12 May 2006
74 Queensland Design Awards finalists and winners, showcased in an exhibition at the Queensland Art Gallery, are in the running for the popular People’s Choice Award.
The annual ‘Design Excellence in Queensland’ exhibition, from 3 to 18 June, celebrates and profiles Queensland Design Awards 2006 recipients in more than 20 categories, judged by local, national and international design industry experts and practitioners.
Judging will again be opened up to the general public with the People’s Choice Award, sponsored by Brisbane City Council, Space Furniture and map magazine.
Awards Coordinator Scott Bagnell said the aim of the People’s Choice Award was to give the public their say on what they consider to be 'good design'.
‘Voters will be in the running to win a magnificent Bourgie table lamp designed by Philip Stark Kartell, courtesy of Space Furniture’, he said.
The 74 finalists were selected from a record number of entries in 20 categories grouped under the design disciplines of interior design, three-dimensional design and visual communication design.
They include a futuristic shopping cart, a baby’s cot rocker, a water-saving pool and spa filter cartridge cleaner, designer rugs, vintage-inspired fashion garments, a boutique beer label, organic biscuit packaging and several websites.
An architect-designed McDonald’s McCafe store on Brisbane’s northside is competing alongside a café in Brisbane’s upmarket Treasury Casino, and interiors range from the refurbishments of a child care centre, university chemistry laboratories and a sculptor’s studio inspired by a fifteenth century painting.
Popular Queensland Art Gallery exhibitions, ‘Kiss of the Beast’ and ‘Barbara Heath: Jeweller to the Lost’ and Queensland Museum’s Dandiiri Mairwar Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Cultures Centre are finalists in the Set/Display Design category.
Queensland’s largest multidisciplinary design awards program is presented by the Design Institute of Australia (Queensland Branch) and Resene.
The Awards program also recognises the emerging talent in the state by offering Emerging Student Designer awards in the three discipline groups.
The prestigious overall award for Design Excellence, sponsored by Kiss Graphics, will be selected from all finalists and an exciting new addition to the program is the Smart State Designer of the Year Award, offering an international travel bursary prize.
The Awards will be announced at a dinner at the Queensland Art Gallery on Friday 2 June.
