BraunPrizeBlog

Last but not least today I’m happy to share the last video of the BraunPrize 2007 Jury with you. I was happy enough to get also Moni Wolf in front of the camera after she and the jury have spent two full days of scanning, evaluating, judging and discussing. Even though I simply joined them for one day I can say that beside some good fun and laughter they had a tough assignment to scan and select the ‘semi-final’ 68 entries out of a total of 941 submissions.

Together with Mark Breitenberg she has had the longest trip to Kronberg/Germany as she’s working as the Director of Design for Motorola iDEN at their corporate headquarters in Florida, USA.

As all of the BraunPrize jury members she also has an impressive bio. After all what I like most about the configuration of the BraunPrize jury is the balanced selection regarding their expertise and professional background. Together with two voices from Braun/Gilette itself represented by Peter Schneider (Design) and Udo Milutzki (Engineering) the jury comprises the academic stake represented by Mark Breitenberg, the practice view via Moni Wolf and as a novelty the BraunPrize participants’ view via Benjamin Holch.

According to my perception Moni clearly contributes valuable input due to her combined background in Design (Diploma from FH Schwäbisch Gmünd, Germany) and a more IT influenced Master’s Degree (Master of Art) from Ohio State University, USA. Accordingly she has identified several submissions dealing around and with new (communication) technology. However in contrast to several showcase examples out there on the market this term BraunPrize participants submitted many ideas with solutions that are possible to be made with given technology aiming at making peoples lifes a better one.

So from my perspective the BraunPrize seems to have somehow gained an image that it related more to the ‘serious’ or ‘caring’ dimensions of products which is on one hand addressing Braun’s current product range, but on the other hand more or less ignoring its heritage of consumer products like HiFi Stereo Systems and the likes … seems that the generation of young designers graduating these days don’t stick that rigid to the ‘Old Braun’ as generations of design journalists and enthusiasts still do ;-)

In any case I’m already looking forward to meeting the jury again in a couple of weeks when they have to work hard again on selecting the finalists of the BraunPrize. These final entries will presented be to an invited audience in September 2007 made up of representatives from the design sector as well as figures from the worlds of industry, technology and the media with a special interest in the field of design. The overall winner of the 2007 BraunPrize will be selected on the basis of the votes cast by the guest jurors attending the Forum. 

Link: sevenload.com