BraunPrizeBlog

There’s lot to be reported about what happened yesterday at the Jury session. Unfortunately I can’t share most of it due to the non- disclosure agreement we have here ;(

Yet what I can share is that the jury is in time with the selection of the 20+ BraunPrize Exhibition entries. Even though I’ve met the team over lunch I’ve heard that lively discussion have been going on on Monday and Tuesday morning … which is in a sense a very good indicator in terms of the end quality of the competition as such (from my very humble view).

Part of the reason for this divergent yet constructive process might be found in the composition of the jury and again I see this as a strength of the BraunPrize. We have anthropologists, engineers, industrial designers, managers of design as well as business & engineering process managers at the table and they all have very different views on the entries and the problem solutions they are addressing.

What I’ve recognised comparing this competition with the 2007 edition is that there are quite a few more discussions about the geographic context, sustainability as well as the user context/experience. Accordingly Braun as the host and organiser of the competition (and especially in the light of the heritage the BraunPrize is carrying) is always challenged to re-think the rules & objectives of such an event.

So from my view the challenge/trade-off/problem for the future BraunPrize is to balance how far you trade the balance between ‘D’esign (as an creating artefacts) and ‘d’esign (shaping the process that is leading to tangible solutions). Sure this might be a topic I’ll ask the folks from Braun respectively Peter Schneider and Rainer Silbernagel later on.

In this sense the panel discussion on the ‘Future of Design’ we’ve had last night at the BraunCollection provided us with some helpful insights on the future themes/topics/objectives of the BraunPrize of the future as well. Amongst others “Adaptivity” has been one of the key words that describe the skills people and organisations need to have/develop. I understand that “Adaptivity” sounds very meta, still for me it means that Design/Business does not only focus on a specific problem solution, but also on the eco-system which is defined by the various stakeholders that (might) have operational or criteria power on the solution of a problem. In a sense we’ve ended up last night with the unanswered question on how Universities do address “Adaptivity” in the curricula now and in the future. And from my view this is not only a question for Design Schools, but for higher education as such: Business, Engineering, Natural Sciences, etc.

Anyway, getting back to basics: Right now the jury has finalised the selection of the 20+ entries for the BraunPrize Exhibition and Peter Schneider now asked the jury members to identify their favourite 3-4 submissions they think are eligible to be nominated a ‘BraunPrize Finalist” … a tough task if I look at their faces ;-)

That’s it from my end for the moment, but stay tuned for the video interviews I’m planning to conduct later this afternoon and which I will post over the next weeks!

Addendum (11:32 hrs.): We have 4 finalists this time again! Sorry folks no details, but I can share that they all stem from different ‘user/application categories’ which from a personal perspective I really like.