The Chicago Athenaeum: Museum of Architecture and Design recently announced the winners of the 2008 Good Design Awards. A record number of Good Design Awards—500—were given for the latest design innovations in such categories as electronics, medical equipment, transportation, furniture, textiles, industrial machinery, public environment, hardware, tools, accessories, kitchen/appliances, floor coverings, tabletop, household products, personal, office products, children’s products, sports and recreation, lighting, and graphics.
Several designers and architects received awards for consumer products, including: busk + hertzog i/s of Copenhagen, Denmark; Cini Boeri of Milan, Italy; Michael Graves Design Group of Princeton, N.J., and New York City; Zaha Hadid Architects of London; Philippe Starck of Paris, France, and Amsterdam, The Netherlands; Robert A.M. Stern Architects of New York City; and Skidmore Owings & Merrill of New York City. For the complete list of 2008 Good Design Award winners, visit www.chi-athenaeum.org/gdesign/2008/electr/index.html.
Announcing the 2008 list of winners, Kieran Conlon, director and chief operating officer of The European Center for Architecture Art Design and Urban Studies, who co-coordinated the 2008 awards with The Chicago Athenaeum’s director of administration and marketing, Lary L. Sommers, said, “Despite the global economic slowdown, more and more world manufacturers and their designers are realizing that design provides a pivotal edge in keeping global products competitive … this year’s Good Design program demonstrates how smart companies and smart designers will design their way out of recession.”