REVIEW
The exhibition of this year's award-winners again shows that these young designers know much more about the culture of objects, the value of use and the role of utensils than do most manufacturers of mass-produced goods. Yet these designers know how to make good design that can be mass produced; they understand form, image and the language of signs; they value the dignity of materials and are capable of rethinking things to give them new life.
The Hungarian Design Award aims to acknowledge just that: a rethinking of things to produce objects that function well, yet are inventive and, naturally, aesthetically pleasing. There was no shortage of such work at the exhibition of this year's award-winners, in fact, there were some already well-known names in the bunch as several Hungarian designers have managed to break onto the international scene over the past several years. The work of the six award-winners and the four recipients of acknowledgements show both the strengths and some of the weaknesses of contemporary Hungarian design.
Tamás Bendzsel's AnyScan shows medical equipment that is precise and manageable, but at the same time friendly and inviting to the patient.
Balázs Lenkei has created an electric scooter that has space to put one's shopping bags.
Luca Görömbei's experiments with glass produced transparent building elements that remind one of another recent invention Hungarian invention: Áron Losonczi's light-transmitting concrete.
Among the winners for work with textiles is Je Suis Belle, for work with knitwear, and Lenke Illésy, for handsome but functional maternity clothes.
Krisztián Zsombor Kiss, who was earlier recognised for his work on the Lánchíd Design Hotel, won an award for brand design.
The SeeYou tombstone by Ákos Klimes and Péter Kucsera was also among the award-winners. The grave marker with its own elegant reflecting pools was earlier on display at the Moholy-Nagy University of Art and Design Budapest's graduate exhibition.
Author: Eszter Götz
