Posed with the question--"Predict what's next. What do you think mobile phones should look like in 2, 5, or 10 years?" LG Mobile Phones conducted a competition last spring to "define the future of personal mobile communication." Two UW Industrial Design Juniors, Mark Nagley and Yoon-sik Kim, took on the challenge and were one of the 40 "Honorable Mentions" Winners. Their price included $1,000 and one LG mobile phone. Designs were judged on four criteria: Need Fulfillment/Market Potential, Creativity/Originality/Innovation, Feasibility, and Polish and Appeal. Congratulations to Mark and Yoon-sik!

The first annual Trapster Race: Design vehicles that were solely propelled by the stored/kinetic energy from off-the-shelve mouse-traps. This project was concluded by an endurance race down the 2nd floor hallway of the School of Art building. ID juniors competed against seniors and the student/team whose vehicle managed to travel the farthest distance won the competition. Bonus points were given for creativity, simplicity, and aesthetic of the design. Teamwork was encouraged (max 2). No rat traps, nor Lego-bricks etc. were allowed!!

"Two classes were combined for the competition -- Art 317, the intermediate industrial design studio, and Art 447, the advanced course. The project was fun, but it also satisfied the academic needs of the classes, which go beyond simple design to consider -- according to class descriptions -- the 'psychological, sociological, and economic factors involved in designing for consumer acceptance.'"

Read more about last year's Trapster Race at University Week.

Congratulations to UW alum Kristen Clute, Sean Douglass, Kim Fulton, Nivi Ramesh, Christina Koehn and Allen Lau! These six UW alum have had their information graphics projects published in the latest Rockport information design book!

Visual Language for Designers: Principles for Creating Graphics That People Understand
By Connie Malamed

Kristin Clute, pg. 38, Politics + Potential
Sean Douglass, pg. 132, Coal: Powering Our Demise
Kim Fulton, pg. 181, Small Atom, Big Energy
Nivi Ramesh, pg. 176 The Future of Energy: From Grass to Gas
Christina Koehn, pg. 137, Alzheimer's Disease: The Aging Brain
Allen Lau, pg. 173, Understanding the Obesity Epidemic: East vs. West

Congratulations to UW ID Professor Sang-gyeun Ahn! Ahn's project, "Green Seed" has been selected for Honorable Mention in the 2009 Taiwan International Design Competition: http://tidc.boco.com.tw

This is an excellent achievement as there were only 20 awards selected by a distinguished jury:
Dr. Mark Breitenberg, President Elect of ICSID
Prof. Dr. Peter Zec, President, Red Dot
Ms. Shashi Caan, President Elect, IFI
Prof. Russell Kennedy, President Elect, ICOGRADA

Since its inception in 2002, the Taiwan International Design Competition has become one of the most prestigious and authoritative design competitions in Asia. Winning submissions will be exhibited from 2-18 October 2009 at the Taiwan Design Center (TDC). Ahn's project will be retained in the permanent selection of the TDC. Ahn will be travelling to the 2009 Taiwan Design Expo next week to attend the awards ceremony and exhibition.

The UCDA (University & College Designers Association) exists to promote excellence in visual communications for educational institutions. In their 2009 competition, UW faculty and students received four awards of excellence. This year, there were 1,300 entries and 257 awards.

Assistant Professor Annabelle Gould received an excellence award for the 2009 UW MFA catalog.
Associate Professor Karen Cheng received an excellence award for the 2008 KUOW annual report.
The student designed exhibit, Open to Question also received an excellence award, as did the WANT exhibit design team. Both exhibit design teams were overseen by Assistant Professor Kristine Matthews.

Open to Question exhibit student design team:
Erin Williams, Leslie MacNeil, Carina Skrobecki, Mia Pizzuto

WANT exhibit design student team:
Francis Luu, Terry Liu, Ivy Sa, Donica Ida