Before the final - Blackwood Design Awards judge gives interview about imminent battle of the designs

T minus 24 hours... Yes the final of the Blackwood Design Awards 2016 is tomorrow. The big day is nearly here. In the final run up to the judging I spoke to Blackwood Board member and returning judge Anne Walker to get her thoughts on the BDA.

 

Anne first sat on the judging panel for the Blackwood Design Awards final in 2014 and is now joining the panel for the 3rd consecutive year. “I’m looking forward to the final” Anne told me in an early morning phone interview today.

 

“It seems to get better every year. The quality of the entries seems to be more exciting and probably more realistic from the first year that I judged it. Some of the things in the very first competition, while useful, were useful for a minimum amount of people. Whereas last year’s winner, the S’up Spoon – it serves such a wide range of people.”

 

True, last year’s winner the S’up Spoon can be of help to a wide range of people who have tremors for one reason or another. But looking at this year’s finalists Anne is unable to make an educated guess as to who will win, citing the overall very high standard of the designs. “Off the top of my head I like the simplicity of the Universal Drink Holder on the wheelchair because I’ve encountered that problem myself, but I think that they all excel in their own right. And it’s very difficult to say which one overall is best. At this point in time I wouldn’t want to say there’s a stand out one honestly.”

 

As a member of Blackwood’s board Anne is especially proud to support a competition the values of which tie in so much with Blackwood’s ethos of helping people live life to the full. “I think it blends in with what we’re all about. It marries in with everything we believe in.” Our conversation then went into the deeper implications for accessibility and disabled design that come with the competition. For Anne, one of the defining successes of the competition is that it brings to the forefront the importance of universal design and finding innovative solutions to everyday problems faced by people who have disabilities.

 

“I think the BDA encourages the people who are interested in bringing forward something that can help disabled people. Most of them are designed by non-disabled people for want of a better description and it’s interesting that they have enough forethought to our needs to be able to do something. But again, going back to last year’s winner, his was born out of his own need and for us to keep encouraging something like that I think is a great thing. I think it was a huge step up for the S’up Spoon.”

 

9 entries made it into the final spread over two categories. For a full list of the 2016 finalists see here.

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