The first edition of the Hublot Prize, awarded by the famous Swiss luxury watch brand, saw two joint winners, both designers whose careers began with SaloneSatellite. The awards ceremony was held at Tokyo Design Week in October.
The Hublot Design Prize was launched earlier this year by the renowned Swiss company Hublot, a luxury watch brand, which has always seen design as an integral part of its own identity, along with innovation and a quest for new materials. The award, marking the 10th anniversary of the iconic Big Bang model, is for a young designer under the age of 40. The award ceremony took place against the background of the inauguration ceremony for Tokyo Design Week.
The winners were announced on 27th October at MOT – Museum of Contemporary Art in Tokyo’s Kiba Park. The original 25 contenders were whittled down to 5 finalists, whose names were announced in Milan in June. A prestigious jury led by Pierre Keller and composed of Lapo Elkann, Ronan Bouroullec, Peter Zec and Marva Griffin Wilshire, founder and curator of SaloneSatellite, awarded the joint first prize of CHF 50,000 each – to the Swiss design studio BIG-GAME for their team spirit and to Norway’s Daniel Rybakken for his original minimalist approach to illumination. The runner-up, Iceland’s Brynjar Sigurdarson, came away with CHF 10,000.
The design studio BIG-GAME, composed of Augustin Scott de Martinville, Grégoire Jeanmonod and Elric Petit, took part in SaloneSatellite in 2005 and 2006 with Animals, a series of hunting trophies made of plywood and Flatpack, a wool rug, later produced by Moustache and Galerie kreo respectively. They were among the 15 designers invited by SaloneSatellite to come up with an installation on the theme of “Design<->Technology” to mark the 15th anniversary of the event.
Daniel Rybakken took part in the 2009 edition of SaloneSatellite, winning the 10th Design Report Award for the most creative newcomer at the event, given by the German magazine design report. He was invited to take part in 50+50 – Designing the Future in 2010 and in 2011, with Daylight Installation. Of the products presented at SaloneSatellite, the following went into production: his Colour lamp, Ligne Roset, then e15; his Right Angle Mirror, Galerie kreo, and his Counterbalance lamp, Luceplan, Golden Compass Award 2014.
Japanese designer Keiji Ashizawa – who also took part in SaloneSatellite, in 2008 and 2010 – was chosen to design the backdrop for the award ceremony, for his “honest design” and his simple yet sophisticated, beautiful and accessible approach.
