Call for entry | Dyson Product Design Award

The James Dyson Award is a major international award for young New Zealand product designers. Its aim is to recognise and reward a new generation of emerging Kiwi designers with product design ideas that best demonstrate innovative and inspiring solutions to everyday problems. Emerging New Zealand designers with exciting new product ideas have until 1 July 2010 to submit their designs for the annual James Dyson Award.

Judges are seeking innovative design concepts which provide solutions for everyday problems.  Previous award submissions include a hydration blanket customised for stranded whales, a nebuliser not reliant on electricity to administer medicine to patients and a practical yet stylish skateboarding shoe with a replaceable outer shell and washable inner.

An ultrasound tool set designed to quickly measure the commercial worth of forests, has scooped the coveted ninth annual James Dyson Design Award at an award ceremony held in Auckland July 23rd 2009.
Tim Cox, a 22 old industrial designer from Christchurch, says his winning product design could revolutionise New Zealand’s forestry sector, which exports $3.2 billion of products annually.

“New Zealand’s forest industry relies on old technology to measure forest woodlots prior to felling. Current products are expensive and require multiple tools for a single job. My product, Tretech has been developed to eliminate double handling of data to reduce time, costs and human error. It consists of three tools – the handheld hammer anchors into a tree, an ultrasound transponder measures diameter, quality, density of the wood, and this transmits to a handheld receiver, which measures the height of the tree. The system incorporates other technology like GPS and a camera to record the tree’s location,” says the designer.

Not only is it an innovative piece of technology it is also beautifully crafted object, the various component pieces being well integrated and ergonomically satisfying.
Tim, who designs rock crushing equipment for a job, says he drew on his family’s 25 year history of working in the forestry industry.

The James Dyson Award provides an opportunity for an emerging New Zealand product designer to travel to the United Kingdom to check out the British design scene, network and mingle with inspiring inventors and designers.

The competition is open to final year tertiary students (in the fields of design, technology, engineering, or related subjects) or graduates in their first five years in the workforce.

The winner

• receives a trip to the UK, including flights, accommodation and NZ$3,000 travel expenses
• visits Dyson's Malmesbury-based headquarters in the UK and take a tour of the Research and Development Centre
• joins the D&AD Getty talentpool - an online international showcase of the very best in emerging design talent
• receives $3000 worth of legal advice from Farry & Co Law.
• receives a year's Designers' Institute of New Zealand membership
• receives exposure in the media and design community in NZ and internationally
• receives a tailor-made prize package from IPONZ to meet their Intellectual Property needs