If you’ve ever wondered where to find the industrial design minds that will fuel the future of our economy, look no further than the impressive young winners of the Michigan Design Prize.
The winners of the 2019 Michigan Design Prize were announced on Wednesday June 12 at the awards ceremony in the beautiful atrium of the University of Michigan Museum of Art (UMMA). David Byron, President of the Michigan Design Council and Sundberg-Ferar’s Manager of Design and Innovation Strategy, revealed the 12 student designs who would receive the award. Even before the doors to the event were open, dozens of families buzzed around the entrances eagerly waiting to celebrate their child, grandchild, or sibling, and witness the best ideas from the minds of Michigan’s students.
In case you didn’t yet know the statistics, Michigan is proudly the #1 industrial design state in the nation. Since the beginning of Industrial Design, Michigan has been at the forefront of the profession, and the state’s Industrial Design Talent continues to drive Michigan’s economy today. With the highest concentration of Industrial Designers, the state boasts more than 4000! Not only this, but you’ll be happy to learn that if you are an Industrial Designer working in Michigan, you earn 10,000 more than the nation’s average. Michigan also has a history steeped in triumphs of Industrial Design. Products that have shaped everyday life as we know it, like the barbecue grill, refrigerators, the modern hospital bed, the electric toothbrush, the golf cart and hundreds more were all given to the world by Michigan Industrial Designers. In the industrial revolution and into the 20thcentury, anything could be made, designed, and manufactured right here in Michigan.
With the state’s unique position on the global Industrial Design stage, attracting and retaining Industrial Design talent in Michigan is a must. The Michigan Design Prize aims to do just that.
The Michigan Design Prize is an annual competition for elementary to high school students that develops and celebrates exceptional industrial design talent. It gives students the opportunity to solve a design challenge and, if their design is picked, to receive one-on-one mentoring with some of the state’s top professional Industrial Designers. Each year, the “Governor’s Award” is also given to an administrator and educator who have shown outstanding committed to making Industrial Design Thinking an integral part of their teaching curriculum giving their students the opportunity to compete in the Michigan Design Prize.
This competition was created by the Michigan Design Council (MDC), an organization committed to making Michigan THE destination for individuals in Industrial Design, individuals in related design professions, and companies who want to benefit from the state’s robust design talent base. Sundberg-Ferar collaborated with the Michigan Economic Corporation to found the MDC as part of a greater initiative to attract and retain industrial design talent in Michigan. To learn more about this collaboration and the MDC click here.
David gave the opening address to begin the ceremony and introduced the criteria used to judge the competition submissions. The award winners, he explained, all showed exceptional performance in all four criteria. First, “Creativity”: The level of originality of the discovery, approaches and solutions. The second is the “Significance”: The level of meaningfulness and relevance to the topic. Third, “Quality”: The level of design thinking and visualization. Finally, “Value”: The level of potential impact on industry, economy, society, and individual.
Following David, Jeff DeBoer, Senior Advisor at Sundberg-Ferar and Chairman of the MDC, took the stage. He shared the long journey that finally led him to become an industrial designer, and the vital importance of giving students an awareness of Industrial Design early so that they have the opportunity to pursue it. Jeff explained how, when he found out about industrial design in college, he knew it was exactly what he wanted to do. However, it took him going through two different college degrees to even find out that Industrial Design existed. This is why the Michigan Design Prize is so important for young students.
Throughout his journey, Jeff shared key turning points where he had benefitted from the great mentorship of his professors. As chairman of the MDC, he emphasized that the biggest thing we, as industrial designers, can give to the bright young minds of our state is our time. That’s why part of the prize for winning students is on-on-one mentoring with professional designers to build their understanding of the industrial design process and thinking.
Jeff also gave three key qualities that we must cultivate in our students today, gleaned from his decades of experience in the industry at Sundberg-Ferar, the nation’s second longest standing independent industrial design studio: Curiosity, Confidence, and Courage. These qualities, he explained, are characteristic of every great industrial designer and problem solver. If we are to build up our students into wielders of talent that will drive our future economy and make Michigan the worldwide standard of industrial design, we must make moves to instill these qualities in our youth from the beginning.
Before the anticipated bestowing of awards, the group watched a personal address sent by Governor Whitmer expressing her support of the competition and re-emphasizing its importance for the future of the state. Finally Dave Byron announced the prizewinners. From Kindergarten all the way to twelfth grade, these students’ faces shone as they stepped up to accept their awards. Parents and guardians snapped photos from every angle and grins were spread from ear-to-ear. Concluding the awards, Dr. Gerald Hill, Superintended of the West Bloomfield School District, and Mrs. Kathleen Palmer, 7thGrade Teacher at Surline Middle School were honored with the Governor’s award for their tireless work with the MDC in bringing Industrial Design to their students educations.
To read more about the prizewinners and their projects, click here.
The Michigan Design Prize Competition will continue to develop and celebrate our young designers in 2020 with the next competition challenge: Design a product to help Michigan residents grow, transport, cook, package or serve healthier local food sourced from within the state. SF is already looking forward the next year’s competition and to continuing to help develop the industrial design talent in our youth – talent that will herald a future with Michigan as the leading Industrial Design state and an industry-standard for great product designs made to respond to the needs and desires of users with beautiful, meaningful, and usable products – a goal that will ultimately improve the standard of living for all of humanity.
To check out the 2020 Michigan Design Prize Competition and to get involved, click here. We’ll see you next year!