A Night at the Helen Hamlyn Design Awards

As part of our ongoing passion to nurture the next generation of creatives, we regularly work with companies who are equally as dedicated as we are, and also provide additional platforms and support to allow budding desginers to showcase their work to a wider audience. This year we have worked closely with the Helen Hamlyn Centre of Design, part of the Royal College of London, on choosing the finalists and winners of their annual Helen Hamlyn Design Awards.

The Helen Hamlyn Centre for Design is a leader in inclusive design and creative leadership and the winning projects from these awards represent the best in human-centred and inclusive design across the entire College. There were five awards in total, including one that was put forward by ourselves: The Experience Haus Award for Impact and Change.

On Wednesday 6th September, our Creative Director Amit Patel formed part of the judging panel that would decide which project would win each award, with the winners announced at their official awards ceremony two weeks later. In addition to having the honour of presenting our awards, Amit also closed the ceremony with a keynote speech, recognising the students for their hard work and inspiring ideas.

The Award Winners

From a phonetic language application, to a device that can help those with respiratory health conditions to monitor and clear their airways, all projects demonstrated inclusivity and meaningful engagement, and how they can still be used in the future.

Here’s a bit more information on each winner below:

Northumbrian Water Award for Inclusive Innovation

Winner: Freespeak 

How would you feel if people regularly mispronounced your name, if you corrected them over and over? This is a common problem when it comes to English people trying to pronounce Chinese names. Freespeak is a language conversion service that allows English speakers to communicate in Chinese, without any prior knowledge, by phonetically writing out the pronunciation of various Chinese words.

The Snowdon Award for Disability

Winner: We Are In This Together

This project addresses the issue people with disabilities face navigating higher education. It is a communal inclusion plan that welcomes all into the conversations about disability and neurodiversity. Within this pack, you are given a handbook, a set of discussion objects and activity cards designed to provide guidance, prompt conversations around related topics, and assist self and peer reflection.

Helen Hamlyn Award for Creativity

Winner: Pleural

Pleural is an airway clearance device designed to help individuals suffering from respiratory health conditions easily clear their airways. It uses intelligent analysis to monitor patients and provide the most effective treatment to relieve them and reduce infection risk.

The Experience Haus Award for Impact and Change

Winner: Channi, by Priyanshu Mukhopadhyay

Channi is an accessible, quickly deployable and adaptable water based particulate matter filtration system for at-source emission capture, reducing air pollutants in developing countries, while preserving cultural livelihoods. As part of his prize, Priyanshu is able to take an Experience Haus course of his choosing, in order to further his own design skills. 

Congratulations to all award winners and nominees, and to the team at The Helen Hamlyn Centre for Design and the Royal College of Art for letting us be part of such an amazing event.