On 21 November, the 11th edition of the Good Design Awards took place. This year, the three most original designers in each category were selected from 158 applications submitted to the Lithuanian Design Forum. The winners of each of the 10 categories were honoured with a “Good Design” prize and two diplomas. In order to be objective, the jury is composed exclusively of foreign design experts.

For the awards ceremony, the organisers gathered participants and guests at the Paupis “Pasakos” cinema. There, they revisited the 2009 documentary film “Objectified” by director Gary Hustwit. Welcoming the participants, the partners – the State Patent Office – reminded the participants that “it is important to foster Lithuanian design and creative identity and to promote the name of Lithuania, and that the ability to protect intellectual property is the key to a successful business”.

This year’s Good Design Prize exhibition is presented for the first time in virtual space.Two young graduates of Vilnius College of Technology and Design – Vakaris Dubauskas and Elvina Lukoševičiūtė – were invited to implement the virtual project.The exhibition space has been moved into the virtual – the reconstructed space of the Radvilas Palace Manege of the Lithuanian National Museum of Art, a potential design exhibition hall.The works of Lithuanian designers will also be available virtually to foreign audiences. “This is an opportunity to promote designers around the world and spread the word about innovative Lithuanian design,” says Vytautas Gurevičius, Head of the Lithuanian Design Forum.

Winners of the “Good Design” prize and diploma designers

The prize for publication design went to Tadas Karpavičius , who designed the book “Antanas Kazakauskas. Everything is programmed”.
It is a creative biography of the first graduate graphic designer, based on years of artistic research initiated by the author.Diplomas were awarded to the authors of two more books – Matas Grecevičius for his work “You won’t find gold in this river” and Aušra Lisauskienė for “Abracadabra”.

The Fashion and Accessory Design Prize was awarded to Patricija Jurgelevičiūtė, a student of the VDA, who presented her final bachelor’s thesis fashion design collection “Shapes of the Ego”, based on the change of shapes and silhouettes of clothing, visualising the forms of the ego, based on the book by Eckhart Tolle “The New Earth”.Diplomas were awarded to Olga Voišnis and Gediminas Kirdeikis, who created the jewellery collection “Cellular Automata” based on the mathematical algorithm “The Game of Life”, and to VDA student Almantas Kunskas, who presented a clothing collection inspired by Generation Z “Life as a Kaleidoscope”.

The Multimedia Design Prize was awarded to Elzė Janutaitė for her 3D animation “Unexpected Visit”, which depicts migraine triggers and their impact in everyday situations. Diplomas were awarded to Sigitas Gužauskas, a student of the VDA, who presented the media device “Bioprinter”, and Gintarė Razmaitė, a student of the VDA, who presented the typographic project “Atmeno”, which promotes the Samogitian dialect.

The packaging design prize was awarded to designer Dovilė Džervutė-Laurinkienė, who presented CBD oil and CBD capsules under the fwd/: brand – bright tiny bottles in neon-coloured packaging. This designer also received a diploma for her project “Herbal Choice Tea Assortment”. Another diploma for packaging design was awarded to Andstudio designers who created the packaging for the brand Uoga Uoga.

The winner in the Services, Social Design and Education category was Gaudutė Žilytė, a student of the Vilnius Academy of Arts (VDA), who created the space “Kukubu”, which is adapted to the cognition of autistic disorder. In this space, children can interact and get to know the world of their autistic peers. Diplomas in this category were awarded to Desdorp designers (Deividas Juozulynas, Valdona Brazauskaitė), who designed a distance learning device – the Edurega head device, and to Grete Labanauskaite, a student at the VAA, who presented her final thesis-artistic research project, “Make a Feeling”, which aims to normalise visual impairment through non-visual fashion objects and reduce the divide between the visually impaired and the visually impaired.

The prize for product/industrial design went to Laba7, developers of the PRO wireless racing car scales. This product is not only a sophisticated tool, but also a futuristic race car tuning experience. Lukas Avėnas, who received two diplomas, presented two entries: Pulsetto, a stress-reducing wearable device, and HR Bank, a mobile sustainable energy storage device with the appearance of a gym.

The prize for visual communication and identity design went to the design team Great&Golden for the packaging of the Undo brand.
Designed for Belgium’s first mobile virtual network operator, it aims to reflect the operator’s mission of informing people about the CO₂ emissions of smartphones and helping them to reduce their ecological footprint. Diplomas were awarded to the design team Sons & Daughters ID (Kornelija Žalpytė, Adomas Jazdauskas, Justina Čiačytė, Gabija Kartovickytė, Gediminas Juškys, Gailė Bučiūnaitė, Dovilė Dovidavičiūtė), which created the visual identity of Junction, and to creative agency, which created the design of the Personas brand.

The award for interior design went to the architecture studio Plazma (Rytis Mikulionis, Skirmantė Kubiliūtė-Deniušienė, Evelina Talandzevičienė, Viltė Tamulė, Martynas Lukas), which implemented the project “Radio House”. It is a space where radio is born and lives.The building, located in the very centre of Vilnius, is equipped with all the infrastructure necessary for the operation of radio stations, as well as an exhibition of the history of the M-1 radio group. The interior category diplomas were awarded to YCL studio designers for P143, a sculptural wood interior in a two-storey apartment, and IMPLMNT architects for D9 Artsy Office, an office-gallery with a contemporary art exhibition. 

The prize for the design of interior elements, lamps and crockery went to Agnė Kučerenkaitė and Marija Špokaitė.The designers impressed with their unique glazed tiles and bricks entitled “Biofuel waste is a blessing”.The bricks incorporate up to 55% waste ash in order to reduce the need for materials and the CO₂ footprint of industry. Diplomas were awarded to VDA student Anna Abdrashitova, who demonstrated the Luonnonval weather lamp, which detects light according to the level of darkness and greyness in the field, and designer Aušra Pangonienė, who designed the cylindrical luminaire Pilnatis, which is asymmetrical and has a balance.

The prize for furniture design was awarded to Liepa Gradauskaitė, a student of the Academy of Fine Arts of Latvia, who created a wicker sculptural object “Pod” inspired by a childhood drawing. Diplomas were awarded to the designers “etc.etc.” for the soft furniture collection “Alchemist”, which reflects traditional Japanese aesthetic structures, and Lukas Avėnas for the modular soft furniture system for offices and public spaces ” Botanic: the garden of thoughts”.

Link to the virtual exhibition: here