Helen Hamlyn Design Awards 2010
A simple device to help the elderly to operate television remote controls; an innovative system to navigate the London bus network using digital paper maps at bus stops; and a radical new approach to the design of prosthetics - these are just three of the creative projects by graduating Masters students at the Royal College of Art to be awarded major prizes in the Helen Hamlyn Design Awards 2010.
The Helen Hamlyn Design Awards, organised by the RCA's Helen Hamlyn Centre, recognise outstanding student projects in people-centred and inclusive design. Royal College of Art Rector, Dr Paul Thompson, comments: "This scheme demonstrates how artists and designers across a wide range of disciplines can put social awareness and social activism at the centre of their work."
The four main award categories were sponsored by Age UK, Technology Strategy Board, ClearBlue and GMW Architects. Representatives from each organisation handed over awards at an awards ceremony on 29 June 2010 as part of the Royal College of Art's Innovation Night. There was a total prize fund of £10,000.
Helen Hamlyn, founder of the Helen Hamlyn Trust, which has endowed the RCA Helen Hamlyn Centre, gave her own personal award to a textiles-based project, which has created therapeutic props for use by people with autism in multi-sensory environments. There was also a special award for alumni of the Helen Hamlyn Centre, given this year to Ben Wilson for a project called Scooterkit, involving west London school pupils in a workshop to design and make a scooter.
