To the Australian International Design Awards where UnderCurrent had a marvellous time revelling with the trendy design types at comfortably the best edition of these gongs in recent memory.
Unlike last year when an unknown garlic crusher beat all the celebrated brand-name appliances to the Best In Category prize, this year an unknown barbeque beat all the celebrated brand-name appliances to the Best In Category prize.
In Consumer Electronics, there could be little doubt of Blackmagic’s deserved success, not only winning Best In Category but also the overall Design Award of the Year.
Thankfully for the enjoyment of all the non-winners there was plenty of mirth to keep the sell-out crowd entertained throughout the show.
During her magnificent opening address, Australian of the Year Ita Buttrose became unaware that the signage on her podium had become unstuck and was now dangling at a 45-degree angle.
A very bad photo of a very good host in a very awkward situation.
Ever the pro, she laughed it off, though Awards organiser Brandon Gien got the biggest laugh when he said, “If only someone in the room could design some better double-sided tape for these signs”.
Laughs turned to intrigue, however, with several guests wondering how a spotlight to help hunters with aiming their semi-automatic rifles at night had won the Best In Category Award for Sport and Leisure.
“Proven in the harshest conditions around the world, yet designed and manufactured in Australia, the PRED9X ticks every box on the outdoorsman’s checklist: lightweight, durable, portable, rifle and scope mount options, attachable filters and silent RF switch to operate the light,” reads a company statement.
UnderCurrent was further intrigued by the acceptance speech made by Taste Mobile Kitchen for Best In Category for Service Design. In addition to personally thanking New South Wales Premier Barry O’Farrell for funding the project, the winners claimed building a kitchen into a shipping container was an original, innovative idea. That must be news to Fisher & Paykel, which did exactly that five years ago in its Ironside project.
The biggest laugh of the night came when Ita quizzed Ovo’s Germany PR rep on stage about that brand’s eclectic array of ‘lifestyle products’. Ovo won several awards across various categories, but it was only upon winning Best In Category for Packaging Design did the crowd finally find out exactly how an Ovo ‘appliance’ is packaged.
As Ita so deftly put it, “I think the whole audience is fascinated by the whole process”. Cue hysterical laughter.