Piece from MIKO+, a collection of jewelry, winner of the inaugural Progress Prize at The Global Grad Show (Photo: courtesy of The Global Grad Show)
Designed by Polish design duo, Ewa Dulcet and Martyna Świerczyńska, the collection titled MIKO+ was announced the winner of the inaugural Progress Prize, part of Dubai's Global Grad Show, the acclaimed annual exhibition of life-changing inventions from graduates of the world's leading design and technology universities.
MIKO+ is a collection of seven pieces of jewelry with one additional value -- physiotherapeutic function. The collection "acts as a brace for those with wrist injuries or carpal tunnel syndrome, made from gilded pink brass and mineral acrylic composite, all made by using traditional goldsmith techniques. It demonstrates an innovative combination of physiotherapeutic and aesthetic functions, transitioning the objects from medical to lifestyle products," the official press release clarifies.
"The Progress Prize is an international award that celebrates the next generation of design and is awarded to one Global Grad Show exhibitor each year. The winning design is selected by a global jury from fields of journalism, design, manufacturing, innovation and investment. The multidisciplinary nature of the jury is intended to reflect the varied assortment of partners necessary to take a project from prototype to market."
Polish designers Ewa Dulcet and Martyna Świerczyńska are the Domestic Design graduates of the School of Form in Poznan, Poland.
The Global Grad Show is hosted by the Dubai Design District and is held under the patronage of Her Highness Sheikha Latifa bint Mohammed bin Rashid Al-Maktoum, Vice-Chairperson of the Dubai Culture & Arts Authority, who in this capacity acted as head of the jury for the 2017 Progress Prize.
Among the other voting jury members were Mohammad Saeed Al Shehhi, CEO of Dubai Design District; Edwin Heathcoate, architecture and design critic at The Financial Times; Noah Murphy-Reinhertz, NXT Space Sustainability Leader at Nike; Aric Chen, Lead Curator of Design and Architecture at the M+ museum; Petra Janssen, owner and designer of Studio Boot and Social Label; Hugo Macdonald, design critic and consultant; and Jessica Bland, Head of Research and Foresight at the Dubai Future Foundation.
The jury has also announced three projects as honourable mentions: Nonliving stakeholders, by Sungmy Kim –- a program that encourages people to view objects as people and considering their experience, designed at Parsons School of Design at The New School, New York; Folks, by Kevin Chiam -– a system of kitchen utensils designed to aid the blind, designed at National University of Singapore; and The Reagiro, by Reto Togni -– a manual wheelchair with a novel steering system that allows the user to control the movement of the chair through the upper body rather than through breaking and pushing, designed at Royal College of Art at the Imperial College London.
Piece from MIKO+, a collection of jewelry, winner of the inaugural Progress Prize at The Global Grad Show (Photo: courtesy of The Global Grad Show)
Piece from MIKO+, a collection of jewelry, winner of the inaugural Progress Prize at The Global Grad Show (Photo: courtesy of The Global Grad Show)
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