We're up for a special edition on the 29th of January, by the way. Not only will we be awarding the 12 Gold Award Winners, including the Henry van de Velde Lifetime Achievement Gold Award, the Henry van de Velde Company Gold Award and the Henry van de Velde Young Talent Gold Award, but we will be awarding excellent design from Flanders for the 25th time. A true cause for celebration and an extra reason to make your vote count. 

Design: Studio Dott. / Client: BAO Living / Production: vanhout.pro

In order to make the residential construction market more affordable and sustainable, Studio Dott., together with start-up BAO Living, developed a new, revolutionary method that brings all utilities in an apartment together in one smart adaptable module (SAM).

Design: Barco designteam / Client: Barco

With the Barco UniSee®-platform, Barco had completely redesinged and optimised every part of a LCD video wall solution.  During a design-driven innovation process, in which -at every step- all that was superfluous was omitted and the necessary simplications made, the design team came up with a solution which has a superior picture quality which, moreover, is self-aligning and easy to install and operate.

Design: Achilles Design / Client: Xeikon Manufacturing

The Xeikon CX500 is the first digital label printing press based on a modernised dry toner platform that combines speed, versatility and print quality.

Concept & Design: Architects De Vylder Vinck Taillieu, in collaboration with architects BAVO & Work groups of doctors, management, staff and patients / Client: KARUS

The Sint-Jozef building of PC Caritas in Melle has unexpectedly been given a second life as a monumental outdoor space open to patients, staff, visitors and local residents.  

Creation of play: U Move 4 Peace (Pax Christi Vlaanderen) / Game development: Poppins & Wayne / Client: !DROPS and U Move 4 Peace / in association with Red Cross reception centre Linkeroever, KunstZ and Madame Fortuna. With the support of the Flemisch Government and the Province of Antwerp. 

Flanders is characterised by a growing diversity. Migration and integration are central concepts in our present-day society. By means of an interactive game and a participative theatre performance for sixteen to twenty year-olds, !DROPS and U Move 4 Peace (UM4P) want to turn development education into a practical exercise in a creative and captivating way. The following questions formed the starting point: Why and how do refugees come to Belgium? How do they build a new future? What role can Flemisch young people play in this?  

Concept & Design: Ief Spincemaille / LOOGCV // Production webbing: Rubis (Izegem) and Thrace (Greece)

Ief Spincemaille developed Rope as an artistic project with which he travels around, ends up somewhere and improvises, places a sculpture in the world and creates situations and installations from the dynamic that arises between this sculpture and the world.
Knotted Rope is the commercial brother which is a fantastic object for adults and children to bring home.

Design: Dirk Wynants Design Works / Client: Extremis

Acacia is a compact, asymmetric parasol that provides you with shade wherever you want it. Like the African tree of the same name, thanks to its eccentric shape, it manages to capture as much sunshine as a larger specimen despite its small textile surface.

Design: Studio Gooris / Client: Rollogo Limited

Inspired by the iconic travelling case, Escape is a contemporary trolley that also serves as a light and self-charging mobile office for today's business people. What is special are the patented electric spinner wheels that, at a normal walking speed, generate the power to charge all your (digital) devices. The trolleys are also equipped with a suspension system that not only protects against hard shocks, but also makes using them on rough terrain much more pleasant. 

Design: Lies Mertens

Lies Mertens is a qualified graphic designer, but because she was unable to find a handbag that was simple and timeless, yet attractive, of high quality and practical, she decided to design some herself. The label originated from the idea of combining efficiency and simplicity in a sustainable way. They are timeless and very functional bags made from high quality materials. Because only a limited number of bags are added to the collection each year, there is room to really focus on the aesthetics and convenience. 
 

Design: Vanbriel Yuan Design Company / Client: ecoBirdy

EcoBirdy produces furniture for children made exclusively from sustainable materials and on an industrial scale. Thinking on a large scale also increases the impact exponentially. The aim with the colourful furniture for children is to increase their "awarness of sustainability" and to introduce them to the circular economy. All pieces from the debut collection of ecoBirdy are made of old plastic toys and are completely recyclable.
 

Development & Design of the HNST jeans collection: HNST / Development & Productie of ESG Green European Spinning Group / Visual identity: Pinkeye

The innovative, sustainable HNST jeans collection is the result of the collaboration between a creative start-up and many other partners. In an initial phrase there was the extraordinary collaboration with textile company European Spinning Group (ESG) that produces textile yarns for different markets and applications. Both partners had previously chosen for open innovation, co-creation and circular design as a busniess model. The ESG Green yarn used for weaving the HNST jeans collection symbolises this new "disign thinking" in classical sectors.  

Design: Veldeman Bedding design team (Kevin Martens, Lydia Bielen, Paul Schreurs, Marco de Bruijn) / Client: Veldeman Bedding

With the  Velda Resleep concept, Veldeman Bedding is introducing the first 100% circular sleeping system in the international furniture industry, making it the leader in its sector. The Velda Resleep box spring, mattress and topper were developed according to the Cradle-to-Cradle-principle (regeneration or second life possible) and are part of a far-reaching circular innovation trajectory in which "no staples, glue of PU foam" is the touchstone in the process. 

Author: Veerle Helsen / Design: MAFF / Client: Lannoo

Surf & Stay is a visual travel guide in which leafing through the pages feels like swimming in the ocean. Journalist Veerle Helsen cruised in her campervan, Connor, along the surf coasts of Spain and Portugal, collecting tips on surfing, eating, sleeping and where to find the most stunning architecture. The results are far from what you would find in a typical travel guide, and art director Elke Treunen from the Antwerp-based design studio MAFF has arranged them into a dreamy layout. Not macho or competitive but happy, liberating and inspiring. Surf & Stay is a tale of a personal search for freedom, away from the daily grind. 

Author: Sanne De Wilde / Design: Tim Bisschop / Client: Hannibal

‘Colour’ is nothing more than a word for those who cannot see colours. How do the islanders see the trees, the sea and themselves? How should we see the world through their eyes? In this book, the viewer is invited to enter a dream world full of colourful possibilities, which is reflected in the use of different types of paper and printing inks, a fan of colours and a cover that changes colour when held in the sun. 
 

Design: Superset / Client: Lannoo

Over the past two decades Frieke Janssens has built a solid reputation in staged photography. Her visual language is both surprising and playful and reveals a great sense of humor, and countless throughtful details. During the briefing of this book Frieke Janssens gave an extensive explanation of the detailed method her style of photography requires. Letting us designers see her pictures in a completely different daylight, we decided to tell this story in the book. The Generous format of the book enables details of Frieke's photography to be shown in full glory; Isolated photos on a white background in their original cutouts are elternated with large full page details, this way the view of the reader is forced to styling, models, clothes, make-up, location and poses which are so important in the imagery and process of the photographer.  

Design: Giel Dedeurwaerder and Brent Neve, collectieve design studio / Client: Serax

Collage is a tea service based on the perfect balance between material, shape and proportion and on the idea of using tableware as decoration in the interior and not just to be put away. Influenced by Japanese design, Giel Dedeurwaerder and Brent Neve designed woorden cups and a cast-iron teapot. The wood in combination with the cast iron gives the design the sustainable, functional and aesthetic character they were looking for.  

Design: Jeffrey Huyghe / Client: Modular Lighting Instruments

When you have a single connection point in combination with suspended lighting, you almost never have the possibility to orient the light source. On top of that, adjustable spots mounted on the ceiling can often be very glary. Marbul Suspension Adjustable solves these problems in a very elegant way through an ingenious rotation system that is partly in the spherical lamp housing and partly in the cylinder or the built-in connection point. Hereby the suspended light source achieves an inclination of 45° and a rotation of 360°,  so after installation you can still direct the light to any desired location.

Design & Production: The {FORM} Nation (Luc Bossuyt)

Luc Bossuyt wanted to design aesthetic and feel-good outdoor and urban furniture to cheer up the living environment with comfort, aesthetics and colour, in an authentic and sustainable material. For long time he searched via google for the material with which he wanted to do this. It had to be mouldable, sturby and resistant to wind and weather. After a long search, he came across the innovative ultra-high strenght fibre concrete: Ultra-High Performance Fiber Reinforced Concrete (UHPFRC) from DUCTAL®.

Design: Studio Dott. / Opdrachtgever: Belun Technology Company

The Belun ring is a non-invasive solution that monitors the sleep quality of its user. It analyses the amount of oxygen in your blood, your stress level, and provides a picture of the different phases in your sleep. An important target group is formed by those people who suffer from obstructive sleep apnoea (OSAS).

Design: Marie Van den Broeck / Client: My Add On

The MySleeve is a silicone stocking that you roll over the hand grip of your crutch thus solving some of the greatest frustrations of scrutch users, namely sore hand and fallen crutches. But how? For the sore hands, a gel patch is provided that distributes the pressure points of the hand evenly, making pain and blisters a thing of the past. To counteract the problem for falling crutches, a magnet is integrated into the top of the MySleeve. This makes it possible to click both crutches together quickly and easily, so that you can simply lean them against the wall, chair or your own body to make your hands free without the crutches falling over.

Design: pilipili design

Two is a door handle that requires an exact combination of two actions to operate it. A "hidden" button, which is incorporated in the design, must first be pressed before the latch itself can be turned down. The Two door handle prevents people with dementia who show erratic behavior from entering the rooms of other residents or leaving the department. Two can be transformed into a normal working latch without the double action, simply by pushing a peg in the internal mechanism before installation. In this way, all doors in a care center can be provided with the same door handles.  

Design: Eduardo Gonzalez / Client: Addax

Addax Motors, produces, sells and rent light, electric commercial verhicles. The company developed the MT10, a 100% electric, green, compact, manoeuvrable and pleasantly quiet verhicle, which is available with an open or closed body and with many other options. Thanks to the size and flexibility of the chassis in combination with a considerable carrying capacity of up to 1000 kg, the Addax MT is perfectly adapted for short distance transport and specially developed for the professional market and for deliveries in cities and towns (for example, for the collection of green waste), for postal and last-minute delivery services and for large industrial sites and warehouses, recreation and amusements parks.

Design: Yellow Window, Axel Enthoven & Eric Govers / Client: Bombardier, NMBS

Under the direction of Axel Enthoven, Yellow Window designed the new Bombardier M7-double-decker trains that the Belgian national railway company, NMBS, shall gradually be bringing into service starting in September 2018. Of course the design had to meet a long and broad spectrum of current and future needs of the NMBS and its passengers (various qualitative improvements, more passengers, a better travel experience, comfort, accessibility, communication, etc).  
The ultimate challange however, was to bring an innovative and modern impulse to the train product, but at the same time to design the new interiors to be perfectly compatible with the existing M6 coaches, the current reference of the NMBS. This requirement offers the NMBS both flexibility in train composition, maintenance and spare parts, but above all the potential of a future upgrade of the M6 fleet to M7 with the absolute minimum of modifications.