WASHINGTON, DC – In a world that is increasingly complex visually, designers are experimenting with ways to enhance users’ enjoyment of the “real” world with creative experiential designs that communicate. Operating at the intersection of communications and the built environment, the field of experiential design embraces a wide range of disciplines including graphic design, architectural, interior, landscape, digital and industrial design.
Winning projects in the 2016 SEGD Global Design Awards were announced at The 2016 SEGD Conference Experience Seattle. From a museum for human rights in Winnipeg to a children's hospital in The Hague to a financial research center in San Francisco, thirty-nine winning projects use a wide variety of design tools to tell stories, build brands and create a strong sense of place.
Since 1987, SEGD’s Global Design Awards have honored design that connects people to place by providing direction, content, and compelling experiences in the places where we work, play, learn, travel, shop and gather.
"The world is wide open for designers, who are leading the charge to create true user-centered experiences. They are also guided by Design Thinking and solid principles of design for user experiences.,” says Stephen Minning, founder and managing director of BrandCulture (Sydney) and chair of the 2016 SEGD Global Design Awards. "These principles are represented in the winning work."
For example, at the new Canadian Museum for Human Rights, designers were challenged to communicate, in a highly accessible and engaging way, stories about struggles and triumphant movements for change in the realization of human rights around the world. Their interactive designs involve system response to user action; provocation of interaction between visitors and between visitor types; cause-and-effect scenarios; and soliciting, using and managing user-contributed content.
For the interactive Experience at Juliana Children's Hospital the main focus of the design was how young patients experience their hospital visit. The designers added an experiential layer to the existing clinical design by creating an “adventure journey” for the young patients’ treatment process. All over the hospital, games, play sets, interactives, drawings and puppets are installed to surprise, distract or relax the children. Impressive care and attention was paid to transitional spaces of the hospital experience−places where fear and anxiety are most palpable.
For Bloomberg's San Francisco Tech Hub, the designers provided an experience that sets a successful precedent for what a corporate interior can be—an elegant and not-expected design solution that honors both historical precedent and technological advancements, while harmoniously working within the building’s material finish palette.
In addition to Minning, the 2016 SEGD Global Design Awards jury includes eight talented and innovative designers leading their fields in user experience design, architecture and digital experience design:
- Lonny Israel,Associate Director of Branding, Identity and Graphic Design for Skidmore, Owings & Merrill
- Marcia Lausen,Director of the School of Design at the University of Illinois at Chicago and founder of the Chicago office of Studio/lab
- Eric LeVine,Brand Design Director at Gensler
- Paul McConnell,Director of Design at customer experience innovation firm Intersection
- Despina Macris,Co-founder and Managing Director of Dotdash, an interdisciplinary design studio focused on wayfinding strategy
- Anna Sharp,Creative Director at public information design firm Two Twelve
- Traci Sym,Experience Design Director at Skylab Architecture
- Mike Garzarelli,Associate Designer at Comcast and 2015 student winner in the SEGD Global Design Awards program
The jury evaluated projects in seven categories that represent the core of Experiential Graphic Design: Digital Experience Content, Exhibition, Interactive Experiences, Placemaking and Identity, Public Installations, Strategy/Research/Planning and Wayfinding.
11 Honor Awards and 28 Merit Awards—spanning the full spectrum of experiential graphic design, from wayfinding to placemaking and identity, public installations, exhibitions and research projects were chosen from among 371 submissions of experiential graphic design projects from around the world.
A list of the all time Honor and Merit winners is also available. Expand the firms list to see more.
Following is a listing of the 2016 SEGD Global Design Award winners. Images, descriptions and team credits can be found in the SEGD Global Design Awards Gallery. Past winners dating to 1998 are also in the archives.
2016 SEGD GLOBAL DESIGN AWARDS
2016 Best of Show / Honor Award
Exhibitions | Riga, Latvia
Design: Studio H2E
2016 Sylvia Harris Award/Honor Award
Canadian Museum for Human Rights
Interactive Experience | Winnipeg, Canada
Design: Gagarin
2015 Honor Awards
Wayfinding | Dubai, United Arab Emirates
Design: PenguinCube FZ-LLC
Bloomberg San Franciso Tech Hub
Placemaking & Identity | San Francisco, United States
Design: Volume Inc.
Public Installation | Venice, Italy
Design: Anne Bush Design
Interactive Experience | Pasadena, United States
Design: Pearlyn Lii
Placemaking and Identity | Fukuoka, Japan
Design: Shimazu Environmental Graphics Co.
Wayfinding | Yinchuan, China
Design: Beijing Trycool Culture & Art Development
Public Installation | Lawrence, United States
Design: KU Design Students
Exhibition | Philadelphia, United States
Design: J2 Design Partnership, in collaboration with ex;it
Placemaking and Identity | Sydney, Australia
Design: Fabio Ongarato Design
Interactive Experience | San Francisco, United States
Design: Local Projects
Virtual Depictions: San Francisco
Digital Experience Content | San Francisco, United States
Design: Skidmore, Owings & Merrill LLP Architects, Refik Anadol Studio
2016 Merit Awards
Public Installation | Melbourne, Australia
Design: Fabio Ongarato Design
300 South Wacker for Beacon Capital Partners
Placemaking and Identity | Chicago, United States
Design: ESI Design
Center for Civil and Human Rights
Exhibition | Atlanta, United States
Design: Rockwell Group (exhibition design)
Placemaking and Identity | Delft, Netherlands
Design: Geerdes Ontwerpen
Interactive Experience | Chicago & Pasadena, United States
Design: Ueberall International LLC
Experience Juliana Children's Hospital
Interactive Experience | The Hague, Netherlands
Design: Tinker Imagineers
Interactive Experience | Baltimore, United States
Design: Chenyudesign
Wayfinding | Bonn, Germany
Design: Polyform, Götzelmann Middel Schumann GbR
Hyundai Card Music Library + Understage
Placemaking and Identity | Seoul, South Korea
Design: Gensler
Interactive Book on Paul Gauguin
Interactive Experience | Reihen, Switzerland
Design: iart ag
Jacob A. Riis: Revealing New York's Other Half
Exhibition | New York City, United States
Design: Studio Joseph
Makara Peak Mountain Bike Park Wayfinding
Wayfinding | Wellington, New Zealand
Design: Massey University School of Design
Public Installation | Philadelphia, United States
Design: Karen Watkins, MFA Candidate, Graphic and Interactive Design
Digital Experience Content | New York City, United States
Design: Local Projects
Parc Olympique Lyonnais Wayfinding
Wayfinding | Lyon, France
Design: Populous Activate
Revolution in the Landscape: Re-experience Halprin's Fountains
Public Installation | Portland, United States
Design: SEGD Portland Chapter; Mayer/Reed, Portland State University Graphic Design Department, Sticky Co, PNCA Animation Arts,
Rockaway Boardwalk Beach Graphics
Placemaking and Identity | Queens, United States
Design: Pentagram
SAIC LeRoy Neiman Center Donor Recognition
Public Installation | Chicago, United States
Design: Media Objectives at Valerio Dewalt Train
Sanford Lab Homestake Visitor Center
Placemaking and Identity | Lead, United States
Design: C&G Partners
Texas Children's Hospital Wayfinding Research & Assessment
Strategy/Research/Planning | Houston, United States
Design: Formation
The Riverdale Country School Learning Complex
Placemaking and Identity | Bronx, United States
Design: Open
Placemaking and Identity | Shanghai, China
Design: Public Design Lab, Tongji University College of Design & Innovation
Wayfinding | New York City, United States
Design: PentaCityGroup (consortium)
Wayfinding | Moscow, Russia
Design: City ID and Billings Jackson Design
Whitney Museum of American Art
Wayfinding | New York City, United States
Design: Entro Communications
World Architecture Festival Exhibition London
Exhibition | London, United Kingdom
Design: Populous Activate
