2022 SEGD GLOBAL DESIGN AWARDS: Celebrating Design that Connects People to Place
Read Time: 6 minutes
WASHINGTON, June 22, 2022 — This year’s winning projects in the SEGD Global Design Awards were announced on June 17, 2022, during the in-person 2022 SEGD Global Design Awards Ceremony at the SEGD Conference hosted at the Hyatt Regency Hotel in Portland, Oregon.
The 38 winning projects span a range of topics, disciplines, and verticals, highlighting the role of design in addressing themes of tolerance, equity, sustainability, protest, and change. From monuments to victims of enslavement and persecution to immersive explorations of words, moving images, science, and more; to places that thoughtfully welcome people back to the workplace, school, and public spaces. This year’s award-winning designers truly showcased the power of design to tell critical stories, bring people together, and inspire positive change worldwide.
The Best of Show award was awarded to an exhibition entitled “The Tactile of History. Memorial to the victims of the Soviet Occupation,” submitted by Design Studio H2E in Riga, Latvia. This commemorative monument links the present day with tragic historical events committed by the Soviet regime against the Latvian people. The memorial commemorates the 80th anniversary of the first mass deportations from Latvia in 1941, when over 15,000 people were forcibly displaced, and numerous others suffered years of oppression and occupation. Sitting in the center of the Old Town of Riga, it serves as a potent reminder for future generations to prevent the return of totalitarian ideologies.
The memorial is constructed from two-color finish elements: red and light gray granite, which form a traditional Latvian blanket pattern that symbolizes human pain. The center of the wall incorporates an image of a wagon with steps leading to infinity, symbolically alluding to deportation echelons with a simple, powerful message: “For Remembrance.” This side of the memorial faces the center of the square and becomes a backdrop for commemorative events. The other side faces a narrow street, provides a more personal atmosphere to commemorate the victims of the occupation, and uses light and audio to expand the horizons of perception. A handkerchief is replicated out of weathered steel, graphically depicting the original embroidery work by a victim to commemorate their companions. The names of each victim testify to the scale of the tragedy.
One juror wrote of the work, “The promise of memorializing the past is to change the future. This project stood out above the others in its careful consideration of all its elements: scale, pattern, use of lighting and sound, materials, placement, color, and story. We weren’t looking for a project to speak to the current events, but the jury was unanimous in its decision to elevate this project in this moment. Its design holds the pain of the past boldly and unapologetically. Both in somber memorial and urgent warning.”
The 2022 Sylvia Harris Award—selected from all submissions, a project that exemplifies design for the public good in honor of the legacy of Sylvia Harris, the founder of Citizen Research & Design—went to the installation, “Society’s Cage.” Developed by a group of architects and artists in a grassroots effort born in the aftermath of the murders of Breonna Taylor and George Floyd, Society’s Cage is a bold interpretive installation that challenges visitors to reckon with America’s long history of racial injustice and white supremacy. Its design rooted in statistical facts is both unsettling and uplifting. A place to raise awareness, build empathy, and provide sanctuary for contemplation and healing.
This traveling art installation contextualizes the contemporary phenomenon of police killings of Black Americans within the 400-year history of anti-Black racialized state violence in the U.S. The 15’x15′ pavilion is encased by 500 suspended weathered steel rods, only a quarter touching the ground to reflect the incarceration rate of Black Americans; their colors and texture represent the variety of melanin in the Black diaspora and the enduring legacy of institutional racism in America.
“Timely and relevant—this community-driven piece creates a public stage for reflection, interpretation, and self-expression. I love how the public interacts with it and within it,” remarked one jury member.
“Every year, the SEGD Global Design Awards recalibrate the standards of excellence for our industry,” explains Phillip R. Tiongson, the Chair of the 2022 Global Design Awards Jury. “The winning projects exemplify how great design can powerfully serve communities with lasting impact.”
In addition to Tiongson, the 2022 SEGD Global Design Awards jury includes six other internationally acclaimed designers:
- Bosco Hernández, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (San Francisco, CA)
- Jason Bruges, Jason Bruges Studio (London, United Kingdom)
- Genell Hoechstetter, Meow Wolf (Santa Fe, NM)
- Robin Perkins, SEGD Fellow, Selbert Perkins Design (Los Angeles, CA)
- Richard The, The GreenEyl (New York, NY)
- Carlea Stremme, Student at West Chester University of Pennsylvania (Hatboro, PA)
- Jennifer Kapral, Asia Society Texas Center (Houston, TX)
The jury evaluated projects in seven categories representing the core of experiential graphic design practice: Digital Experience Content, Exhibition, Interactive Experience, Placemaking and Identity, Public Installation, Strategy/Research/Planning, and Wayfinding. In total, 12 Honor Awards and 26 Merit Awards—spanning the full spectrum of experiential graphic design—were chosen from among 321 entries of experiential graphic design projects from around the world.
The following is a listing of the 2022 SEGD Global Design Award winners. Project images, descriptions, and team credits can be found online at awards.segd.org. Past winners dating back to 1998 are also available in the archives.
2022 SEGD GLOBAL DESIGN AWARDS
2022 BEST OF SHOW AND HONOR AWARD
The Tactile of History: Memorial to the Victims of the Soviet Occupation
Public Installation | Riga, Latvia
Design: Design Studio H2E
2022 SYLVIA HARRIS AND HONOR AWARD
Society’s Cage
Public Installation | Washington, DC
Design: Society’s Cage Design Team (CAOS)
2022 HONOR AWARDS
Bayou Greenways Park
Placemaking & Identity | Houston, Texas
Design: Minor Design
From Absence to Presence, Commemorative to Enslaved Peoples of Southern Maryland
Public Installation | St. Mary’s City, Maryland
Design: RE:site Studio
Greenwood Rising
Exhibition | Tulsa, Oklahoma
Design: Local Projects
Learning Lab
Interactive Experience | Melbourne, Australia
Design: Grumpy Sailor Creative
Musée Atelier Audemars Piguet
Exhibition | Le Brassus, Switzerland
Design: Atelier Brückner
One Park: Building a Holistic Visitor Experience at Washington Park
Strategy, Research, Planning | Portland, Oregon
Design: sparks+sullivan
Planet Word Museum Language
Exhibition | Washington, DC
Design: Local Projects
Social Lab at The Museum of Tolerance
Interactive Experience | Los Angeles, California
Design: Unified Field
Spotify New York
Placemaking & Identity | New York, New York
Design: Acrylicize
The Story of the Moving Image
Digital Experience Content | Melbourne, Australia
Design: Grumpy Sailor Creative, Second Story
2022 MERIT AWARDS
Airport Wayfinding
Strategy, Research, Planning | Berlin, Germany
Design: Moniteurs Communication Design
Currents: Niagrara’s Power Transformed
Digital Experience Content | Niagara Falls, Canada
Design: Thinkwell Group
Discover Yourself
Exhibition | Faaborg, Fyn, Denmark
Design: Torden & Lynild
Downey City Library
Wayfinding | Downey City, California
Design: Handbuilt Studio, (a DBA of NAC, inc)
Dubai Expo 2020
Exhibition, Wayfinding | Dubai, UAE
Design: Spaceagency Design
The Future of Workplace Experience in Google’s Most Radically Sustainable Space
Placemaking & Identity | Sunnyvale, California
Design: Huge
Game On!
Interactive Experience | Melbourne, Australia
Design: Grumpy Sailor Creative
Hildreth Elementary School
Placemaking & Identity | Harvard, Massachusetts
Design: Arrowstreet
Hyde Park Barracks—Legacy
Digital Experience Content | Sydney, Australia
Design: Grumpy Sailor Creative
Logan Memorial Educational Campus
Placemaking & Identity | San Diego, California
Design: Visual Asylum
In Love With the World
Public Installation | London, United Kingdom
Design: Sitara Systems
Merriweather District
Wayfinding | Columbia, Maryland
Design: Ashton Design
National Monument Kamp Amersfoort
Exhibition | Leusden, Netherlands
Design: Tinker Imagineers
Native New York
Exhibition | New York, New York
Design: C&G Partners
Neuro Divergent
Interactive Experience | Baltimore, Maryland
Design: Ana Tobin, MFA Thesis Project
Nine Entertainment Company Workplaces Signage & Graphics
Wayfinding | Sydney, Australia
Design: Urbanite, part of Frost*collective
Revealing Krishna: Journey to Cambodia’s Sacred Mountain
Interactive Experience | Cleveland, Ohio
Design: Dome Collective
Russel Wright Design Center
Exhibition | Garrison, New York
Design: Studio Joseph
See Words: Anywhere
Strategy, Research, Planning | Cincinnati, Ohio
Design: Learning by Design Lab
State Ethnological Museum and Museum of Asian Art at the Humboldt Forum
Exhibition | Berlin, Germany
Design: Ralph Applebaum Associates
Step Right Up!
Exhibition | Kansas City, Missouri
Design: Burns & McDonnell
The Story of the Moving Image—Year-Round Centerpiece Exhibition
Exhibition | Melbourne, Australia
Design: Second Story/Razorfish
Un|Filtered: The Paradox of Water on the Gulf Coast
Exhibition | Houston, Texas
Design: University of Houston, Senior Graphic Design
Up From the People: Protest and Change in DC
Exhibition | Washington, DC
Design: Studio Joseph
Uptown Underground
Public Installation | New York, New York
Design: Ian Callender
Welcome Galleries
Exhibition | Washington, DC
Design: Studio Joseph
# # #
About SEGD
A 501(c)3 organization, SEGD (the Society for Experiential Graphic Design) is the multidisciplinary, global community of professionals who create experiences that connect people to place. Find out more at www.segd.org.
CREO Industrial Arts is the Presenting Sponsor of the 2022 SEGD Global Design Awards. Archetype, Designtex and MAD Systems sponsor Category Awards.
For a downloadable copy of this press release, click here.