Announcing the 2024 SEGD Global Design Award Winners
Presented by DCL (Design Communications Ltd.)
The winners of the 2024 SEGD Global Design Awards were announced on September 27, 2024, during a ceremony at the SEGD Conference Experience Dallas. You can view these projects in our SEGD24 Awards Annual, or click on their project links below!
This year’s awards celebrated 29 winning projects selected from a competitive pool of 292 entries representing 17 countries. The honored projects span a variety of topics, disciplines, and verticals, illustrating how experiential design can be used to bridge connections between people and the spaces they inhabit. This year’s honorees showcased the transformative power of design in addressing issues ranging from sustainability and culture to cutting-edge digital experiences.
Best of Show Award
First Light Pavilion
Casson Mann
The Best of Show Award was presented to First Light Pavilion, designed by Casson Mann for the University of Manchester in Macclesfield, United Kingdom. The project is an immersive exhibition at Jodrell Bank Observatory, a UNESCO World Heritage site that tells the story of the world’s first radio astronomy facility. Casson Mann’s design ingeniously repurposes sections of the 1957 Lovell Telescope, transforming them into both interpretive surfaces and sculptural elements that define the exhibition space. The project stands out for its ability to engage visitors with rich storytelling through multimedia displays projected onto the patinated surface of the telescope panels. The seamless integration of historical artifacts and cutting-edge technology brings the site’s scientific and social history to life, creating an environment that fosters wonder and curiosity.
“The project exudes an immediate ‘wow’ factor, notably through its innovative use of dish panels that invigorate the space with excitement and intrigue. The First Light Pavilion makes innovative reuse of the original sections of the Lovell Telescope as both an interpretive projection surface and a sculptural element that defines the space of the exhibition,” remarked one of the jurors.
Sylvia Harris Award
Te Mātāwai
Maynard Design
The Sylvia Harris Award, which recognizes a project exemplifying design for the public good, was awarded to Te Mātāwai, designed by Maynard for Kāinga Ora in Tāmaki Makaurau (Auckland), Aotearoa (New Zealand). This flagship supportive housing development is a model of social, cultural, and economic impact, integrating Māori cultural values and local materials to create a sense of belonging for residents. The wayfinding system connects residents to their environment by combining English and te reo Māori languages, and utilizing native timber and engravings inspired by the Waihorotiu stream, which once ran beneath the site. The result is a thoughtful and empathetic design that not only fulfills practical needs but also honors the community’s deep connection to the land.
One juror wrote of the work, “This project tackles issues of culture, economic mobility, and housing affordability with care and focus. The integration of native language and iconography only enhances an already thoughtful approach. It is rare to see projects that spark such an internal dialogue, and Te Mātāwai excels in fostering a genuine sense of belonging for its residents.”
Nu Goteh, Chair of the 2024 SEGD Global Design Awards Jury, praised the breadth and impact of this year’s submissions:
“Design is a powerful force that influences every facet of our existence. This year’s award-winning projects highlight innovative approaches that not only solve complex design problems but also elevate the human experience. We curated a diverse panel of jurors with different perspectives and experiences to ensure a holistic evaluation of the submissions, and we were deeply inspired by the work we reviewed.”
The following is a listing of the 2024 SEGD Global Design Award winners. Project images, descriptions, and team credits can be found online at segd.org/awards. Past winners dating back to 1998 are also available in the archives.
Honor Awards:
- G4 Studios: Gaming Channel Headquarters and Offices (Branded Environments) – Populous for Comcast Spectacor, Burbank, California
- Home of Carlsberg (Branded Environments) – Event for Carlsberg Group, Copenhagen, Denmark
- Media Museum (Digital Experiences) – Tinker imagineers for The Netherlands Institute for Sound & Vision, Hilversum, Netherlands
- The Met 81st Street Studio (Digital Experiences) – Bluecadet for The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, New York
- The University of East London – Placemaking Masterplan, Wayfinding Strategy & Design (Placemaking) – Endpoint for The University of East London, London, United Kingdom
- Elizabeth Line (Wayfinding) – Maynard Design Consultancy for Crossrail Ltd, London, United Kingdom
- Yonghe Primary School Signage System (Wayfinding) – Neili Design Lab for Yonghe Primary School, Shanghai, China
Merit Awards:
- Designed by Data (Branded Environments) – Asterisk for NI, Austin, Texas
- Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA) Headquarters (Branded Environments) – Ashton Design for WMATA, Washington, DC
- Ephesus Experience Museum (Digital Experiences) – Atelier Brückner for DEM Museums, Seljuk, Turkey
- Fabric Museum: TextLoom (Digital Experiences) – Jocelyn (Ziying) Zhao for ArtCenter College of Design, Pasadena, California
- PORTRAY (Digital Experiences) – Showroom Experiential for Fellowes, Chicago, Illinois
- “Essential MIT” (Exhibition) – Studio Joseph for MIT Museum, Cambridge, Massachusetts
- Food for Thought (Exhibition) – Ashton Design for Baltimore Museum of Industry, Baltimore, Maryland
- Give Me a Sign (Exhibition) – Studio Matthews for Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum, New York, New York
- Queer Justice: 50 Years of Lambda Legal and LGBTQ+ Rights (Exhibition) – Isometric Studio for American LGBTQ+ Museum, New York, New York, and five other cities
- What Do You Make of This? (Exhibition) – Studio Matthews for the University of Washington, Seattle, Washington
- Wu Jian’an Solo Exhibition (Exhibition) – PILLS for Silk Road International Art Exchange Center, Langfang City, China
- Allina Health Surgery Centers (Placemaking) – hjnovak for Allina Health, Lakeville, Minnesota
- John A. Volpe National Transportation Systems Center (Placemaking) – SOM Graphics+Brand for U.S. Department of Transportation, Cambridge, Massachusetts
- Mi’kai’sto Red Crow Community College (Placemaking) – Entro for Mi’kai’sto Red Crow Community College, Stand Off, Canada
- The Book of HOV (Placemaking) – GENERAL IDEA for Roc Nation, Brooklyn, New York
- Cloud Swing (Public Installation) – Isometric Studio for Wellcome Trust, Hamilton, New Jersey
- Space unites. Space creates. Space separates. Space sorts. (Public Installation) – Art Academy of Latvia for Art Academy of Latvia, Riga, Latvia
- The Exhibition and Experience Design Handbook (Strategy/Research/Planning) – Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Washington, DC
- Foundry Field: The Story of Race, Representation, Access, and Baseball in South Bend, Indiana (Strategy/Research/Planning) – Clinton Carlson Design, University of Notre Dame for Foundry Field, Sappy Moffitt Field Foundation, South Bend, Indiana
- Standard Safety Design to Prevent Occupational Disasters (Strategy/Research/Planning) – YiEUM Partners Inc. for Seoul Metropolitan Government, Seoul, Republic of Korea
The 2024 SEGD Global Design Awards Jury
The 2024 jury was chaired by Nu Goteh, multidisciplinary creative and co-founder of Room for Magic, with eight internationally acclaimed jurors:
- Emilie Baltz – Experiential Artist, Creative Director of Gensler DXD
- Germane Barnes – Director of Studio Barnes, University of Miami
- Anna Crider – Partner at Entro, SEGD Board Member
- Nick Kapica – SEGD Wellington Chapter Chair, Independent Consultant
- Norman Lee – Co-Founder of RE:site
- Niloufar Maleki – Graphic Designer at Monadnock
- Vijay Mathews – Senior Product Art Director at Spotify
- Kristine Matthews – Owner and Principal at Studio Matthews
Our sincere thanks to DCL as Presenting Sponsor of the 2024 SEGD Global Design Awards, along with our Category Sponsors, CRĒO Industrial Arts, Cortina Productions, Gensler, Local Projects, Pixera, Sign Research Foundation, and Peregrine OKB.
About SEGD
We are designers of experiences connecting people to place. SEGD is a multidisciplinary community collectively shaping the future of experience design. We are a thought leader and an amplifier in the practice of experience design. Learn more at segd.org.