‘A wealth of smart services and less aesthetic product design,’ says challenge leader Dagan Cohen overviewing the shortlist of the WDCD Refugee Challenge that has been established last Friday by the committee of experts.
We can’t disclose the list yet, but Cohen says: ‘The focal point of all 631 entries clearly revolved around ethical and emphatic design and less about aesthetics, demonstrating service design as a discipline that is clearly on the rise.’
After a whole long day of considering all the entries together with a group of some 30 experts in the design and humanitarian field, founder and creative director of What Design Can Do Richard van der Laken said: ‘The WDCD Refugee Challenge has channelled an enormous amount of creativity and commitment. Proposals were ripe and green, fabulous and naive. But most of all I was touched by the fact that creatives worldwide are not cynical, but hopeful and willing to take action. Now it is up to the international jury!’
‘I hope that we have added one more brick into the great wall’, said architect Branimir Medic. And textile designer Femke van Gemert added: ‘I was very touched and impressed to see so many people involved with the refugee issue. All these sweet, bold, crazy, clever or sound ideas from creatives of all ages from all over the planet show a lot of empathy. And that is quite opposite to what we’ve seen in politics and the media lately regarding this issue.’
The shortlist will be announced tomorrow, 21 June.
Top image: The members of the selection committee who were physically present (while others joined through skype), from left to right: Annelous Rosenstock (Concern), Bas van Lier (WDCD), Femke van Gemert (textile designer), Till Schopen (Ashoka), Nora van der Linden (Kennisland), Willem van der Sluis (Customr), Dagan Cohen (WDCD), Richard van der Laken (WDCD), Jetske Voorneveld (ADCN), Pepijn Zurburg (WDCD), Branimir Medic (de Architecten Cie.), Gilian Schrofer (Concern) / All photo’s by Leo Veger