the exhibition “Estonian Design Awards 2012–2022. A Retrospective”, which showcases more than two hundred works by Estonian designers, opens in the Estonian Museum of Applied Art and Design.
Sandra Nuut, who curated the exhibition, explains: “Visitors will meet the designers recognised and awarded by the jury as representing the best of local design over the ten years featured. The showcase provides insight into the history of the awards and how they have developed over the years, as well as other aspects of the prestigious competition.” The display in the large hall on the ground floor of ETDM offers an overview of the selected works and designers, creating a space for discussion between the design industry and the wider audience. The exhibition begins by looking back to the period before the design awards, when the ERKIdesign Award, one of the first honours in the field, was established in the late 1970s. This award was created to “encourage creativity” in two categories: one for alumni of the then State Art Institute of the Estonian SSR and the other for students. Both categories considered designers’ creative works from the previous year, and for students, extracurricular projects were also taken into account. The exhibition includes the ERKIdesign trophy of Heikki Zoova, who is a designer and associate professor of product design at the Estonian Academy of Arts.
Organised by the Estonian Design Centre, the Estonian Design Awards brings together several previously independent awards established by different associations and parties, including the Estonian Design Centre, the Estonian Association of Designers, Art Directors Club Estonia (ADC*E), the Estonian Academy of Arts and the Estonian Service Industry Association. Today, awards are handed out in some twenty different categories, with the exhibition presenting a diverse range of the work recognised across those categories – from the winners entries in the Young Designer Award Säsi to lifetime achievement awards.
Nuut recommends visitors pay attention not only to the award-winning product designs but also to the winning entries in the graphic and digital design categories, which showcase many familiar visuals, environments, and packaging solutions, putting on display the diversity and relevance of the field to everyday life.
In particular, she highlights the “Educase” set of educational tools created by the agency Velvet, which won the Grand Prix in 2022 in the Life-Changing Design category: “This a tool for teaching children with visual and hearing disabilities – as well as everyone else – about nature. The hemispherical learning packs, including the swamp case, the coastal case and the forest case, were created to help children truly feel what the nature that surrounds us has to offer and to improve the accessibility of nature tourism in general.”
Another work Nuut picks out is “JutuPeatus” (StoryStops), a series of signs created by Tuumik Stuudio for a project launched by the Tartu City Library to celebrate the 100th birthday of the Republic of Estonia. “The signs refer to books related to places in Estonia. The signboards look like pages from a manuscript flying through the air and have four different site-specific standard forms. A total of 100 signs were installed across Estonia,” she says.
One of the newer award categories is Game Changer. The 2022 winning entry “Sign Me Up for Military Service!” is almost certainly shaping many people’s lives without them realising it. “Sign Me Up for Military Service” was created for a service design project launched by the Public Sector Innovation Team (Innotiim) to investigate why military service is unpopular and which called for proposals for better organising military service, new support materials for training providers and a new curriculum for basic training.
“Estonian Design Awards 2012–2022. A Retrospective” is organised in cooperation with the Estonian Design Centre, which organises the Estonian Design Awards competition. Entries to the Estonian Design Awards 2024 competition to recognise Estonia’s most accomplished designers and design offices, the best users and uses of design, and the most outstanding design initiatives and outcomes can be submitted until 1 August 2024.
The exhibition will be accompanied by an audience programme and will remain open until 6 October.
Photography: Hedi Jaansoo
