Current exhibition This exhibition has now closed
Beazley Designs of the Year 2016
Click here to see this year's exhibition.
The Beazley Designs of the Year exhibition was curated by Gemma Curtin, the Design Museum
Beazley Design of the Year: Better Shelter
Beazley Architecture Design of the Year: Better Shelter
Beazley Graphic Design of the Year: Blackstar
Beazley Product Design of the Year: Space Cup
Beazley Fashion Design of the Year: Kids vs Fashion
Beazley Transport Design of the Year: Lumos Helmet
Beazley Public Vote Design of the Year: Joto
#DesignsoftheYear
Take a quick look back at the Beazley Designs of the Year exhibition, which took place from 24 November 2016 – 19 February 2017 and was curated by Gemma Curtin, the Design Museum.
Opening video from the Beazley Designs of the Year awards night.
Video by | Studio Design
Beazley Design of the Year
Video by | Luke Hayes
© Luke Hayes
© Luke Hayes
© Luke Hayes
© Luke Hayes
"The exhibition is an exploration of the breadth of ideas which constitute design, and the breadth of people who contribute towards creating them"- Design Week
"We never miss this show. Every iteration turns up products that are life-saving, lovely to look at or just so clever you really, really wish they’d been your idea." Time Out
"It's a worthy, endlessly intriguing offering, and an insightful snapshot of just how forward thinking our creative industries are in 2016." Wallpaper
"Now in its ninth year, the award and its exhibition have become a kind of ‘state of the nation’ for design – a fascinating way to gauge the current focus areas of the design world, as well as reflecting wider cultural and societal issues." WGSN
Exhibition ticket prices
Adult £10
Student/concession £7.50*
Family (1 adult + 3 children) £17
Family (2 adults + 3 children) £24
Child (6 - 15 years) £5
Children under 6 years free
Members free
10% discount is applied when booking 10 or more tickets online. Alternatively, please contact the Bookings Office (Mon - Fri 10:00 to 17:00) on +44 20 3862 5937 or +44 20 3862 5900..
Become a member for unlimited free entry to all exhibitions.
*Concession tickets include seniors (over 60 years) and job seekers.
This exhibition has now closed.
Explore and have your say
nominees over 6 categories
This category represents the fullest range of the built environment from small scale domestic to public parks.
A university campus in Lima, Peru, inspired by the surrounding landscape
Using innovation to create a safer, more dignified home away from home for millions of displaced persons across the world
This structural safety assessment project was in response to the collapse of a textile factory in Bangladesh which killed 1,100 workers.
This attraction has been reimagined with retro-fitted rides, vintage amusements and now welcomes a new generation of visitors.
The new Milan venue of Fondazione Prada combines seven existing buildings with three new structures: the result of the transformation of a distillery dating back to the 1910’s.
Granby Workshop is a social enterprise making experimental products for homes that has grown out of the community-led rebuilding of the Granby neighbourhood.
Harbin Opera House is an extension of the Songhua River—a series of undulating lines that integrate the sinuous landscape into a formal building mass.
A detached house located in the Chilean coastline, Nida house is elevated in three levels which captures the distant Pacific Ocean.
A housing complex on the border of UCLA’s campus, the design of SL11024 seamlessly engages its historically sensitive site and challenging hillside topography.
A project to create a housing prototype with spatial and material qualities at an affordable price.
A new public building which accommodates the events, exchange and collaboration that constitutes contemporary Nunhead’s community life.
This new development connects Southwark with the Thames and provides much improved open, public space around the building.
A hybrid between the European perimeter block and the traditional Manhattan high-rise that creates a new typology: the “courtscraper.”
A wide ranging category that includes projects that may touch on other categories but are included here because it is their digital dimension that makes them interesting.
Exploring the concept of ‘the internet of things in the home’, Casa Jasmina combines Italian furniture craft with open-source electronics.
In the Eyes of the Animal enables viewers to place themselves in the body of a forest animal and experience a different outlook using augmented reality.
A twitterbot application that creates a series of illustrated moths that are tweeted sporadically throughout the day.
OpenSurgery provides a do-it-yourself surgical tool to potentially support a more accessible alternative to the increasingly expensive health services worldwide.
Project phonvert is a non-profit open project, aimed at speculating and developing alternative usages of retired smartphones to reduce material waste.
Precious Plastics provides the blueprints for people to build equipment from everyday materials to recycle unwanted plastics into valued objects.
Refugee Republic is an interactive transmedia documentary about everyday life in Domiz Camp, a Syrian refugee camp in northern Iraq.
SH:24 is an online sexual health service providing remote STI testing, information and advice.
Seen through the eyes of a civilian in a besieged city, This War of Mine provides a new take and first angle viewpoint on the impact of war on civilians.
A fashion start-up creating personalised knitwear using new technology to create affordable bespoke clothing.
Everything from student graduation shows to established fashion houses, this category includes the most important collections, accessories, fashion shows, exhibitions, films, costumes and individual pieces.
Using the term Zen as a reference point, Green’s Spring/Summer collection evokes images of samurais, gurus and purity
An exploration where school children provide an uninhabited view on the fashion world exposing issues of gender inequality.
Inspired by traditional workwear and even his mother’s own Argos uniform, Malone reimagines workwear fabrics and shapes.
With the aim of becoming the first international Mexican fashion brand, YAKAMPOT embrace cultural heritage in this series of womenswear looking back to traditional craft and elegance.
Chromat designer Becca McCharen-Tran uses her background in architecture and urban design to inspire her garments, not hiding the underlying structure but making it a feature.
2D work where graphic design is the key to the project’s success – this could be beautifully executed packaging, books, magazines, identities, digital, films, animation, street art, exhibition design, posters or typefaces.
A collective of illustrators in Malaysia pushing for government reformed created a series of protest posters that people could access online.
The redesign for the Norwegian passport, ID cards and travel documents includes delicate yet bold illustrations of the nation’s stunning scenery highlighting a sense of belonging and national pride.
The album cover uses the Unicode Blackstar symbol creating a simplicity to the design allowing the music to be the focus and the creation of an identity that is easy to identify and share.
The front covers for the Almadia book series were conceived when Magallanes looked into the archives and origins of the Almadia publishing house.
A 160 page look into the separation of the waste material bottom ash documented through close-up photography and detailed illustrations.
Using the original 1982 logo, the rebrand for Channel 4 included a dismantled version placed within the landscape representing the originality of the programming.
Dear Data is the documentation of a friendship between two graphic designers, each explaining the weekly activities of their lives through illustrations.
This subtle redesign of the oldest dictionary in the Dutch language introduces a series of new navigational tools and a cover that provides a similarity to the design of digital devices.
Created with the intension to make learning about technology fun, diverse and a little bit whimsical, Hello Ruby aims to promote computer programming to children aged 4-10 years old.
The First Aid Kit uses a series of pictograms to create easy to understand instructions for multiple nationalities when they arrive at refugee camps.
P98a Paper is compendium of different texts and fonts that the designers consider to be some of their favourites explored through a different theme for each issue.
The recent advertising campaign by Apple aims to celebrate the relationship between the iPhone and photography and the daily pictures that iPhone users create.
The new campaign encouraged people to speak about their issues with Samaritan volunteers rather than keeping their feelings closed off.
This 350ft-long underpass features a gigantic tile mural, A Sea View on the IJ, designed by Irma Boom. The tunnel is split into a cycling side and a pedestrian side: the latter is clad with 70,000 Delft Blue tiles, each measuring 13cm by 13cm, and produced by the famous Royal Tichelaar Makkum ceramics works.
This category includes furniture, unique and mass produced items including toys, packaging, lighting, technology, homewares and healthcare. A seemingly endless range of outstanding objects have been included in this category.
Inspired by the traditional porcelain makers of Arita, Japan, 2016/ combines local craftsman with international designers to create a unique set of new pieces.
Adaptive Manufacturing is a research project exploring how to gain human craftsmanship in products manufactured using new technologies.
Adidas x Parley is the world’s first running shoe created using illegal deep-sea gillnets and recycled ocean plastics.
The Design Museum Dharavi is the first museum of its kind, based in the homegrown neighbourhood of Dharavi, showcasing local talent through a nomadic exhibition space and employing design as a tool to promote social change and innovation.
The Drinkable Book raises awareness of the water crisis while combining germ-killing paper filters with lifesaving information printed on them; one filter can purify 100 litres of water.
The aim for Île is to create more uses for a basic clamp lamp, making it a multi-purpose lamp.
Joto is an online platform and an internet connected drawing device that makes digital content physical by recreating it with a pen.
Combining traditional film with digital features, the new Kodak Super 8 sees a revival in traditional filmmaking techniques for a new generation.
The latest series of LEGO figurines featuring a wheel-chair user and a guide dog. In the wake of the #ToyLikeMe campaign, the figures create a more diverse and inclusive range for all children.
Mono-lights is a multi-functional lighting system that can be connected, bent and assembled to suite any location.
A clean and elegant line of kitchen appliance that combine simple to use functions with an affordable price tag.
O&G Studio is a design and manufacturing firm which began as a two person operation and grew to be at the forefront of craft manufacturing.
Post/Biotics is a home testing kit that enables the public to test natural substances in search for the new antibiotic.
Using capillary forces to replace the role of gravity, the Space Cup enables astronauts to drink from a cup rather than a straw and was developed on the International Space Station.
Species is a study in evolution through the media of furniture design, created with a brute force that is at odds with ideas of comfort or human contact, yet so inviting by the nature of its materials.
The world’s largest air purifier, the Smog Free Project transforms smog into pieces jewellery and helps to clean our environment.
A ‘tribe’ of 25 objects ranging from stools to shelves that are intended to work better as a group than individually.
WITT Ltd have developed a technology that converts all motional energy into electricity.
Amazon kitchen-table gadget, the Echo, is our first glimpse of mass-market voice computing.
The BBC micro:bit is designed to encourage children to get involved in writing software for computers and building new things, rather than being consumers of media.
This category looks at more than planes, trains and automobiles (though, these are important too).
A GPS connected navigation tool that works on the premise of a compass pointing the rider in the right direction but not providing turn by turn instructions.
The Gogoro Smartscooter is the world’s first high-performance, smart electric two-wheel vehicle that utilises swappable batteries.
Lumos is the world’s first smart bicycle helmet integrating lights, brake and turn signals.
The OKO e-bike is one of the lightest bikes in the world and features an ultra-light carbon-fibre frame and engineered so that weight is distributed evenly across the entire bike.
With the Tesla Models X and S, the world was shown that it is possible to design and engineer a beautiful, desirable vehicle – that also happens to be electric – and to help the drive to be safer.
Summary of social media highlights from the Beazley Designs of the Year awards night.
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Background image: © Luke Hayes
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