On Friday, June 2, the winners of the five categories of the National Design Award of Latvia (NDAL) 2023 were announced at the cinema "Splendid Palace", honoring the best product, services, communication, environment, and digital solutions in the design field. The Grand Prix and the money prize of the Ministry of Culture in the amount of 2,000 euros were awarded to the architectural bureau «Ēter» for the set design of the exhibition «Weird Sensation Feels Good: The World of ASMR» at the London Design Museum. The jury also presented four special awards, and the creative industries platform FOLD presented its award. Grand prix un Kultūras ministrijas prēmiju 2000 eiro apmērā saņēma arhitektūras birojs «Ēter» par izstādes «Weird Sensation Feels Good: The World of ASMR» scenogrāfiju Londonas Dizaina muzejā. Savukārt Latvijas radošo industriju komunikācijas platformas FOLD īpašo balvu saņēma grafikas dizainere Rūta Jumīte par jauniešu organizācijas «Young Folks» vizuālo identitāti.
Winner in the environmental design category and Grand Prix winner
Exhibition «Weird Sensation Feels Good: The World of ASMR» at the Design Museum in London.
Authors: «Ēter»- Kārlis Bērziņš, Niklāvs Paegle, Dagnija Smilga, Mārtiņš Starks. Contractor — The London Design Museum, in collaboration with the Swedish Centre for Architecture and Design “ArkDes”.
The exhibition’s architecture attempts to synthesise the creative field of ASMR and its rich material world into a legible spatial language. Drawing influence from traditional spa cultures, flowing water is replaced by streams of contemporary media, aiming to create an atmosphere of safety and privacy in public, in which multiple people can be triggered to relax simultaneously. The design of the exhibition offers a new public space — an acoustically saturated environment, allowing the exhibit’s visitors to immerse themselves in a multi–sensory experience of looking, listening, and feeling closely.
Digital solutions
Video game «The Case of the Golden Idol»
Authors: «Color Gray» - Andrejs and Ernests Kļaviņi
The Case of the Golden Idol is a digital detective game in which the player must find out the causes and interrelationships of twelve mysterious deaths over a period of forty years. The game’s visual style features pixel art stylization with grotesque characters that evoke associations with 1990s adventure games. The game works even on low computer systems and does not require quick reactions or previous computer gaming skills to play it, thus is accessible and potentially enjoyable to anyone.
Communication design
The visual identity of the youth organization "Young Folks".
Author: Rūta Jumīte. Contractor: «Young Folks».
Young Folks is a youth organization in Latvia which consists of more than twenty sub-organizations created and managed by young people. Its new visual identity helps to create individual recognition, as well as a common visual language for all Young Folks sub-organizations, including any that would be created in the future. The visual identity has a dynamic headline design and a simple applicative illustration design that anyone in an organization can use, derive, and bring to life, regardless of their graphic design skills, age group and access to digital tools. The new visual identity is a system of tools that is used and developed by the young people themselves and that evolves alongside the organization.
Service design
Design studio for children at the Museum of Decorative Arts and Design
Authors: Education and Accessibility Department of the Latvian National Museum of Art – Kristīne Šica, Elīna Bērziņa, Kortnija Māra Gurtlava – in cooperation with designer Lāsma Kondrāte and illustrator Kristīna Martinova. Contractor: Latvian National Museum of Art.
The Museum of Decorative Arts and Design has become an even more child-friendly and exciting place because of its new activity studio where children can explore design creatively. The design studio for children allows young museum visitors to try their hand at ceramics, kinetics, poster design, weaving, to feel the differences of various design materials and listen to stories told by the interactive speaker Babbit. The new design studio invites children to explore the topics covered in the museum in an engaging way and for families to build a closer connection with design in their everyday life.
Product design
Military vehicle «VR-1–FOX»
Author: Edijs Laksa. Contractor: «VR Cars»
VR-1-FOX is a military vehicle with an open-top chassis designed and manufactured in Latvia and commissioned by the National Armed Forces of Latvia. This car is unique in its performance and combines the manoeuvrability of a light buggy and the durability of an off-road vehicle. Capable of taking on even the most challenging off-road missions, it is particularly suited for rapid transportation of personnel and cargo. The car’s design speaks about the values of purposefulness, intransigence, and the ability to adapt. Since a military vehicle must blend in with its surroundings, the car’s colour reflects the natural landscape of our area and observes NATO guidelines.
The jury's special recognition
High-quality small-scale design intervention
Exhibition Room no. 13 in the ISSP Gallery
Authors: Reinis Hofmanis, Alexey Beļeckis, Iveta Gaba.
Promoting local pride through design
Riga patriots’ month communication campaign
Authors: Eva Abduļina, Jānis Klaučs, Dārta Apsīte
Ethical and sustainable design
The clothing collection Vaguely Latvian
Author: «Skarule»
Design with educational and social impact
Educational board game "Save the Handwriting"
Authors: Līga Rīga Bērziņa, Agrita Rinkeviča,
lecturers of the Art Academy of Latvia -Maija Rozenfelde, Barbara Ābele, Liene Jākobsone, Martin
Foessleitner, Ilze Kundziņa.
A total of 159 works were submitted for the National Design Award of Latvia 2023, which is the highest number of entries submitted for the highest design award in Latvia to date. For participation in the second round of the competition, the selection jury nominated 59 works, which were evaluated by the members of the final jury in intense discussions during a face-toface meeting at the premises of the Latvian Investment and Development Agency’s Creative Industries Incubator on May 30 and 31. The final jury consisted of seven experienced design professionals. In addition to representatives of Latvia, three foreign experts also evaluated the works:
- Maiks Bonds (London, United Kingdom) — chairman of the final jury, design strategist, co-founder and director of brand design consultancy agency «Bond and Coyne»
- Audronė Drungilaitė (Vilnius, Lithuania) — product designer, Director of the Design Innovation Centre at Vilnius Academy of Arts.
- Brigita Bula (Riga, Latvia) — head architect of «Brigita Bula architects» and board member of the Latvian Association of Architects
- Emil Roman Frøge (Kopenhagen, Denmark) — designer, creative director and partner of «Archival Studies» agency
- Ingūna Elere (Riga, Latvia) — head designer in design studio «H2E», professor in the Art Academy of Latvia, co-founder of SEGD Riga Chapter
- Kristaps Šteimanis (Riga, Latvia) — art director of digital design, production, and consulting company «Cube»
- Liene Drāzniece (Riga, Latvia) — graphic designer, co-founder, and head designer of organic skin care company «Madara Cosmetics».
The final jury evaluated all submitted works in accordance with the regulations, assigning one to ten points to each of following quality criteria:
- originality and creativity of the idea,
- the defined problem and task(s), and the chosen solutions to solve the problem,
- co-creation, stakeholder involvement and cooperation in the work process,
- functionality and technological solution,
- aesthetics and other dimensions of quality of experience,
- economic relevance, sustainability, and circularity,
- social relevance, inclusion, availability and accessibility.
The National Design Award of Latvia is the highest award in the design field in Latvia, which is
presented with the aim to identify, evaluate and promote the best achievements of Latvian
designers and advance the development of the Latvian design industry.
Latvian Design Centre is a member of the Bureau of European Design Associations (BEDA) and an official partner of the European Commission's New European Bauhaus Initiative. Latvian Design Centre is involved in design policy making, research and education, and initiates cooperation and strategic partnerships with other design organizations, designers, companies and design users. With the support of the Ministry of Culture, Latvian Design Centre maintains the creative industry communication platform FOLD.