2004 winner Mummy Vessel by Marcel Sigel
2004 runner-up White Chandelier
Crystal by Alana Di Giacomo
The humble supermarket plastic bag is the theme of this year’s Sydney Morning Herald Young Designer of the Year Award. As part of Sydney Design Week 2004, the winner and a selection of the best entries will be on display at the Powerhouse Museum from 5 August.
A Recycling Spin’ is a perfect brief for young designers of today. With the question of how to recycle the supermarket bag high in the minds of individuals and policy makers alike , redesigning bags into objects may be a perfect alternative to a massive environmental problem.
Entrants were asked to reuse the plastic, supermarket shopping bag to design an object, environment, implement or piece of furniture for the home.
Designs used shopping bags made from high-density polyethylene which can be recycled and decomposes far more quickly than the heavier low-density polyethylene bag. The design had to be no bigger than 1 metre x 1.5 metres, to a maximum height of 2 metres.
Entry was open to tertiary students of design and graduates/attendees (within last five years) of an undergraduate tertiary design course.
Australians use about 6.9 billion plastic bags a year – if tied together, they would stretch around the world 37 times. Each one of us is responsible for using 345 bags each year. Worse, less than 3 per cent of these bags are recycled.
2004 runner-up Bag Age by Yuen Yen Choo
Visitors to the exhibition at the Powerhouse Museum will have the opportunity to vote for their favourite designer in the first Young Designer of the Year People’s Choice Award and will have a chance of winning an Aura Seating System valued at $495, as featured in the Australian Design Awards exhibition for Sydney Design Week.
Presented by The Sydney Morning Herald in partnership with the Powerhouse Museum.
