RØDE Awards $50K to Next Gen Winners

Good Design Australia is proud to announce that our Next Gen Category Partner RØDE Microphones will be awarding a total of $50,000 AUD to the winners of the Next Gen category for the 2020 Good Design Awards. We believe this to be the largest cash prize offered for a student awards program in Australia.

The Next Gen category is open to young designers under the age of 30 in Australia and New Zealand and recognises innovation, sustainability, technology and design excellence across a range of design disciplines. RØDE Founder and Chairman Peter Freedman AM is a devoted supporter of the Good Design Awards and has been the principal sponsor of the Next Gen category for the past four years.

RØDE announced they would be increasing the prize money in a surprise announcement at the 2019 Good Design Awards Ceremony last year and the 2019 Winners were thrilled to receive their share of the generous total prize money. They were awarded at RØDE’s HQ in Sydney during an event on August 30 2019, which followed the official Good Design Awards ceremony in July. The three Gold winners were awarded $10,000 each, while the Best in Class winners received a cheque for $20,000 for their Gecko Traxx project.

“It was a real pleasure to present the Next Gen winners with their prizes,” says RØDE CEO Damien Wilson, “and to support Peter’s vision for fostering young creatives and innovators. Peter was very impressed by all of the winners, as were we all here at RØDE, and we hope their prize money helps them on their journeys ahead.”

The 2019 winning entries were Lettuce Eat, a series of plates made from dehydrated lettuce sourced from supermarket waste, designed by Maddison Ryder from Melbourne; Continuity, a non-invasive glucose responsive insulin, developed by Frédérique Sunstrüm from Sydney; Talu Tales, an interactive storytelling game that uses STEM education techniques to teach children, developed and designed by Annabel Blake and Deborah Ho from Little Literature Co. in Sydney; and finally the Best In Class winner, Gecko Traxx, a portable and affordable wheelchair accessory that enables off-road access for manual wheelchair users, designed by Ryan Tilley and Huy Nguyen from Melbourne.

For 2020 the prize money will be split differently to allow more winners to receive a piece of the huge $50,0000. 2020 cash prizes will be split as follows:

Good Design Best in Class Winner = $20,000 (only 1 winner)

Good Design Award Gold Winner = $7,000 each (3 winners)

Good Design Award Winner = $1,000 each (9 winners)

RØDE has pledged that their support of the Next Gen category will continue next year and into the future.

For press enquiries regarding RØDE or The Freedman Group, contact Nick Stillman [email protected]

About RØDE Microphones and The Freedman Group:

RØDE Microphones designs and manufactures high-quality microphones, interfaces and related accessories for studio, live and location use. Its products are designed and primarily manufactured in Sydney, Australia and exported to over 117 countries globally. RØDE is part of The Freedman Group, with APHEX, Event and SoundField. Freedman Electronics celebrated its 50th anniversary in 2017.

IMPORTANT CHANGES TO 2020 AWARDS

TO EVERYONE IN OUR GOOD DESIGN COMMUNITY

First and foremost, our thoughts go out to those impacted during this difficult time and we hope you are all staying safe.

We wanted to update you on the difficult but necessary changes we have had to make to our programs and events as outlined below. We have made these changes under the guidance of the most up-to-date advice and with the full support of our stakeholders, Ambassadors and Jury. These changes seek to ensure the health and safety of our community and to assist in limiting the severity of the situation as much as possible in these extreme circumstances.

Good Design Australia remains committed to supporting the design community and advocating for design’s role in designing a better and safer future. We genuinely believe the time for design-led action is now more critical than ever and remain optimistic that through a considered and thoughtful design-led approach, our world can and will recover from these challenges.

We are focused on maintaining as much continuity as possible during the months ahead. We truly hope the celebration of design excellence and our creative community will bring us together during this difficult and challenging time.

The period ahead is going to be tough on everyone and we want to do our bit to help. We will be supporting the design industry as best as we can during the uncertain months ahead and we are keen to hear from you as to what else we could be doing.

On behalf of all of us here at Good Design Australia, our thoughts and best wishes go out to you, your friends, family and colleagues – let’s get through this together.

Warmest regards,

IMPORTANT UPDATES TO THE 2020 GOOD DESIGN AWARDS

ENTRY DEADLINE EXTENDED TO 29 MAY 2020:
The deadline for the 2020 Good Design Awards will be extended to 29 MAY 2020 to allow entrants facing disruption the time they need to submit. If you are considering submitting a project but require more time, please let us know and we will do our very best to assist you. All applications can be submitted remotely through the online application portal.

DISCOUNTED ENTRY FEES:
We recognise businesses are likely to have been impacted and will be offering a 25% discount on all entry fees from today. If you have already submitted an entry, this saving will be redeemable against the Winners Package, should you be successful in being recognised with a Good Design Award.

To support the design community as much as we can, we will also be offering a limited number of free entries on a case by case basis. If you were planning to submit an entry but can no longer afford the entry fee, please send us an email to [email protected] with a summary of your project and a request to waive the entry fee.

GOOD DESIGN AWARDS JUDGING:
After careful consideration of the situation and concerns over ongoing travel restrictions, we have made the very difficult decision to transfer this year’s Good Design Awards Judging to a fully online model, to mitigate any risks associated with our normal face-to-face judging process and assist applicants who are experiencing supply chain disruption.

We have made this decision with the full support of our Good Design Jury and will do our utmost to ensure the thoroughness and integrity that we so proudly uphold in our Good Design Awards is maintained. Jury requests for site visits will be managed on a case-by-case basis taking into consideration the advice and restrictions at that time.

We encourage all applicants to take time writing their online entries and strongly recommend including high-quality images and, if possible, video content to help highlight and communicate the design merits of your project.

2020 GOOD DESIGN AWARDS CEREMONY:
The Awards Ceremony originally planned for 9 July will be postponed to later this year. Once we have confirmed a new date, we will communicate this to you promptly. We will be closely monitoring government advice and will keep you up to date with any further changes that may need to be made.

BRINGING OUR BEST IDEAS TOGETHER:
As passionate advocates for good design, we believe it is now more important than ever to practice what we preach. We see this crisis as one of the biggest design challenges of our time and want to hear your thoughts and ideas on what we can do to help. If ever there was a time for the design community to work together, that time is now. If you have any ideas for online events, articles, discussion groups or anything else you think could help, please reach out.

Our team at Good Design Australia will be working remotely but we are only an email or phone call away so if you have any questions or concerns, please don’t hesitate to contact us – we’ll always do our best to help.

GOOD DESIGN TEAM