London Serpentne Gallery 20th September 20: The Hublot Design Prize 2019 rewards the work of Samuel Ross, and the “Pierre Keller Award” goes to Marion Pinaffo and Raphaël Pluvinage.
An expression of the deep friendship I have always shared with Pierre Keller, to which the Prize owes its very existence, this year’s edition includes the last selection he made. Hublot has been synonymous with design and innovation since it was founded in 1980. It is a natural step for us to join forces with all the universes that create turning points, write history and change the world. To inspire, influence, support, pass on, so that the act of creating continues. This is the aim of the Hublot Design Prize – to showcase promising designers from around the world; reward experimental, pioneering and out of the ordinary projects that employ innovative techniques and materials, and new technologies. And above all, a meaningful design that forms part of a social and environmental approach. Giving meaning to the act of creating!”. – Ricardo Guadalupe, CEO Hublot
HUBLOT DESIGN PRIZE
The aim: to promote creativity
Born from the on-going friendship between Hublot’s Chairman Jean-Claude Biver and Pierre Keller (former director of Lausanne University of Art and Design, ECAL), the Hublot Design Prize was created in 2015 to celebrate the ten-year anniversary of the launch of the iconic Big Bang model, and highlights the work of the designers of tomorrow.
Large-scale exposure
The specific aim of the HUBLOT DESIGN PRIZE is to provide an already accomplished designer with a platform to launch and increase the exposure of their work, a career boost so that, one day, they will rank amongst the great names in design.
A dual selection principle*
An independent jury is formed of three experts from the field of contemporary design – each of whom put forward five candidates. In total, 20 entries were submitted, including five put forward by the late Pierre Keller (4th member of the Jury and Chairman of the prize) and six finalists were selected to present their creations. One of them is crowned the winner, and, for this year only, the Jury reserves the right to award the “Pierre Keller Award” to another finalist.
Six designers with different, innovative and exploratory forms of expression have turned the 5th edition of the HUBLOT DESIGN PRIZE into a truly sensory experience, one imbued with meaning.
They contemplate, distract, interact with the public and undeniably arouse emotions through a beam of light, an unexpected curve, a surprising texture or colour.
Each of these talents has a particular way of projecting their own vision of the world, reclaiming the alphabet of design rewritten at their leisure, a reflection on our environments, our internal lives, our relationship with discovery or our identity.
This year, true to their desire to showcase the young creative guard, HUBLOT gives prominence to experimentation that has meaning, is playful and responsible, and that serves people, demonstrating a real openness towards cultures and universal rites before reinterpreting these through the prism of our current usage, or provoking deep questions on the place man occupies between dream and reality, the imaginary and our eco-responsibility.
In the same way as HUBLOT explores the field of hybrids, combining rubber with the most precious metals in a range of infinite variations for its ultra-sophisticated chronographs, Dimitri Bähler, Mae Ling J.Lokko, Pinaffo & Pluvinage, Shigeki Fujishiro, Than Hussein Clark and Samuel Ross each innovate in turn with their exploration of offbeat, quirky, recycled ideas and materials, to create a new world in which revisited uses and functions offer the audience a number of aesthetic and interactive experiences where meaning is used to awaken our senses.
For this 5th edition, the HUBLOT DESIGN PRIZE 2019 rewards the work of Samuel Ross and the “Pierre Keller Award” goes to Marion Pinaffo & Raphaël Pluvinage.
Samuel was chosen for his incredible energy, the remarkable collaborative approach to his work; combining object design, social design and garment design, and his ability to use them as mediums of connectivity. Through his practice as a fashion designer in streetwear and industrial design, Samuel continues to reach a wider society through his innovative work.
Regarding the “Pierre Keller Award”, the jury was incredibly touched by the extraordinary book produced by Marion Pinaffo and Raphaël Pluvinage. The Swiss artist Paul Klee says that “art makes the invisible visible”. The panel of three were impressed by how Marion and Raphaël managed to convey complex themes at the heart of contemporary society in a very illustrative way.
