This year we’ve tasked our jurors with envisioning the future of product design. Each one of them had their own ideas to share with us and we’ve decided to collect their thoughts in a series of interviews called “Talking to Jurors”. We’ve asked all of them what they’re looking for in an entry and what they’re going to reward. Among all of their predictions and opinions, one stood out – design must be human and provide solutions that meet people’s needs. What is truly unforgettable is the product’s ability to improve the lives of everyone.
Here’s the Spanish Photographer Fernando Alda, opening up on innovation and sustainability in Product Design.
What are you looking forward to finding in our entries and which features are you going to reward?
I’m really glad I have the chance to get to know all these new products that have been presented and submitted this year. I can’t wait to assess their contribution and ability to improve the quality of people’s lives, their power to change the configuration of different habitats and the way we live, work, enjoy our leisure and rest.
Which role do you think a Design Award should have nowadays?
I believe Design Awards should have an impact on these terms, offering responses to the new requirements of life or improving the response provided by already existing designs. Awards enhance the knowledge of products often ignored by the public, giving them more visibility.
In which direction should contemporary Product Design go and how should it evolve to answer people’s needs?
Regarding my preferences, I appreciate designs that promote innovation, the better use of materials and sustainable solutions.
Design nowadays has to increase the offer, providing new answers to common problems, reformulating the utility or questioning the question itself.
Pacific Center, Ventura & Asociados, Panama (credits Fernando Alda)
Toha, Architecture by Arad – Ron, Tel Aviv (credit by Fernando Alda)
PH Caleta, Fémur Arquitectura, Coco del Mar (credit by Fernando Alda)
About Fernando Alda
Born in Aranjuez (Spain) in 1958 and based in Seville since 1986, he has worked as a professional photographer since 1981 and, particularly, specialized in Architectural and Infrastructure Photography since 1987.
His studio is formed by four more professionals working alongside him on a high quality level in the whole process of analogical and digital image treatment and its final presentation. This material belongs to a file containing thousands of projects in Spain, most of them have been digitized and are frecuently consulted by magazines all around the world. His projects are published monthly in national and international books and magazines.