Helen Hamlyn Design Awards
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The annual Helen Hamlyn Design Awards recognise creativity in people-centred, inclusive design across all disciplines of the College and celebrate the most visionary, inclusive and innovative RCA graduate projects.
The 2024 Helen Hamlyn Design Awards are open to all graduating RCA MA or MRes students.
A number of prizes are available, each winner will receive £2000. Please note, applicants may submit a group entry, but the prize money will be shared equally with each member of the group.
Judging criteria
The judges are looking for a project that:
- Communicates the opportunity or challenge and who it affects
- Involves people in the project in a meaningful way
- Addresses the opportunity or challenge effectively
- Reflects on the benefits of involving people in the project
- Recognises how the project relates to inclusive design
Application process and timelines
Timeline
Friday 21 June: Application platform opens
Monday 5 August Midnight (UK time): Applications Close
Friday 25 August: Shortlisted applicants will be notified. Shortlisted applicants will need to prepare a five-minute presentation and a two-minute video about the project for an interview.
Wednesday 14 August: Shortlist invited for interview
Tuesday 20 August: Option of either an online or in-person interview for shortlisted applicants.
Friday 8 September: Winners will be notified.
Winners' two-minute videos (presented in interview) will be shown during the Awards Ceremony and used in HHCD communications.
Due to the high number of applications received, the HHCD is unable to provide individual feedback on each submission.
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Please send any related queries to [email protected]
Helen Hamlyn Design Awards 2023
Winners of the 2023 Helen Hamlyn Design Awards
Freespeak by Wanqi Wang (MA Contemporary Art Practice, 2023) - Winner of the Northumbrian Water Award for Inclusive Innovation.
We are in this Together by Joy Lu, (MA Design Products, 2023) and Beatrice Sangster, (MA Visual Communication, 2023) - Winner of the Snowdon Award for Disability
Pleural by Yihan Dong, Daniel Hale, William Eliot, Fergus Laidlaw, (all MA/MSc Innovation Design Engineering, 2023) - Winner of the Helen Hamlyn Award for Creativity
Channi by Priyanshu Mukhopadhyay, (MA/MSc Innovation Design Engineering, 2023) - Winner of the Experience Haus Award for Impact and Change
Ivelina Gadzheva - Winner of the Alumni Award
A Trike Seat for Zara by Chi Hoang and Anna Eerdman from Ravensbourne University - Winner of the Fixperts Award
Discover more about all winning projects from the 2023 Awards here.
Previous Award Sponsors
The Helen Hamlyn Trust
The Helen Hamlyn Trust is an independent grant-making Trust. The trust initiates medium and long-term major projects linked to the shared interests of Lady Hamlyn and her late husband Lord Hamlyn. Its core ethos is to develop innovative projects, which aim to effect lasting change, improve quality of life and create opportunity for the benefit of the public.
Global Disability Innovation Hub (GDI Hub)
The GDI Hub was born out of the legacy of the London 2012 Paralympic Games, held a stone’s throw from the Hub’s future home at UCL East. It brings together partners with world-leading specialisms in disability: UCL; Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park; UAL: London College of Fashion; Loughborough University London; Leonard Cheshire; V&A; Sadler’s Wells; and The Helen Hamlyn Centre for Design.
Heart n Soul at The Hub was a research project led by the creative arts organisation Heart n Soul. We were funded by Wellcome’s Hub Award to bring a group of very different people together to do research in new and exciting ways.
MindRheo works closely with clients to improve their business effectiveness and impact by designing creative solutions and processes informed by evidence-based neuroscience. Their programmes and products are aimed at constructing mindset, changing behaviour, and expanding delivery-related skills and capacities necessary to shape the future from the current environment of complex push and pull factors.
Northumbrian Water Limited is a water company in the United Kingdom, providing mains water and sewerage services in the English counties of Northumberland, Tyne and Wear, Durham and parts of North Yorkshire, and also supplying water as Essex and Suffolk Water. Their vision is to be the national leader in the provision of sustainable water and waste water services.
The Snowdon Trust is a charity that assists physically and sensory disabled people to access vocational and academic courses in the UK by awarding grants. Since 1981 the Trust has given grants of over £3.5 million to help more than 2,500 people achieve qualifications and futures that might otherwise not have been possible.
Sure Deodorant, also known as Rexona and Degree, is the world’s number 1 anti perspirant. We believe in the power of movement to transform lives. Everyone should be able to experience the incredible physical, mental and social benefits that movement provides, whoever you are, and however you move. Yet it is not a level playing field. We want to remove the barriers to movement, so that everyone, regardless of ability, can find the confidence to break their limits.
TATA Consultancy Services (TCS)
TATA Consultancy Services (TCS) is a global leader in IT services, consulting & business solutions with a large network of innovation & delivery centers. TCS combines tech expertise and business intelligence to catalyze change and deliver results.
Previous Award Winners
The Helen Hamlyn Award for Creativity 2021: Spaces of Spillages: Rethinking Jakarta's High-rise Social Housings, Jessica Tiffany Hindradjaja
Design for our Future Selves Awards
The Design for our Future Selves Awards scheme ran at the Royal College of Art from 2000 to 2008. It aimed to encourage inclusive design projects from graduating RCA students that were responsive to human behaviour and based on real insight into social need. The awards grew out of the DesignAge Competition, which ran from 1992 to 1999, addressing the needs and aspirations of older people.