Award ceremony, in another way | Czech Grand Design

The winners of the Czech Grand Design award were announced on April 29. This time, the solemn award ceremony has been cancelled, or, let’s say, slightly transformed. The “Designer of the Year” title was awarded to Lucie Koldová, and Master & Master won the “Manufacturer of the Year” category. The editors of HYPE were also following the events through the screen. Report!

This year’s award ceremony of the most prestigious event of the Czech design profession, the Czech Grand Design was held in a slightly different way than before. Instead of the regular gala, this time they announced the winners in the 8 categories in the spirit of social distancing. The official award ceremony was also broadcasted to Czech television viewers on April 29: the organizers had to switch to a pre-edited show from the planned live broadcast, but it was still quite impressive.

We particularly enjoyed that instead of the lengthy and boring gala show, we got a to the point, professional yet lovable format. Everything that need and is sufficient to be said at such an event was told in 60 minutes, at the same time, every winner, the hosts and the members of the jury all showed a human face, nothing more than what they are in reality.

The script of the show was quite simple: the hosts presented the three candidates of the given category and then announced the winner, in masks. Awarding took place as follows: the hosts dialed the phone number of the winning designer to tell them the good news and at the same time an unknown figure in a black suit appeared on the streets of the city, with a giant, golden beckoning cat “helmet”, with the award in their hands. The trophy designed by Tereza Rosalie Kladošová was a powder pink box, with the sign “KUS SNU”, that is “A piece of dream”. This is what the astronaut in the beckoning cat helmet delivered to the winner (by ringing the doorbell and then placing it at the doorway, the corridor of the condominium, in front of the front door, in the staircase). In the meantime, we could also hear the voice of the winner of the category, as they were told the good news, as they thanked the members of the academy for the acknowledgement in a brief video, and then explained the challenges they faced while in lockdown.

The same as in every year, the members of the Czech Academy of Design (Akademie designu České republiky – the Ed.) – curators, critics, theorists, journalists – chose the creators worthy of the award. Let’s see!

The “Photographer of the Year”: Michaela Karásek Čejková

…for the series created of the jewelry collections of Janja Prokic, the series created of the clothing collections of Ester a Jozefina, the series created for the visual image of Mezipatra festival, as well as for creating her own project, the „Czechia” photo series.

The “Illustrator of the Year”: Nikola Logosová

…for designing the illustrations of the children books „Klub divných dětí” (Special Children’s Club) as well as the „POZOR DOKTOR” (Attention, doctor).

The “Graphic Designer of the Year”: Jan Matoušek

…for the graphic design of the book titled „Diktátor času” (The Dictator of Time).

The “Designer of the Year”: Lucie Koldová

…for designing the pieces of furniture “Manta, “XX”, “Celine” and “Cocon”.

At the same time, Lucie Koldová is also the all-time winner of this year’s competition, as she was also chosen as the winner among the winners of categories, thus repeating her victory in 2012. You can find out more about Koldová’s work in our latest V4PLUS article.

The “Fashion Designer of the Year”: Jan Černý

…for creating his 2019 fall/winter collection, and for redesigning the Prestige sneakers.