Ministry of Culture SR and Slovak Design Centre„SDC“ announce the 8th annual national public competition; National Prize for Design 2007.
The aim of the competition is to support innovative efforts of designers and manufacturers, to emphasize those new design realizations that motivate competitiveness of production and stimulate creative background of design. The competition should serve as a platform for cognition, evaluation and appreciation of quality in design, abilities and skills of designers, manufacturers and other professionals who work in the field of design.
The competition is organized by SDC.

I. Categories:

A – Industrial Design

• product or device that has been manufactured, regardless of the run volume.  

B – Communicative Design

• product of graphical design for a particular client, information system, coordinated visual style, logo type or graphic design of a periodical, typography
• product of digital technologies – graphic design for electronic media (online or multimedia)
• product packaging

C – Student Design

• designs created as semestral, bacherol or magister works at any design oriented school or university in SR or during the study visit at university abroad, it can be industrial or communicative design.

II. Prizes and Honorable Mentions

These prizes will be awarded in the competition:
National Prize for Design in category A (Industrial Design),
National Prize for Design in category B (Communicative Design),
Prize of the Minister of Education SR in category C (Student Design – industrial and communicative).
Honorable Mentions for design in category A, B and C without given order, but with the maximum number of 10. Integral part of the National Prize for Design ceremony are also special prizes:
Special Prize of Minister of Economy of the SR for a Slovak manufacturer who is successful in implementing company strategy based on design innovations.
Special Prize of Minister of Culture of the SR for -- a designer, designer theoretician, design manager  – for exceptional individual contribution in the field of design.
Winners of the National Prize for Design in Category A or B and the winners of the Prize of the Minister of Education in Category C will be awarded trophies, diplomas and the winning entries will be propagated by SDC. The winning entries of Category A, B and C will be presented in short, maximum two-minutes film documentary, produced at the expenses of SDC
The winner of the Special Prize of the Minister of Culture of SR will be awarded the trophy and diploma.
The winner of the Special Prize of the Minister of Economy of SR will be awarded the trophy and diploma.
The winner of the Honorable Mention for Design will be awarded the diploma.
Trophies and diplomas for all winners are guaranteed by SDC.
The winners of the National Prize for Design in categories A and B are entitled to label their winning products with the competition and awarded prizes logos. If the awarded product is introduced to the market with any functional or formal changes, the right to use the logos expires.
National Prize for Design, Honorable Mentions and the Special Prize of the Minister of Culture of SR will be awarded by the Minister of Culture of SR together with the Director of SDC. The Prize of Minister of Education of SR in category C will be awarded by the Minister of Education together with the Director of SDC. Special Prize of Minister of Economy of SR will be awarded by the Minister of Economy together with the Director of SDC. All prizes will be awarded during the presentation ceremony.

III. Who is Eligible to Enter the Competition

Eligible for categories A and  B are:

• manufacturer, foreign manufacturer only if the product was created in co-operation with a Slovak designer,
• designer, foreign designer only if the product was created in co-operation with a Slovak manufacturer,
• designer studio or client.

For category C are eligible only students -- authors.

IV. Special Prizes

Suggestions for the Special Prize of the Minister of Culture of SR and Special Prize of the Minister of Economy of SR will be selected by: Slovak Design Centre, Council for Design, educational and professional institutions. All entries will be presented together with authors´ names, or the name of the company and short descriptions.
Professional jury of the National Prize for Design will judge selected entries. The jury will prepare suggestion that will consist of maximum three subjects for each prize. The Ministers, who reserve the right not to award any prizes, will select the final winner entries.

V. Jury

Professional jury (“jury”) will be appointed by the Minister of Culture of SR from the nominees selected by SDC. Jury consists of 10 members; industrial designers, graphic designers and specialists from related branches. At least two of them are foreign professionals.
If a member of the jury is not able to take part in the competition, the Minister of Culture of SR will appoint a new member from nominated specialists.
Further information about the jury will be announced later

VI. Judging Criteria

Jury will judge submitted works accompanied by appropriate documentation and will announce the winners of Categories A, B and C.
Judging criteria for categories A, B and C are:

• novelty, originality and innovation,
• technical and technological quality,
• harmony of esthetical, practical and ergonomic solutions,
• ethical, social and ecological aspects.

Special prize of the Minister of SR will be awarded to an author for his or her substantial contribution in one of the areas:
- creative and innovative designs,
- theoretical and critical publishing and historiography,
- implementation and supporting of humanitarian projects with the stress on design.
Special Prize of the Ministry of Economy SR will be awarded to a manufacturer according to these criteria:
- company strategy for design,
- development of products with quality design,
- competitiveness based on design,
- social aspects of production.  

VII. Conditions for Eligible Works

• Submitted works must be sent together with filled in application form and the paid fee.
• Submitted works must be created maximum 2 years prior to the start of the competition.
• Each product (collection) must be send separately with the filled in application form and paid competition fee.

Submitting of works to the competition

• In Category A  the product must be accompanied by documentation: catalogue, leaflet and CD with digital pictures documentation. Each entry should by sent together with information about manufacturing – materials, budget, uses, market potentials, or any other important details. Oversized object will be judged by a team of professionals at the location. The written expertise will be presented to the jury.
• In Category B submitted product can be any graphic or packaging design produced for a client, sent in printed or electronic form (VHS, CD or diskette). Design of electronic media must be sent on CD-ROM.
• In Category C is necessary to submit prototype, exceptionally model 1 : 1 accompanied by documentation: presentation panels of A2 size (1 – 3 pieces), description, or CD. Each author can submit maximum two works.

Competition fee

• Competition fee is 2 000,– Sk for each submitted work. It should be sent to the SDC bank account, Bratislava, Jakubovo nám. 12, bank connection the State Treasury 7000070238/8180. Students submitting their works for Category C and for Special Prizes can enter their works free of charge.

Calendar  

• All documentations and application forms must be postmarked by: 15th Jun 2007
• Date of collecting of works will be announced individually to each entrant.
• Results of the competition: 28th – 30th June 2007
• Results announcement and awarding ceremony: 12th  2007

VIII. Application Forms and Contacts

Application forms can be found in Slovak Design Centre and at the web page www.sdc.sk.
Application forms and suggestions for Special Prizes will be delivered personally or can be post to:
Slovenské centrum dizajnu
Jakubovo nám. 12, P. O. Box 131
814 99 Bratislava
Competition Secretary: RNDr. Margita Michlíková
Phone.: 02/5293 15 23, 5293 18 00, Fax: 02/5293 18 38,
E-mail: projekty@sdc.sk, michlikova@sdc.sk

IX. Presentation of the Winning Entries

The winning entries will be published by SCD by means of:

• catalogue of the competition,
• the exhibition of selected winning works,
• publication in magazine Designum and on SCD web page,
• featuring in print and electronic media.

X. Returning of the Entries

Works will be collected by entrants personally shortly after the closing day of evaluation (July 2007), but the deadline will be appointed by SCD. Returning of winning entries will be arranged between SDC and the authors.
In special cases can be the entries sent by post at the expense of the entrant.

XI. Closing Statements

By sending in their duly signed applications, the entrants promise to allow the free publication of photo documentation of their works or the publication of the works, but only for the purposes of propagation of the competition and Slovak design.
The authors themselves will insure originals of the submitted works.