The Photo Real Future 2005 International ....

The Fifth Annual Photoreal competition is now unveiled and yet again Design-engine.com is leading the way towards the future of design. This year's competition is all about designers creating cutting edge computer assisted (or 'photoreal') furniture designs; and their reflection in the tangible world may be evident if these products make it to market. Some of them certainty should. The aim for many designers in the furniture industry is to develop their submitted concept fully with the help of computer modeling and rendering software such as Image Studio, Pro/ENGINEER, Alias, Rhino, Flamingo, Solidworks, Maya, and then refine the concept by refining materials and other choices that go into design and development of seating products. For the competition sake the goal is to allow designers to represent the possibility of existence of their furniture while generating a some fame and notoriety at the same time. The competition takes a developed concept and realizes it with a sense of feel and touch. The competition allows the designer to develop and form without cost for prototype or manufacturing. Of course if a rendering evokes emotion or some enthusiasm then money for manufacturing.

Last year judging was based on creativity by describing craftsmanship, concept, ascetics, photoreal, and creativity. This year thanks to Donald Chadwick of the Knoll Chadwick chair and Herman Miller Aaron fame the judges added manufacturing to the mix choosing the Pealed Chair for that spot.




Obi from Orangeskin's main interest is to sell furniture so obviously his mission might have been to choose winners based on his ability to move product in his showroom. Almost everyone liked the Giro Chair even thought it is unlikely a chair like that could be manufactured. As a society we like it when engineers play problem solver and that Giro chair looks like a problem to be solved. Otto and Aaron both showed similar choices for the Modular Chair design. (like Lego's the judges said)

Although the subjectivity of the judges comes into play we do make a conscious effort to pick knowledgeable and insightful people in the industry who we feel are more then capable of enlightened objective assessments of the entries. This year we again left it up to the judges to judge each entry for aesthetics, concepts and craftsmanship manufacture, and material. We have as many winners as we have prizes.... truly everyone who enters wins. The jury all comes from a wide variety of backgrounds so expected that they would not agree completely. Get the full bios of the judges here. The first Thirteen were all at least mentioned by a majority of the judges. We placed the top chosen entries by the jury and asked them to select the remaining five winners for prizes.

Fourteen thru Twenty were picked by Design-engine.com staff because we thought they were cool. I hope everyone gets some notoriety and work from their efforts on the site. Some judgments were harsh, some funny. This competition is a rousing success Design-engine.com would like to thank all of the contestants for the hard work and we expect great things from all of you. Be sure to check out all entries minus about 40 or so. Words by Bart Brejcha

 

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