SEGD (the Society for Experiential Graphic Design), a multidisciplinary global community of professionals, has announced this year’s winning projects of the SEGD Global Design Awards.
The winners were officially announced on 17 June 2022, during an in-person 2022 SEGD Global Design Awards Ceremony during the SEGD Conference hosted in Portland, Oregon.
Thought-provoking
One of this year’s notable entries tackles an ongoing social issue, resulting in a top award win. The Sylvia Harris Award each year is awarded to a project that symbolises design for the public good in honour of Sylvia Harris, the founder of Citizen Research & Design. This year’s accolade went to Society’s Cage, an installation developed by a group of architects and artists in a grassroots effort.
Following the murders of Breonna Taylor and George Floyd, Society’s Cage is a bold interpretive installation that challenges visitors to assess America’s long history of racial injustice, with a design rooted in statistical facts.
This travelling art installation focuses on the recent police killings of Black Americans within the context of anti-Black racialized state violence in the US. The pavilion is enveloped by 500 suspended weathered steel rods, with only a quarter touching the ground to reflect the detention rate of Black Americans. Their colour and texture are designed to represent the assortment of melanin in the Black diaspora, and the ongoing legacy of America’s institutional racism.
One of the jury members said: “Timely and relevant – this community-driven piece creates a public stage for reflection, interpretation, and self-expression. I love how the public interacts with it and within it.”
The following is a complete list of 2022 SEGD Global Design Award winners:
2022 Best of Show and Honor Award
- The Tactile of History: Memorial to the Victims of the Soviet Occupation, Riga, Latvia (Public Installation; Design: Design Studio H2E)
2022 Sylvia Harris and Honor Award
- Society’s Cage, Washington, DC – (Public Installation; Design: Society’s Cage Design Team (CAOS))
2022 Honor Awards
- Bayou Greenways Park, Houston, Texas, US – (Placemaking & Identity; Design: Minor Design)
- From Absence to Presence, Commemorative to Enslaved Peoples of Southern Maryland, St. Mary’s City, Maryland, US – (Public Installation; Design: RE:site Studio)
- Greenwood Rising: The Black Wall Street History Center, Tulsa, Oklahoma, US – (Exhibition) Design: Local Projects
- Learning Lab, Melbourne, Australia (Interactive Experience; Design: Grumpy Sailor Creative)
- Musée Atelier Audemars Piguet, Le Brassus, Switzerland – (Exhibition; Design: Atelier Brückner)
- One Park: Building a Holistic Visitor Experience at Washington Park, Portland, Oregon, US – (Strategy, Research, Planning; Design: sparks+sullivan)
- Planet Word Museum of Language, Washington, DC, US (Exhibition; Design: Local Projects)
- Social Lab at The Museum of Tolerance, Los Angeles, California, US – (Interactive Experience; Design: Unified Field)
- Spotify New York, New York, US – (Placemaking & Identity; Design: Acrylicize)
- The Story of the Moving Image, Melbourne, Australia – (Digital Experience Content; Design: Grumpy Sailor Creative, Second Story)
2022 Merit Awards
- Airport Wayfinding, Berlin, Germany – (Strategy, Research, Planning; Design: Moniteurs Communication Design)
- Currents: Niagrara’s Power Transformed, Niagara Falls, Canada – (Digital Experience Content; Design: Thinkwell Group)
- Discover Yourself Faaborg, Fyn, Denmark – (Exhibition; Design: Torden & Lynild)
- Downey City Library, California, US – (Wayfinding – Design: Handbuilt Studio)
- Dubai Expo 2020, UAE – (Exhibition; Design: Spaceagency Design)
- The Future of Workplace of Google, Sunnyvale, California (Placemaking & Identity; Design: Huge)
- Game On! Melbourne, Australia – (Interactive Experience; Design: Grumpy Sailor Creative)
- Hildreth Elementary School, Harvard, Massachusetts, US – (Placemaking & Identity; Design: Arrowstreet)
- Hyde Park Barracks, Sydney, Australia – (Legacy, Digital Experience Content; Australia – Design: Grumpy Sailor Creative)
- Logan Memorial Educational Campus, San Diego, California, US – (Placemaking & Identity; Design: Visual Asylum)
- In Love With the World, London, UK (Public Installation; Design: Sitara Systems)
- Merriweather District, Columbia, Maryland, US – (Wayfinding; Design: Ashton Design)
- National Monument Kamp Amersfoort, Leusden, The Netherlands – (Exhibition; Design: Tinker Imagineers)
- Native New York, New York, US – (Exhibition; Design: C&G Partners)
- Neuro Divergent, Baltimore, Maryland, US – (Interactive Experience; Design: Ana Tobin, MFA Thesis Project)
- Nine Entertainment Company Workplaces Signage & Graphics, Sydney, Australia – (Wayfinding; Design: Urbanite, part of Frost*collective)
- Revealing Krishna: Journey to Cambodia’s Sacred Mountain, Cleveland, Ohio – (Interactive Experience; Design: Dome Collective)
- Russel Wright Design Center, Garrison, New York, US – (Exhibition; Design: Studio Joseph)
- See Words: Anywhere, Cincinnati, Ohio – (Strategy, Research, Planning; Design: Learning by Design Lab)
- State Ethnological Museum and Museum of Asian Art at the Humboldt Forum, Berlin, Germany – (Exhibition; Design: Ralph Applebaum Associates)
- Step Right Up! Kansas City, Missouri, US – (Exhibition – Design: Burns & McDonnell)
- The Story of the Moving Image – Year-Round Centerpiece Exhibition, Melbourne, Australia – (Exhibition; Design: Second Story/Razorfish)
- Un|Filtered: The Paradox of Water on the Gulf Coast, Houston, Texas – (Exhibition; Design: University of Houston, Senior Graphic Design)
- Up From the People: Protest and Change in DC, Washington, DC, US – (Exhibition; Design: Studio Joseph)
- Uptown Underground, New York, US – (Public Installation; Design: Ian Callender)
- Welcome Galleries, Washington, DC, US – (Exhibition; Design: Studio Joseph)
Chair of the 2022 Global Design Awards Jury, Phillip R. Tiongson, says: “Every year, the SEGD Global Design Awards recalibrate the standards of excellence for our industry. The winning projects exemplify how great design can powerfully serve communities with lasting impact.”
Winners of last year’s Global Design Awards included the United States Olympic and Paralympic Museum, Western Australian Museum and Royal Ontario Museum.
