Deepsea Challenger Wins Design Award of the Year - AIDA 2012
24-Jul-2012Design + Industry are thrilled to announce that we were part of the team that won the supreme overall award at the Australian International Design Awards 2012.
Designed and produced entirely in Australia, the Deepsea Challenger project was a daring adventure that sent film director James Cameron (The Abyss, Terminator, Titanic and Avatar) to the bottom of the Mariana Trench, the world’s deepest point in the ocean.
Eleven kilometres straight down through inky blackness and unimaginable pressures to the very frontiers of human knowledge.
The collaborative team faced and overcame many ‘once in a lifetime challenges’ to design and engineer a submersible that would descend, navigate the Trench and safely return James back to the surface.
The judges praised the breathtaking audacity of the project encompassing unparalleled innovation and engineering integrated with the design realisation of the submersible.
This is truly a signature moment in Australian design history. D+I are proud to have worked alongside the extraordinary talents of James Cameron and to have collaborated with such an exceptional team.
With such a pioneering project it is no wonder the DeepSea Challenger was recognized as the 2012 overall winner across 9 categories including, Consumer, Automotive and Transport, Architectural and Interior, Business and Technology, Medical and Scientific, Housing and Building, Heavy Machinery, Sport and Leisure and Service Design. A panel of Australian and international design experts assessed the sub against a common set of criteria focusing on innovation, form, function, quality and safety. The Deepsea Challenger exceeded in all disciplines and was the clear winner.
Judges were impressed by the way the submersible's design team had overcome a long list of challenges to reach a groundbreaking outcome.
"A stunning use of design at the highest order…this is incredible, inspirational, a total game changer," the judges commented.
Watch James Cameron's acceptance speech here
D+I are also very proud to announce another award winning project, the Quik Lok Safety Coupler. The Quik Lok Safety Coupler took out a Good Design™ in the Heavy Machinery category.
The Quik Lok Safety Coupler is the world’s first inline compressed air connection system providing unsurpassed security and safety in large mining construction and manufacturing applications. It provides a quick and safe way to locally turn off the supply and depressurize upstream air hoses and tools. It is rugged, compact, intuitive, and requires minimal training to use. It has eliminated the multi-step procedure currently used with conventional claw coupler hose connections. Revolutionary to work place safety, it brings together materials, design and intelligent use of new technologies to provide an economical advancement to the safety of air tooling.
