Original paperback cover of Design for the Real World. Via Bookworship.
Born in Vienna and educated in the States, the late Victor Papanek wrote the handbook for two generations of social designers. His Design for the Real World: Human Ecology and Social Change (1971) applied anthropological tools to frame the audience for design as far more than a collection of consumers. It remains influential today.
To mark the acquisition of Papanek’s archives by the University of Applied Arts Vienna, the school’s Victor J. Papanek Foundation, in partnership with the Austrian Cultural Forum New York and the Museum of Arts and Design, has announced a prize for a concept, prototype or product “that upholds Papanek’s vision of environmental and/or social responsibility.”
Students, emerging designers and seasoned professionals alike are eligible to submit to the Victor J. Papanek’s Social Design Award. One entry will be selected for the honor and will be exhibited, along with an undetermined number of finalists, at the University of Applied Arts Vienna from November 10, 2011, through January 31, 2012, and at the Museum of Arts and Design in New York from March 6 through June 17, 2012.
Submissions will be reviewed by a jury that includes leaders of the four sponsoring organizations plus curators, designers and design educators. (Design Observer contributor John Thackara is part of the company.)
Design Indaba is the media sponsor.
The application fee is $100 for initial entries, $75 for supplementary ones. Student participants receive a discount.
More on the competition here.
