• Audi expanding efforts to foster talented designers
• Concepts impress with unconditional linking of function and aesthetics
Miguel Vieira Baptista has received the “Audi Mentor Prize by A&W.” The Portuguese designer accepted the prize in Cologne yesterday. It was presented by André Georgi, Head of Product Design at the Audi Concept Design Studio in Munich. This year marks the fifth time that Audi has bestowed the award in cooperation with Architektur&Wohnen magazine.
André Georgi explains the decision. “It is the courage to experiment that distinguishes Miguel Vieira Baptista.” Baptista and Audi speak a similar design language with unusual combinations of materials and clean shapes. “His designs are spontaneously likeable and can be grasped intuitively”, continues Georgi. The designer combines purpose and aesthetics by concentrating on essential details, an approach long embraced by Audi with great success in both automotive and product design.
Audi’s decision for the up-and-coming designer from Lisbon follows a recommendation by brothers Ronan and Erwan Bouroullec, who won the prestigious “A&W Designer of the Year” prize in 2013. The winners works will be on display at the Kunstverein in Cologne from January 14 – 20.
Audi has been fostering talented designers with the “Mentor Prize by A&W” for five years now. The two most recent winners were the up-and-coming designers Benjamin Hubert and Oskar Zieta, both of whom have since become firmly established in the design world.
Audi AG
