For the third annual Prix Émile Hermès competition, Hermès has chosen the theme “Time to yourself“. The Prix Émile Hermès supports and promotes the innovative work of talented young designers in response to society’s changing needs and lifestyles.
Hermès is looking for thoughtful responses to contemporary lifestyles, postures, gestures, and the social and cultural needs of individuals everywhere, the “things we have in common, and the things that set us apart, but which – when we choose to share them – become a source of rich spiritual renewal, the starting-point for new concepts, breaking with past stereotypes”.
’In 2008, our belief in the vital importance of support for creativity, and the conditions for creativity to emerge and flourish, led to the establishment of a design award saluting new projects responding to society’s current and future needs, based on a rigorous analysis of the object’s inherent purpose and meaning,’ explained Hermès in a statement.
The resulting objects – devices, compartments, small-scale architectural modules or items of furniture, produced using the simplest methods or the most sophisticated technology – should acknowledge and implement principles of sustainable development, reducing the planetary footprint of our species, soon to number some eight billion individuals.
For this reason, the jury of the Prix Emile Hermès asks entrants to take account of the many different issues affecting sustainable development, in their approach to the production and distribution of their designs.
