Indigo Design Award 2021 winners highlight exceptional passion and talent

The winners were selected by an international judging panel of 53 creatives, including the founder of The Dots Pip Jamieson, senior Google UX engineer Admir Hadžić, muralist and former Nike designer Jennet Liaw, IKEA art director Luke Li, and others.

Work was evaluated by way of quality, originality, function, relevance to each topic and based on each finalist's overall rating. And this year, the organisers received strong feedback from the jury about the quality of entries, which they said made it more difficult than ever to select the winners.

The usual awards ceremony has had to be cancelled this year due to the pandemic, but that won't stop the Indigo Design Award from celebrating its 2021 winners in style. Each of the main winners will receive a prestigious trophy, which has been redesigned for 2021 and have their works showcased on a global platform to help them boost recognition and attract new clientele. This will include a forthcoming series of Creative Boom articles devoted to the seven main winners.

In the meantime, we'll take a look at this year's main winners, kicking off with Graphic Design of the Year, which went to Anthony Wood, Shanti Sparrow and Emily Comfort for Shillington Education. Described by its creators as "The graphic design handbook reinvented", The Guide is an online platform that showcases supporting material for the Shillington Graphic Design course.

And that's a lot of material, with over 20 years of content created by hundreds of teachers globally, including over a thousand printed handouts, technical tips, industry best practices, case studies and career guidance. But this masterful design, which is only available to Shillington students and alumni, brings everything together in a way that's easily accessible and searchable.

Elsewhere, Work & Co scooped Digital Design of the Year for its 'Live Subway Map' project. It's a perennial challenge that provides the public with subway information that's both easy to understand and helpful in planning your journeys accurately. Recently the MTA, the Transit Innovation Partnership, and Work & Co came together to step things up and launch the first real-time, live map of the New York subway system. This digital app uses the geometric clarity of Massimo Vignelli's diagram with the geographical and organic curves by Hertz but powers it with technology to make a map more appropriate for our time.

The Trip App by Z1 and Field Trip won Mobile Design of the Year. Field Trip is leading the medical and scientific re-emergence of legal therapies based on the safe consumption of psychedelics. They teamed up with digital product studio Z1 to create Trip, a supportive digital tool for those who are seeking altered states of consciousness for personal growth but may not have access to one of their clinic-based therapy programs.

The app, created by a team led by Manuel Ortega, allows you to set an intention before the journey, listen to AI-generated music, access a voice recorder while tripping, study analytics that displays your progress over time, and read educational content based on scientific research and shamanic wisdom.

Design for Social Change of the Year went to 'Verified: Fighting misinformation on Covid-19' by design studio Purpose. To combat the problem of Covid-19 misinformation and provide accurate, lifesaving information, Purpose teamed up with the United Nations to launch Verified, a global communication initiative working with UN agencies, UN Information Centers, influencers, civil society, social media platforms, business and media companies. To date, the campaign has reached 1 billion people in over 130 countries in collaboration with over 250 organisations.

While Branding of the Year was won by Not Real for the Grace Sunset Collection. Grace is about feeling good, healthy and safe in your own skin, empowering women into the idea that self-care is the new self-esteem. It was created at Not Real, a multidisciplinary creative studio focused on art direction and animation.

Kees Bakker was named Freelancer of the Year for Sunne, a Kickstarter-backed solar light that can be hung in front of your window. After charging during the day, the light can be used in the evening to brighten your room in three settings: sunne rise, sunne light, and sunne set. Created by Kees for Marjan van Aubel Studio, the campaign graphics and logo are a play on the shape and colours of the solar light and communicate a bright, upbeat and optimistic future.

Last but not least, Discovery of the Year was awarded to Tiffany Gouw for Never A Victim's Fault. In some parts of the world, including Indonesia, victims of rape are routinely blamed for their assault. This project by Tiffany of Raffles Design Institute, Singapore, aims to highlight this issue, encourage those who experienced sexual violence to speak up, let them know they're supported, and ultimately end the culture of victim-blaming.

Other notable projects to mention are those from the 2021 shortlist winners such as Not Real's work for Nike that won a Gold in Computer Animation; Milkshake Studio's gorgeous branding for Mindbloom, a platform that exists to "help you expand your human potential" and Spin's identity for Aircord, a creative studio that develops hi-tech digital content.

Want to see more? You can find full details of all the Indigo Design Award 2021 winners here, along with those shortlisted.

Fancy entering for next year? Then you'll be pleased to know the Indigo Award 2022 is now open for submission. You need to enter your work by 30 September 2021 and can find all the details you need at indigoawards.com.