The 2023 iphiGenia Gender Design Award “Volition” goes to Ava Toyloy and Eileen Good.
Who is afraid? How can security be designed?
How can design open up a space for reflection and discourse? The young Swiss industrial designers Ava Toyloy and Eileen Good (ZHdK) use the self-defence wearables designed by the fictitious brand RE ACT in their bachelor thesis to stimulate reflection and discussion about safety from assault in public spaces. They receive the Gender Design Award in the category Volition because they initiate social discourse about an underrepresented social problem in an extraordinary, activating way.
Toyloy and Good impressed the jury for a number of reasons: the jury found their ability to engage the public in dialogue by presenting provocative scenarios through their products and concepts particularly commendable. The use of speculative design to create fictional scenarios encourages the public to consider alternative solutions to current security problems. The designers who developed this project have demonstrated both exceptional design skills and critical thinking in their approach to solving a critical social problem. With RE ACT, they prove that design can inspire thought and bring about change.
https://showcasedesign.zhdk.ch/personen/2022/re-act/
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/design-think-igdn/