By Editor Design.nl / 01-08-2008

TU Delft research into the shapes of heads and faces of the Chinese people and the storm-proof SENZ umbrella have both been named winners of the International Design Excellence Awards (IDEA) 2008.

The TU Delft entries were selected from 1571 submissions from 25 countries.

Size China
Roger Ball, TU Delft PhD student, won both the Gold Award in the design research category and the Best in Show Award for his research into the shapes of heads and faces of the Chinese people. He aims to feed this information into a digital database so that products can be made to fit the Chinese better. Consumer goods such as sunglasses and motorcycle helmets are currently designed using data on Westerners. The disadvantage here is that the products are less suited to use by the Chinese. Roger Ball aims to change this with the aid of his Size China project.

SENZ Umbrellas
Delft-based ‘technostarter’ SENZ won a Gold Award for its latest and largest model, the SENZ XL. The XL is designed for golfers. Its use requires almost no strength and its asymmetrical shape enables golfers to watch their partner’s shots easily.

International Design Excellence Awards
The prizes have been awarded annually since 1980 by the world’s largest association of industrial designers: the Industrial Designers Society of America (IDSA). In 1998, Roger Ball previously won an IDEA award for his design for a snowboard helmet.

(Photo: Roger Ball with Size China)

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