Designs of the Year 2012 show opens

Designs of the Year 2012 Awards somehow opens to the public with usual eclectic mix of the useful, the beautiful, the difficult to understand and the obvious. Its showcase the most innovative and progressive designs from around the world, spanning seven categories: Architecture, Digital, Fashion, Furniture, Graphics, Product and Transport. The Design of the Year Award 2012 will be announced at an Awards event in April 2012.

London Design Museum’s Design Awards somehow, in a process that describes itself as “the Oscars of the design world”. There are multiple design disciplines; including fashion, architecture, product design, digital and graphics.

There is Re-design for an Emergency Ambulance, Vivienne Westwood’s Ethical Fashion Africa collection of bags, made of recycled materials, Unit9’s One Thousand Cranes for Japan project, SEA’s sample books, the Kinect for Xbox 360 and Andrew Slorance’s Carbon Black Wheelchair .British fashion was an outfit from Mary Katrantzou’s seminal A/W 2011 collection. Lovely exhibition graphics by A Practice for Everyday Life, reflects the breadth, scale and adventurousness of this year’s nominees.

‘We spent nine months talking about the materials with chemists. This has been on the front page of concrete mags. It’s serious chemistry’ says Gordon Young. Design Awards includes more visible works such as Barber Osgerby’s Olympic Torch and Kate Middleton’s dress.

Anna Wintour and Scarlett Johansson hosted Runway To Win Event

Designers Anna Wintour and Diane Von Furstenburg, hosted Tuesday’s Runway To Win in New York City, occasion that launched President Obama’s new line of 2012 campaign souvenirs. President Obama has returned to e-commerce and haute fashion design with Runway to Win, a joint campaign merchandise fundraiser pegged to the kickoff of New York Fashion Week. The start of New York City’s Fashion Week, some of the biggest names in design and Hollywood got jointly in New York City on Tuesday night to launch the new Runway to Win line of Obama-themed clothing and accessories.

The collection features patriotic clothing and accessories, moderately priced from $45 to $95, from top designers with Tory Burch, Rachel Roy, Derek Lam, Beyoncé and Tina Knowles, Marcus Wainwright and David Neville, Proenza Schouler’s Jack McCollough and Lazaro Hernandez, Diane von Furstenberg, Narciso Rodriguez, Vera Wang, Thakoon, Jason Wu, Grace Tsao-Wu and Laura Kofoid of Laudi Vindi, Marc Jacobs and Tracy Reese. Anna Wintour was also joined by Jim Messina, campaign manager for Obama for America. Anna Wintour and Scarlett Johansson hosted “Runway to Win,” the fundraising event in support of Obama’s re-election campaign.