Jury announces impressive field of nominations for 2018 DAME Design Award

The Jury of the globally recognised DAME Design Award 2018 competition is pleased to announce that 63 products from a total field of 127 entries have been nominated to enter the final rounds of judgement. The nominated products show a very broad diversity of submissions, from simple components and equipment used in watersports, through to complex systems for power and sailing yachts and large superyachts. The DAME winners will be announced during the Breakfast Briefing in RAI Amsterdam on the opening day of METSTRADE 2018, taking place 13-15 November in the RAI Amsterdam Convention Centre.

Design focus is essential, whatever the size or complexity of equipment

This year’s entry field of 127 products from 19 countries showed further growth compared to 2017 and it was notable that there was an even wider variation in the size, price and complexity of the submissions, which caused the Jury of nine leading experts in their field to take longer than normal to assess and discuss all entries before finalising the nominations.

Strong entry field

Birgit Schnaase, the DAME Jury chair, has 23 years of experience as an engineer and interior designer working on notable yacht, aircraft and house interior design projects. She says: “The entry field was once again strong and showed further signs of progress at individual company and industry level. The primary motive of the DAME Award is to encourage good design practice in every aspect and I was personally pleased to see so many examples where form and function were well balanced.”

“We had a dramatic contrast in the physical size of products this year, with everything from superyacht primary systems, to the smallest clip. It is sometimes easier to admire the incredible amount of work of an engineering design team on a well-conceived complex product, but we have been equally encouraged to see that same level of design detail on simple items that are often taken for granted."

We might have grown very familiar and comfortable with long-standing solutions in our industry, but that does not mean that they cannot be improved for the experience of a boat owner, the efficiency of manufacture and the potential reduction in environmental footprint. We’ve seen many examples of products that prove this point in 2018. Already it is clear from the nominations that we will have a very exciting set of awards at the METSTRADE Breakfast Briefing on 13 November and we expect some particularly close results.”

METSTRADE 2018

During METSTRADE 2018 the nominated and winning products will be on display in the I-nnovationLAB, within a special DAME 2018 presentation. The category winners and overall winner will present their products on the I-nnovationLAB Stage, located in hall 6. The DAME winners will be announced during the Breakfast Briefing in RAI Amsterdam on the opening day of METSTRADE 2018, taking place 13-15 November in the RAI Amsterdam Convention Centre.

About the DAME Design Award

The DAME Design Award celebrates everything that is important about marine equipment design, from aesthetics to functionality, integration to packaging and price efficiency to lifecycle management. It offers opportunities for all METSTRADE Show exhibitors from around the world to submit their latest products and have them judged by experts spanning all areas of design. Because of this wider focus, the DAME encourages the whole marine industry to continuously improve its design efforts, to the last detail. Entrants are not just judged against their global peers but the DAME Jury recognises improvements from year-to-year within individual companies too.

The DAME Design Award, now in its 28th edition, continues to perform a vital function within the marine industry in stimulating design progression across all disciplines and product types. Great end-to-end design is vital to improve manufacturing efficiency and product reliability. It plays a developing role in environmental responsibility. It also recognises that the marine industry must match the high customer expectations set by products in other sectors like automotive and consumer electronics.