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DesignNewswire · COMO, Italy ·

Hila Mor Is Honored with the Silver A' Design Award for Venous Materials Interactive Materials in Idea and Conceptual Design

Hila Mor acknowledged for idea and conceptual design by the international grand jury of the 2020 - 2021 A' Design Award & Competition

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

COMO, Italy, April 23, 2021 /DesignNewswire/ A' Design Award & Competition has confirmed the Silver A' Design Award in the Idea and Conceptual Design category for Venous Materials Interactive Materials by Hila Mor, designed for Tangible Media Group, MIT Media Lab. The recognition forms part of the 2020 - 2021 A' Design Award & Competition and was determined through blind peer review by an international grand jury panel of established academics, design professionals and press members, who scored anonymized entries against predetermined criteria.

The Silver A' Design Award Explained

The Silver A' Design Award celebrates top-tier designs that embody excellence and innovation. This award acknowledges creations that are not only aesthetically pleasing but also highly functional, reflecting the designer's deep understanding and skill. Silver A' Design Award recipients are recognized for their contribution to raising industry standards and advancing the practice of design. Their work often incorporates original innovations and elicits a strong emotional response, making a notable impact on the improvement of everyday life.

More About Venous Materials Interactive Materials

Venous Materials is a soft interactive material that displays dynamic patterns in response to touch. The design is inspired by vein structures found in plants, leaves and the human body. Fluid moves through internal channels when pressure or deformation is applied, creating visible changes of color and pattern. Each sheet works as both a sensor and a display of tangible information. The material is made of PDMS silicone and ecoline ink, using laser engraving and manual laboratory processes. Prototypes measure from 5 by 5 centimeters to 15 by 15 centimeters.

About Hila Mor

Hila Mor is a designer, artist, researcher, and explorer born in Israel. She learns from history and from ancient wisdom, inspired by craft processes and examples from natural biological phenomena. She implements her insights through developing new technologies. Hila’s research is focused on the dynamic properties, form, and structure of materials. Her work process aims to enhance aesthetic opportunities in order to create novel human interaction experiences based on a thorough understanding and use of materials and technologies. Hila holds a B.Des. cum laude from Bezalel Academy of Art and Design in Jerusalem. Prior to joining the Media Lab, Hila was a self-employed designer in Israel.

Award Record

With this recognition, Hila Mor is a winner of 2 A' Design Awards. The awards were granted in the 2020 - 2021 edition of the A' Design Award & Competition.

About the A' Idea and Conceptual Design Award

The A' Idea Design Award is an international idea design competition recognizing great ideas by designers, creators, innovators and free thinkers worldwide. It is organized within the A' Design Award & Competition and is open to idea designers, conceptual designers, innovation consultants and creative thinkers from all countries. Typical entries include innovations, prototypes, blueprints, sketches, models and concepts. The awarded idea designs are published at https://dezigners.org/design-category/idea

About A' Design Award & Competition

Organized annually since 2008, A' Design Award & Competition is an international, juried design accolade. The competition is open to entries from all countries. The philanthropic mission of the A' Design Award is to advance society through good design, by recognizing and promoting superior products, projects and services that benefit society, and by creating a global awareness and appreciation for good design practices and principles. Nominations are peer reviewed and evaluated anonymously by an international grand jury panel of established academics, design professionals and press members against predetermined criteria such as functionality, ergonomics, engineering, presentation, innovation, usability, sustainability and technology, with score normalization applied to remove biases. Awards are conferred at Platinum, Gold, Silver, Bronze and Iron levels. Eligible laureates receive the A' Design Prize, which includes the award trophy, the certificate of design excellence, the hardcover yearbook, a lifetime license to use the A' Design Award winner logo, exhibition of awarded works, an invitation to the gala night and award ceremony in Italy, inclusion in the World Design Rankings and Designer Rankings, and public relations and publicity services. Registration, uploading a work and receiving a preliminary score are free of charge, and Professional and Digital Edition laureates are not contractually obliged to pay further fees to claim the A' Design Prize. More information is available at https://competition.adesignaward.com

Press Resources

Media Contact

Giulia Ferrari, Press Office
Designers.Org
Via Leone Leoni 32, 22100 Como, Italy
press@designers.org
+39 031 4491953

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Fact Sheet

The Work

Project
Venous Materials Interactive Materials
Function
Interactive Materials
Category
Idea and Conceptual Design
Discipline
Communication Design
Industry
Design Industry and Innovation
Colors
Ghost White, Silver, Thistle, Light Slate Gray and Slate Gray
Images
5
Client
Tangible Media Group, MIT Media Lab

The Recognition

Laureate
Hila Mor
Country
Israel
Recognition
Silver A' Design Award
Edition
2020 - 2021
Design ID
#106686

Credits

Team
Tianyu Yu, Ken Nakagaki, Benjamin Harvey Miller, Yichen Jia and Hiroshi Ishii
Image Credits
All Photo/video credit to Tangible Media Group, MIT Media Lab

Design Details

Unique Properties
The Venous Materials project envisions a new way to design dynamic tangible interactions using fluidic structures. It is a new type of dynamic interactive material that is inspired by veins systems in nature: in plants, leaves, and throughout the human body. These Materials respond to user's pressure and motion with dynamic displayed patterns. Venous Materials can animate dynamic graphics, create responsive objects, and to visualize body movement and balance.
Inspiration
This project is inspired by venous structures that are ubiquitous throughout nature and in the human body. By changing colors, veins can inform us of internal and external physical conditions. For example, veins in leaves transmit pigments that drive color change, which informs us of the internal condition of the leaf and which season it is. When we press firmly on a button, the tip of our finger changes its color, this subtle color change can be used to indicate the applied pressure.
Research
This work present design and fabrication methods for interactive fluidic mechanisms that respond to deformation by mechanical inputs from the user. The Venous design tool provides designers with a simple way to create and validate designs of fluidic structures. It allows users to design the geometry, and simulate the flow with intended mechanical force dynamically. This leads to Interactive applications of Venous Materials, to augment human movement and everyday objects.
Challenge
While current computer chips and electronics usually require rigid and bulky components that challenges the integration with varied objects or fabrics, Venous Materials is soft and self-contained mechanism that utilizes the motion of daily activities as its energy source. Design of micro-fluid dynamics is not intuitive task, our approach and computational tool allows the design, simulation, and prototyping of fluidic interactive sensors that can be embedded in, or attached to, any object.
Realization and Technology
Venous Materials technology developed through research on current Microfluidics,that is specifically designed for human interaction and UX design. A specilized computational tool was developed for the design process and to simulate and visualize of the color change and display of the flow within the material, according to the user input. Production process involves laser engraving and manual lab processes. Materials used are PDMS silicone and ecoline ink.
Operation and Interaction
The displayed flow pattern and color change of the fluidic channels within Venous Materials inform the users of the motion and physical force that is applied on the material. The users can interact with Venous Materials by deforming or applying pressure on the material, which drives the fluid flow within the internal channels to visualize the dynamic responsive display. Therefore, Venous Materials simultaneously functions as a sensor and display of tangible information.
Project Duration and Location
The project started June 2019 and finished April 2020 in Cambridge, MA, at the MIT Media Lab, Tangible Media group
Specifications
The different Venous Materials prototypes are mainly 5cmX5cm, while some of them can get up to 15cmX15cm.
Keywords
Interaction Design, Material research, Dynamic Graphics, Microfluidics, Computational Aided Design, Sensors and Displays, Venous Structures

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