Twelve Degrees design agency wins the 2019 Audi Innovation Award

Audi Middle East have announced the winner of the fourth Audi Innovation Award to the theme ‘Simplification’ at Dubai Design Week. ‘Pincher’ is the physical interpretation of the cooking phrase, “a pinch of salt”. The innovative lightweight silicon device allows the user to precisely control the flow of seasoning for a simpler and more intuitive experience. Twelve Degrees design agency from Jordan will be awarded the prize of a trophy and a trip to the Audi factory in Ingolstadt, Germany to experience the automotive design journey at the company’s headquarters. In addition, Audi Middle East will award $25,000 worth of consultancy to cover items such as IP registration, legal counselling and business development. The brand with the Four Rings will also work closely with their partners at Dubai Design Week and the judging panel to provide design advice and mentoring to develop and protect the winning idea.

The inspiration behind ‘Pincher’ came through realizing a product from the phrase, “a pinch of salt”. Rather than shaking salt and pepper randomly out of a dispenser, the lightweight silicon device allows the user to measure precisely the amount that would be released from between your own fingertips through the motion of pinching. This allows the user to control the flow of seasoning for a simpler and more intuitive user experience. 

Carsten Bender, Managing Director of Audi Middle East, commented; “Pincher perfectly represents the 2019 theme of ‘Simplification’ for the Audi Innovation Award and the judging panel were unanimous in nominating the idea as the overall winner. We hope the consultancy process will help Twelve Degrees to bring this ingenious device into production” Bender continued “This is what we envisioned when we introduced the award 4 years ago, to inspire a new generation of change makers for the future here in the Middle East.”

Now in its 4th year, the award has grown in popularity with a record 2,500 registrations on the website for the 2019 theme from eager regional designers on the website www.audiinovationaward.com.

The Audi Innovation Award seeks to stimulate regional discussion on the journey towards a sustainable future in the Middle East, through the innovative use of energy, resources, and through social awareness and the development of smart cities. Every year, the competition theme is inspired by the Audi brand. This year, the theme ‘Simplification’ is rooted in the Audi global brand value of ‘Personal Freedom’. Simplification is defined as ‘to make less complex or complicated’ or ‘to design for efficiency’, which perfectly fits with the global ethos of the brand with the Four Rings.    

By proposing design solutions to impact the way an object is made, used, moved, or stored, the simplest products can enhance our quality of life by offering the luxury of more time – our most precious resource. The Audi Innovation Award aims to stimulate intuitive designers to propose everyday products that are simpler to use, to transport, that use less material or energy to be manufactured, or are easier to operate or store. 

The shortlisted projects for 2019 were: 

In First Place Pincher - Twelve Degrees

Second Place - BENTOS - Ahmad Alameh & Hadi Nassar

Bentos is a super polymer using nanotechnology to hold heavy weight, the innovation is in the cuts applied to the textile allowing it to become rigid when bent and become flexible when contracted. The cut pattern is applied to slits in the textile acting as stoppers when pressed into a particular angle. The resulting material can be used in various applications on the body to support movement, prevent overextension, and bear weight – ideal for athletes, elderly, injured, craftsmen and builders.

Third Place Di_Wrapp - Omar El-Dimassi

Di_Wrapp is a patented digital skin for the automotive industry. The skin is adhered to the surface of any vehicle body and can be transformed through the use of a mobile app. This interface serves as a billboard for advertising, alerts, general information or for personal customization. Given the number of vehicle surfaces in our urban environment, this opens up a new horizon in communication.

And the top three runners up were:- 

Portable Date Harvesting Machine - Mustafa Al Hussain

A portable harvesting robot is designed to substitute the intensive labor required to harvest dates from palm trees. The robot is able to scale the trunks of palm trees irrespective of the diameter, whereby a remote control is manipulated by a user on the ground to cut date branches and place them in harnesses suspended to the body of the robot, and descend to the ground.

Stouff - Marie-Lyne Samaha & Anthony Daher

Stouff is the modernized traditional Lebanese stove. Baboor, Stoof, Soobya, Wjek, are all names referring to the staple of Lebanese living rooms. The Stouff has always been a multi-purpose central element used to cook a meal, brew tea but essentially heat the home; its social function plays a more significant role in that it brings families together. 

Aqua-Vision - Alaa Hammouda

Aqua Vision is a futuristic diving mask that allows scientists, rescuers, workers and the visually impaired, to see clearly underwater. The innovation is within existing dive masks by integrating a triple camera system, a dual LCD display and control system into the lenses to correct the diver’s vision and supply supplemental information into the lens display.