This year, for the first time, the Annual Design Review's student work occupies its own issue. (In previous years, the work was allied with the Concepts category in the July/August issue.) More than 500 entries poured in, an eye—straining number for jurors Robert Probst and Duane Smith to examine over two days in February. They set to work early, pumped on caffeine and adrenaline and more than a little prodding from the I.D. staff. At the end, having sorted through graphics, environments, and products, including a curiously high number of Segway imposters, the duo emerged weary but inspired, and the pile was winnowed down to 23.

Both Smith—a product designer and co-founder of housewares design and distribution firm Vessel-and Probst—a graphic designer who directs the School of Design at the University of Cincinnati's College of Design, Architecture, Art and Planning—gave high marks to this crop of aspiring designers and identified several encouraging trends. They noticed that students showed less interest this year in electronic gadgets and more in tactile and spiritual concepts. For Smith, a prayer rug by Ahmad Sami Angawi of New York's Pratt Institute was "a natural lash-out response to technology." Probst suggested that "maybe students have accepted the integration of technology and are moving on to the next level."

The environment preoccupied many young minds. Dozens of entries wrestled with multiple functions, recyclable materials, and post-consumer waste. A stainless-steel ring that replaces a tissue box took best of category because of its breathtaking simplicity. Designed by Scott Christensen, also of Pratt, the ring is "not about 'green design,' it's about a bigger picture of the real product cycle," said Smith. "The solution is getting rid of the tissue box, not just making it more decorative."

The jurors appreciated the crowd of international entries, including six winning projects from universities outside the States, and many more from foreign-born students educated in America. "There is an increasing focus on materiality and poetry," Smith observed. "I think this is partly a result of contributions from students with broader cultural and educational backgrounds."

—Jenny Schnetzer-Reising is a freelance writer based in Cincinnati and the former managing editor of I.D.

Jurors

Product designer Duane Smith received a bachelor of industrial design in 1996 from Carleton University in Ottawa and studied at the Bauhaus in Dessau, Germany. A native of Newfoundland, he worked as a design consultant at various North American firms before beginning his own venture with partner Stéfane Barbeau. In 1999, they co-founded Vessel, a housewares design and distribution company. Smith is also a founding member of Release1, a collaborative that explores design as a cultural activity independent of commercial forces. His firm's work has earned Industrial Excellence Awards, Medical Design Excellence Awards, and Virtu Awards, and has been featured in I.D., The New York Times, Adbusters, Real Simple, and Wired.

A native of Freiburg, Germany, Robert Probst earned a bachelor of design degree in 1972 from the University of Essen in Germany followed by a master's degree from the College of Design in Basel, Switzerland. He has been a professor of graphic design at the University of Cincinnati's College of Design, Architecture, Art and Planning for 25 years, and was named director of the School of Design in 2001. His professional experience includes work in 2D graphics, promotional and identity design, exhibition design, architectural signage, and environmental design. Probst's award-winning work has been featured in numerous publications and resides in the permanent collections of the Ohio Arts Council in Columbus, the Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum in New York, and the National Museum of Modern Art in Tokyo. He serves on the board of directors of the Society for Environmental Graphic Design and as president of the society's Education Foundation.

View this year's winners.