Nike Play Award 06

It`s time for the Play Award 2006! A design contest initiated by Nike,so if you are a designer AND interested in football, take a look.

Official press info by Nike:

THE NEXT PLAY-AWARD WILL GET THE BALL ROLLING IN NOVEMBER
2005. THE MOTTO OF 2006’S INTERNATIONAL COMPETITION FOR
YOUNG DESIGNERS IS “INNOVATION IN FOOTBALL”.

Winners will be honored at a ceremony held in May during Berlin’s DESIGNMAI. PLAY-AWARD is an initiative of NIKE Germany and DESIGNMAI.

Berlin, October 18, 2005: Thanks to the World Cup, which will be held in Germany next summer, football is going to be the name of the game in 2006. Therefore, it’s not surprising that “Innovate football!” is the motto of the next PLAY-AWARD. Nor it is surprising that Europe’s young designers are now suiting up to create submissions capable of winning this innovation-driven design competition, which is now in its third year.

These objects will provide new ways of playing, participating in and profiting from the game. The sources of inspiration and objects of innovation—the stadiums, their fields, the rules of play, the teams, the balls, the turfs, the fans—are as great as the number of places and ways in which the ‘world’s game’ is played, lived and loved. Ahead of the designers competing in the Play-Award are the agony and ecstasy of creation, and, for the very best, the fame and glory of winning the competition and its highly-prized trophies.

Deciding who gets the trophies and the glamour and glitter that goes along with them will be a jury selected—as was the case in the past two competitions—for their breadth and depth of understanding of the subject at hand.

Prof. Volker Albus (designer und author)
Oliver Bierhoff (former player and manager of Germany’s national football team)
Claudio Hils (photographer and communications designer)
Florian Horwath (musician, songwriter, DJ, radio host and designer)
Peter Hudson (Global Creative Director, NIKE Football)
Birgit Prinz (player on Germany’s national football team, the winners of 2003’s World Cup)
Marina Yee (artist and apparel designer)
Oliver Vogt (designer, partner, Vogt + Weizenegger and the jury’s head)

The winners of the competition’s first (€5,000), second (€3,000), third (€2,000) and special prizes will be presented at a ceremony held in May 2006 at the opening of an exhibition in the NIKE Spiritroom (Gipsstr. 7, D-10119 Berlin).

Bill Bowerman co-founded NIKE. He knew the company and knew its mission: “We bring inspiration and innovation to every athlete in the world. If you have a body you’re an athlete.” And getting this flow of inspirations and innovations going is why NIKE holds the PLAY- AWARD competition. And, as the first two competitions showed, this flow is really going strong. Case-in-point: last year’s competition, which was about “Innovation in urban gear“. And ‘innovative’ definitely applies to the CIBOB. This cross between a toboggan and a mattress turns every stairway into a downhill surf-run. Case-in-point: 2004’s competition and its “Rolling and Rocking”, which created an entirely new sport, one with moves, rules and equipment all its own.

Submissions to the third PLAY-AWARD have to be received by January 27, 2006. Information on the award, on its rules of competition and on its past winners is to be found at www.play-award.com.

That’s where, as of November 1, 2005, you can get detailed information on the jury’s members, and where you can download the requisite forms of competition.