The Designer of the Year became Babák for the style of the National Technical Library

Prague, March 6 (CTK) - The title of Grand Designer of the Year was awarded today at the Estates Theatre in Prague to Petr Babák from the studio Laboratoř. In the fourth year of the annual awards of the Czech Design Academy, he received the most votes from nominees in all categories. He also won the Graphic Designer of the Year 2009 award for the visual style, information system, and book for the National Technical Library in Prague and for the publication Projectile Architects 2002/2008. Babák will also design the form of the award that laureates will receive next year.
This year's award design was created by last year's overall winner of the Czech Design Awards, Jan Čtvrtník. According to him, it represents the floating tip of an iceberg. "It is supposed to symbolize the beautiful aspect of design that one sees, but mainly the ninety percent of hard work hidden beneath the surface," he said at the ceremonial announcement. His block made of stainless steel was awarded to eight other recipients besides Babák.
The authors of the library furniture from the studio Hippos Design were also awarded for the National Technical Library, winning in the Designer of the Year category. Their sofas created for the library also served the evening's host Marek Eben for interviews with the nominees. In their production, the authors drew inspiration from "the morphology of chemical formulas and children's construction sets."
František Vízner was inducted into the design "hall of fame," particularly recognized for his long-term collaboration with the glass industry.
In the category of Fashion Designer of the Year, Jakub Polanka won for his collections Stardust, Re-evolution, and the limited collection Simple. The Photographer of the Year award went to Bára Prášilová nominated for her collection of photographs Quiksilver Women, a series for Esprit magazine, and photographs for the book Fragile.
The award in the category of Discovery of the Year was won by Lucie Koldová, who designed, for example, a versatile collection of furniture called Home Fitness. The young designer also competed for the title of Designer of the Year. This year, for the first time, the winner of the Public Award was also announced. People voted on it via the internet, gathering thousands of votes. The winner was the studio Oficina for the design of the Prima Cool television.
The Manufacturer of the Year award went to the company Botas for the new editions of shoes and accessories from the Botas66 project, which collaborated with designers Jan Klos and Jakub Korouš. In the category of Store of the Year, the Simple Conceptstore won, nominated for the design of the store and the collections of Czech designers Jakub Polanka, Zdeněk Vacek, and Helena Mertlová.
The ceremonial evening, which will be broadcast by Czech Television on March 13, was conceived similarly to Eben's shows On the Plovárna, where he interviews interesting personalities.
The Czech Grand Design Awards are organized by Profil Media agency, which has been preparing the Designblok showcase in Prague for several years. The laureates of the awards are decided by an academy consisting of over 50 members from among curators, theorists, and journalists in the field. The works of the awarded designers will be exhibited from March 10 to 21 at the Museum of Decorative Arts in Prague.