Good Design Awards Wrap - Up 2019
The Clandestine Design Group and RapidAIM Team excitedly accept the Best in Class Product Commercial and Industrial Category
Clandestine Design Group again took some time out from their busy schedule to fly south as a team and head to the Good Design Awards (GDAs) in Sydney.
Everyone, put their best foot forward looking ready to win a fashion related GDA with the team looking fab in their finery.
The CDG team took advantage of the pre-awards drinks and Design Director Neil Davidson went along to the early presentation of GroundProbe’s SSR-Omni Award. CDG collaborated with Groundprobe on the early build configuration and technology packaging integration phase of this project.
Then it was then time for the ceremony to start and the team took their places among the more than 1000 attendees at our table as the official proceedings got underway. It turned out to be a massive night for Queensland teams and other inter-state teams dominating the NSW-based Awards.
The CDG team and our client’s RapidAIM had our fingers-collectively crossed as the other category winners were announced throughout the night and our category came around towards our highly-anticipated Product Design Category.
The entire team were surprised and delighted for the RapidAIM Smart Trap received a Best in Class Accolade in the hotly contested Product Commercial and Industrial category.
Dr Nancy Schellhorn and extended RA / CDG team collecting our Best In Class GDA
This is an amazing accolade and it was driven by our clever female Senior Designer, Sara Pontoppidan a talented Norwegian. She brings a very unique approach to design and this win showcases her uncompromising style and unrelenting pursuit of manufacturing quality.
As with most Clandestine Design Projects, Sara as the Design Lead had to manage two key challenges to ensure product development success.
““Our first challenge was to download the deep knowledge that Nancy and Laura had on the Fruit Fly behavioral needs and translate them into a product. The second challenge involved the integration of Darren’s advanced IoT sensor technology package. Of course this all needed to result in a harmonious, integrated, effective and mass producible product!””
Speaking of mass production, we must thank Shanghai based Genimex for tooling and part production support they provided CDG and RapidAIM during this program.
As part of CDG process and for most Clients towards the end of a tooling program, Sara took Darren from RapidAIM to China to visit the Genimex Factories and oversee the final tooling trails and part production phases.
At the beginning of the trip, she was somewhat of a surprise package for the male-dominated tool room Engineers and Factory Managers but by the end of the week she had won them over, shifted some female design engineer stereotypes and blew them away with her commitment to working around the clock to get the best outcome for the client. See photos below for some behind the scenes actions shots of Sara and Darren working with Genimex below.
“This highly innovative design is also clever sustainable solution in that the farmer can limit and tune the pesticide level only to the minimum amount required for pest control rather than a ‘just in case’ approach.
This has the potential for a significant ROI and will lead to better outcomes for our environment as a whole.
The physical design is sophisticated with an intelligent choice of materials where appropriate (e.g. the use of rope) and the choice of tooling is well considered.
Overall, this is a shining example of design excellence and the team deserve award recognition at the highest level. Well done.”
Another pleasant surprise for the CDG team was the RapidAIM Smart Trap was also shortlisted as one of the Sustainability Award by the Jury. This encouraging because it shows the importance of our device to being used to sustain crops without needing blanket chemical spraying.
Keenly throughout the GDAs there was as strong thread of sustainability at the forefront of many winning design innovations, encouraging within most large scale industrial products but also promisingly G-Star Raw’s Most Sustainable Jeans.
The big winner of the night, the Good Design of the year was the game-changing medical device that revolutionises the treatment of diseases like cancer. The Inventia Rastrum 3D Bioprinter is a 3D bioprinting platform driven by the needs of biomedical researchers and tissue engineers. Rastrum uses drop-on-demand deposition to 3D print living cells precisely and safely. With applications in cell-based research and regenerative medicine, Rastrum has the potential to revolutionise biomedical research.
There were a lot of highlights from the entire Awards ceremony and its always good to catch up with people from Overseas and across Australia at the one night each year that always ends with some catching up, drinking and dancing the night away! CDG are definitely coming back in 2020!
To read more about our award winning RapidAIM product read our feature story here.