Jury announces DAME - Design Award METS 2013 nominations

52 nominations from 12 nations

From a total of 115 products entered into this year's prestigious DAME Design Award METS competition, 52 have now been nominated to go forward for final judging by the DAME Jury who will eventually choose a maximum of seven Category Winners and one Overall Winner.

The DAME Design Award is held every year in conjunction with METS.

The competition promotes the importance of design for all marine products, from function to aesthetics and from packaging to end product. This has never been more important in an era where the consumer wants everything he or she touches not only to work well, but took look great.

DAME 2013 received entries from all around the world, with the successful nominations coming from 12 nations.

The Overall Winner and Category Winners will be announced at a special Breakfast Briefing on Tuesday November 19th at 8 a.m. prior to the start of the METS show that same day. During METS, all of the short-listed products will be put on display in a special DAME presentation located in the entrance of Holland Complex (entrance C).

Chairman of the DAME Awards Jury, Bill Dixon, said the Jury was pleased both with the quality of many of the entries this year and also the effort made by companies to present their products in a clear and concise way.

"The number of nominations this year is the highest for some time," Dixon reports. "This reflects the overall quality of the entry, which is undoubtedly improved on previous years.

"There were some stand-out categories with evidence of innovation. For example in marine electronics we saw some notable moves forward while the deck equipment, sails and rigging category generated a third of all nominations and brought a lot of very different products from several manufacturers to our attention. In fact we've had significant entries to consider in each category, so the final decisions will be very hard."

"For all marine products today we need a leap forward to attract buyers. "It's not enough that a product does what it needs to do – it needs to look the part as well. We commend all entrants that have shown clear evidence of employing design right the way through the development and manufacturing process, from function to form."

The Overall Winner

The Overall Winner of the DAME Awards will be announced at the ICOMIA-METS Breakfast Briefing held in the Forum of Amsterdam RAI before the official opening of the show. The Award presented to the Overall Winner has been designed by Naval Architect Tony Castro, former chairman of the DAME Jury, and reflects the international nature of the competition.

DAME categories

The DAME Jury carefully assess entries for overall design, build quality, functionality, and use of materials. Other factors taken into account are originality, ergonomics and price/quality ratio. The short listed products are divided into seven categories:

1. Marine electronics and related software
2. Interior equipment, furnishings, materials, and electrical fittings used in cabins
3. Marina equipment, boatyard equipment, and boat construction tools and materials
4. Deck equipment, sails, and rigging
5. Clothing and crew accessories
6. Lifesaving and safety equipment
7. Machinery, propulsion, mechanical and electrical systems, and fittings Products that the Jury consider to be exceptional, but which do not win the award in their category, may be given a Special Mention.

   DAME JURY 2013

   This year's DAME Jury is made up of 10 leading industry experts:

   • Mr Bill Dixon, Dixon Yacht Design (Chairman of the DAME Jury) - UK
   • Prof G N Bruens, TU Delft University of Technology - The Netherlands
   • Mr Torsten Conradi, Judel/Vrolijk & Co Engineering GmbH - Germany
   • Ing Andrea Frabetti, Ferretti Group/AYT-Advanced Yacht Technology - Italy
   • Mr Japec Jakopin, J&J Design/Seaway - Slovenia
   • Mr Udo Kleinitz, ICOMIA - UK
   • Mr Dennis O'Neill, senior editor, Yachting Monthly, IPC Media Marine Group - UK
   • Mr Jean Francois de Premorel, Prestige, Beneteau Groupe - France
   • Mr Nigel Calder, independent technical journalist specialising in boat electronics - USA
   • Ms Birgit Schnaase, Schnaase Interior Design – Germany
   The DAME 2013 Jury was supported by a non-voting secretary:
   • Mr Kim Hollamby, du Pré Group - UK

   www.metstrade.com/mets/innovation-awards/pages/default.aspx