Winterhouse Awards for Design Writing & Criticism

The competition is currently closed. Next call for entries will be in March 2010.

AIGA and Winterhouse Institute extend congratulations to Sean Keller, recipient of the 2009 Writing Award, for his professional body of work, and Chappell Ellison and Steven Lauritano, individual recipients of the 2009 Education Award, for their student writing submissions. The panel of jurors—comprised of Rick Poynor, Alice Rawsthorn and Michael Sorkin, and chaired by William Drenttel of Winterhouse—was impressed by the quality of all the entries and in particular was encouraged by the range of students who participated, thus choosing two awardees instead of one. Those who were not selected are encouraged to submit their writing again next time, when a new jury will consider their work. The next call for entries will open on March 1, 2010.

Since 2006 the Winterhouse Awards for Design Writing & Criticism have sought to increase the understanding and appreciation of design, both within the profession and throughout American life. A program of AIGA, these annual awards were founded by Jessica Helfand and William Drenttel of the Winterhouse Institute to recognize excellence in writing about design and encourage the development of young voices in design writing, commentary and criticism.

The three 2009 awards were presented at “Make/Think: AIGA Design Conference” in Memphis in October.

The two types of awards are:

Writing Award of $10,000

Open to writers, critics, scholars, historians, journalists and designers and given for a body of work.

Education Award of $1,000

Open to students (high school, undergraduate or graduate) whose use of writing, in the interest of making visual work or scholarship or cultural observation, demonstrates extraordinary originality and promise.

This awards program is part of a larger AIGA initiative to stimulate new levels of design awareness and critical thinking about design.