Since ancient times and even before the formation of civilization, design has existed in various forms. Humans have always sought to solve their challenges and problems through design. Throughout the millennia of our species’ presence on this planet, the role of design has grown from a mean to solve problems and address human needs to what defines and shapes our civilization and manifest our cultural diversities. The world of design, as we understand it today, displays the human rigor in facing challenges, from the trivial to existential and material to spiritual.
Seat Prize is an independent event that emphasizes the design of means and tools for a known human posture in daily life called “seating” or “seated”. Since our collective memory of such means tends to call them “chair” we would use this term for better reference while refraining from objectifying and solidifying any definition. The chair is easily one of the most universally recognized objects in the world of design that is symbolically used to refer to design.
With the growing culture of design in recent years and the general attention to aesthetics and furniture design among all walks of society, we decided years ago to invite designers to compete and serve as a bridge between the talents and abilities of today's young and creative designers and the needs of society. We believe that due to the universal nature of furniture design, a broader spectrum of young designers can participate in this challenge and showcase their skills on a global platform.
The Seat Prize in this year, like previous years, aims to provide a space for competition and exhibition of creative and promising designers of our land. It serves as a platform for dialogue, research, and profound reflection on the subject of furniture design as a contemplative subject in today's lifestyle. This event is established and organized by the "Museum of Architecture and Creativity" and the "Ivan Cultural Group" One of its main long-term goals is to become a scientific and specialized reference for designers and producers in this field.
Founder: Museum of Architecture and Creativity
Organizer: Ivan Cultural Group
Special sponser for 2023: Snowa
Prize Manager: Ashkan Ghaneei
Scientific Advisor: Amir Masoud Anooshfar
Patronage: National Committee of Iranian Museums (ICOM), University of Tehran (Faculty of Fine Arts)
This prize round will also be held in two distinct categories: 1) Product and 2) Concept
1) Product (concept design and manufacture): In this category, the designers will be responsible for designing as well as the manufacturing process of their designs. This category's outcome is an object presented as a prototype or pre-manufactured model. There is no pre-defined theme for submissions in this category.
2) Concept (concept design): In this category, designers compete to create top-notch designs in line with the annual theme of the prize.
This year’s seat prize is sponsored by the "Snowa" brand, held in the "Concept" section focusing on "Lounge Furniture". Participants must design a piece of lounge furniture in conformity with current event objectives and design and send the final work to the permanent secretariat of the Seat prize.
Lounge furniture; is a collection of associated products that give users a comfortable posture and an enjoyable experience of being awake while feeling relaxed and stress-free. We aim at this round of the Seat Prize to put the principles of human-centered design, interaction design, and experience design into perspective in the design effort.
This means that we focus not only on engineering, production, and ergonomic requirements but also on the originality of user experience, novelty of aesthetic values, the element of excitement and maybe even surprise!, and in general: the quality of product interaction with the user. In the designing process, it's of great importance to see how objects work, how they relate and interact with their surroundings, and how they interact with humans and technology.
The contestants in this event could be any real person participating individually or a group of individuals participating as a group.
The registration process and obtaining a working code for contest participation will be conducted through the website. Click here to register
50 USD
Product Category
Digital Submission: Present a minimum of 2 and a maximum of 4 digital sheets with dimensions of 50cm*70cm in portrait orientation.
Required documents in the presentations include; four 3D views (with a minimum resolution of 300 dpi), an explanation of the idea and its diagram, detailed materials, and an explanation of work characteristics (min 300 and max 1000 words).
In addition, optional sending of supplementary documents like animations, clips, artwork production processes, and so on (with a max size of 100 MB) will be possible, which will be presented upon the jury’s request.
Submission Method: Participants can upload their documents until the final deadline for digital work submission by mail.
Physical Work Submission for Jury and Exhibition: Accepted works in the first jury stage should be submitted based on the standard physical submission method to the secretariat by the scheduled deadline.
The standard for Physical Submission: Submitted works in this category should have maximum dimensions of (1*1*2 sq m³) (length * width * height), or when packed should not exceed these dimensions. If the work exceeds the mentioned dimensions in both cases, it should be reported to the Secretariat for further review and the policy-making group's decision.
Exhibition Submission: Contestants must simultaneously with the physical work exhibition, send at least 2 sheets of their presented sheets, printed and mounted on foam board to the Secretariat by the deadline.
Concept Category
Digital Submission: Present a minimum of 2 and a maximum of 4 sheets with dimensions of 50*70 (cm) vertically. Minimum four 3D views (with a minimum resolution of 300 dpi), an explanation of the idea and its diagram, detailed materials and explanation of work characteristics (min 300 and max 1000 words) are required documents in the presentations. Also, a video clip presentation (with a max size of 100 MB) can be optionally sent. To view the visual guide for digital submission, click HERE
Submission Method: Participants can upload their documents until the final deadline for digital work submission by logging into their user panel on the Secretariat website.
Product Category
First Prize: 7 gold coins + prize badge and certificate of appreciation
Second Prize: 5 gold coins + prize badge and certificate of appreciation
Third Prize: 3 gold coins + prize badge and certificate of appreciation
Concept Category
First Prize: 3 gold coins + prize badge and certificate of appreciation
Second Prize: 2 gold coins + prize badge and certificate of appreciation
Third Prize: 1 gold coin + prize badge and certificate of appreciation
P.S: 1 coin= 4.066 Grams
The jury panel can select any number of entries in both the "Product" and "concept" categories as deserving of recognition. The winning designers will receive prize badges and certificates of appreciation. At least three entries from the shortlisted concept category will be implemented in the sponsor’s workshop. The winning and deserving entries will be published in design magazines and specialized media. The designer who ranks first in the "Product" category will be considered as an event consultant for the next edition of the prize. All entries that meet the event's criteria will be published in the annual furniture prize book.
This prize consists of two evaluation stages:
Stage 1: Individual evaluation of the entries
The digital entries received by the secretariat, along with the quantitative and technical evaluation reports prepared by the secretariat and technical evaluators, will be confidentially provided to the jury members. Each juror will review the entries and announce their selected works from the "concept" category. After the final deliberation, a shortlist of entries deserving of recognition will be extracted and moved on to the second stage of evaluation.
Stage 2: Selection of first, second, and third rankings
Concept Category: In the continuation of the evaluation process, each juror will conduct a comprehensive review of the shortlisted works, taking into account the opinions of other jury members. They will then extract the rankings based on the summary of scores and announce the top three entries as the winning entries in the "concept" category for the announcement of prize results to the manager.
Product Category: After reviewing the submitted digital documents of the entries, a discussion and conversation about each entry will take place during the jury session. Then, within the specified time, through on-site visits and further examination by the jury members, as well as listening to the opinions of other jury members, the scoring process will be conducted using the forms provided by the secretariat. Finally, after the final deliberation and reaching a consensus, the three entries with the highest scores will be introduced as the winning entries in the "Product" category for the announcement of prize results to the manager.
Early registration period (early deadline): 25 Oct- 30 Nov 2023
Late registration period (late deadline): 31 Dec 2023- 14 Jan 2024
Deadline for uploading digital works (in both the concept and product categories): 15 Jan 2024
Physical delivery period for works (in both the concept and product categories): 21 Jan- 24 Jan 2024
Results announcement ceremony: 15 Feb 2024
Exhibition: 10 Feb- 20 Feb 2024
