Nominations of the 24th Design Award METS Announced

45 products have been nominated to go forward for final judging by the jury of the prestigious Design Award METS (DAME) 2014 competition.

The products have been selected from a total of 116 entries from 23 nationalities all over the world. The Jury will eventually choose up to seven Category Winners and one Overall Winner. The DAME winners will be annouced during the Breakfast Briefing on the opening day of METS 2014, taking place 18 to 20 November in the Amsterdam RAI Convention Centre.

Initiated in 1991 to recognize the best designed product at the METS exhibition, the 2014 DAME competition once again promotes the importance of design for all marine products, from function to aesthetics and from packaging to end product. The DAME Jury also considers the overall expected impact on the marine industry of entries, their suitability for intended purpose, the level of innovation, cost effectiveness and environmental impact.

Entries from all over the world

DAME 2014 received 116 entries from 23 nations all around the World. The 45 nominations represent companies from 16 different countries. The Overall Winner and Category Winners will be announced at the ICOMIA-METS Breakfast Briefing held in the Forum of Amsterdam RAI before the official opening of METS on Tuesday 18 November at 8:00 a.m.. 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. Products that the jury considers to be exeptional, but which do not win the award in their category, may be given a special mention.

DAME Winners in new Innovation LAB

During the show winnering products will be on display in the new Innovation LAB in the Elicium building supported by iPad presentations of the products offering visitors more background information. For the first time all winning companies will present their products on the Innovation Stage.The nominated products will be displayed in the entrance of the Holland Complex (halls 9-10-11), again with virtual presentations.

Much product development despite a long period of contrained budgets

Commenting on a strong field of entries, the Chairman of the DAME Awards Jury, Bill Dixon, observed that it is commendable to once again see so much product development at a time when the marine industry has been experiencing a long period of constrained budgets: “Developing new, well designed and innovative products is very difficult for relatively low manufacturing volumes. Nevertheless many of the companies that we recognised in this year’s nominations have looked at a problem, found a new and interesting way to solve it and came up with a confident solution. Others have discovered ways of making the boat builder’s life easier though better integration and ease of installation."

"There’s a growing challenge from consumer expectation.” Bill continued. “Today’s boat owners are familiar with intuitive user interfaces on smart phones and tablets. When they get on their boats and superyachts they do not want to be confused by something a lot more complicated. Simple, elegant design with cohesive integration is the future and this is the challenge that the DAME Awards will continue to address by highlighting the endeavours of the best entrants."

DAME categories

The DAME Jury carefully assesses 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:

Marine electronics and related software
Interior equipment, furnishings, materials and electrical fittings used in cabins
Marina equipment, boatyard equipment and boat construction tools & materials
Deck equipment, sails and rigging
Clothing and crew accessories
Lifesaving and safety equipment
Machinery, propulsion, mechanical and electrical systems & fittings

DAME JURY 2014

This year’s DAME Jury is made up of eight leading industry experts:

Mr. Jean François de Prémorel, Beneteau Groupe - France

Mr. Chris Beeson,  Sailing Editor of Yachting Monthly - United Kingdom

Mr. Bill Dixon, Dixon Yacht Design (Chairman of the DAME Jury) - United Kingdom

Mr. Torsten Conradi, Judel / Vrolijk & Co. Engineering GmbH, President DBSV - Germany

Ing. Andrea Frabetti, Ferretti Group / Advanced Yacht Technology - Italy

Mr. Klaus Roeder, Carpe Diem Yacht Design & member of the ICOMIA Technical Committee - Germany

Prof. Ger Bruens, TU Delft / Associate Professor Design Aesthetics - The Netherlands

Mr. Nigel Calder, independent Technical Marine Journalist - USA

The DAME 2014 Jury was supported by a non-voting secretary: Mr. Kim Hollamby, du Pré Group - United Kingdom

About METSTRADE

METSTRADE.COM is the leading online platform for marine leisure professionals. It offers a market overview and information on all marine industry events organised by Amsterdam RAI. METS is the world’s largest trade exhibition of equipment, materials and systems for the international marine leisure industry. It is organised by Amsterdam RAI in association with ICOMIA (International Council of Marine Industry Associations). Three dedicated specialist pavilions are part of METS: the SuperYacht Pavilion, the Marina & Yard Pavilion and the Construction Material Pavilion.

METS 2014 will be held from 18 to 20 November 2014 in Amsterdam RAI Convention Centre. For more information and the list of 2014 DAME nominations see www.metstrade.com. METSTRADE is also on Twitter, Facebook  and LinkedIn.