"Increasingly scarce natural resources, an exploding population… Today, Western lifestyles based on overconsumption (a model we have imposed on emerging countries) are being challenged as never before," says Catherine Tsékénis, director of the Hermès Foundation. "Our value system is about to be turned on its head: our habits and behaviours will be transformed, and we will have to create products adapted to those changes."
Every three years, the Prix Émile Hermès invites young professional designers from all over the world (from final-year students to age 40) to design the objects of tomorrow, on a given theme. The content and 'meaning' of the resulting pieces are all-important. Beyond sheer creativity, each design must also acknowledge two of the Hermès Foundation's core spheres of action: the environment (through the promotion of sustainable development) and traditional skills.
The initial shortlist has been drawn up by a distinguished international jury: each designer has been invited to create a prototype financed by the Foundation, from which the same jury selected three winners, each receiving a cash prize designed to launch or further their career: 50,000 € for the winner, 25,000 € for the runner-up, and 15,000 € for the third place. The winners' work features in a special online exhibition and in its catalogue and it will be promoted by the Foundation around the world.
