The official theme of the contest was ‘Unleash’. Roland, a company that has been one of the leading producers of digital pianos and synthesizers for decades, wanted the submissions to show concepts that go well beyond the traditional forms of digital pianos. The results turned out to be more than satisfying. The jury’s official announcement said of it:
Design submissions included clever variations on traditional piano concepts, innovatively designed piano acoustic systems, and interesting interface and projection concepts that were unique to digital piano.
Tomasz Miłosz grabbed one of five Incentive Awards. Initially, only one Incentive Award was to be given, but thanks to the outstanding quality of the submissions Roland decided to expand the category and recognize four more designers. The Polish designer described his project as a blend of minimalist and futuristic inspirations; hence the simple streamlined shape is covered with contrasting surfaces of high-gloss brass and classical black piano lacquer.
The Grand Prix went to American Jong Chan Kim whose project titled Facet Grand Piano not only won the jury’s hearts with its intricate, elegant design but also offered an interesting solution: using the piano base as an efficient loudspeaker system.
Jong Chan Kim’s winning project. Photo: Roland’s International Official
All of the winning projects will remain concepts for the time being but as the official announcement gives it:
(…) it’s possible that some of these unique and inspiring award-winning concepts could one day become a commercial reality.
Visualizations of the rest of the awarded projects are available on:
http://www.roland.com/promos/piano_design_awards/winners/
Author: Wojciech Oleksiak, 1st February 2016.