Winterhouse Awards for Design Writing & Criticism

The Winterhouse Awards for Design Writing & Criticism seek to increase the understanding and appreciation of design, both within the profession and throughout American life. A program of AIGA, these annual awards have been 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.

Three recipients have been selected for the 2008 awards.

David Barringer is the recipient of the Writing Award, and both Annie Simpson and Joshua Yaffa have been chosen for the Education Award for their individual submissions. The three awards will be presented at the AIGA Design Legends Gala on September 18, in New York City, and all their entered works will be available here by that time.

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.