Launched last year, the Optical Design Contest is preparing a new opus with the same objective: to be a stepping stone for the next generation and to stimulate creative innovation in eyewear through the eyes of students from design schools around the world. Based on the highest standards, this second edition takes on an essential theme that will be making headlines in 2023 and 2024: Sport
The contest is open to all students enrolled in a design course at a level equivalent to or higher than the third-year post-baccalaureate and presents a detailed set of specifications designed to provide a comprehensive framework for the projects and a clear commitment to design. Lenses, frames, connected products, low vision, or equipment for opticians and manufacturers, these designers of tomorrow will be able to create their concept by drawing inspiration from the vast world of optics and eyewear.
Chaired by Marie-Christine Dorner and made up of optics and design professionals, the jury met in mid-June to assess the projects received from the various design schools and select the most pertinent.
Marie-Christine Dorner is a multi-talented and worldly-wise interior architect, designer and scenographer who graduated from the Camondo school in 1984. She has been involved in artistic creation and aesthetics for three decades. Fascinated by all the cultures she came into contact with during her round-the-world trip at the age of 25, she decided to settle in Japan for a year, where she began her career. This professional experience shaped her philosophy and stylistic signature of simplicity and refinement, elegance and restraint. Recognized for her “multicultural French touch”, she has designed furniture and objects for Cinna, Ligne Roset, Baccarat, Bernardaud, and Cristallerie Saint-Louis.
With her command of space and volumes, she has designed houses, apartments, French ambassadors’ residences for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, restaurants and boutiques.
She is also consulted for the design of structures for special events, and is notably the creator of the timeless 14 July Presidential Grandstand – and has been for over 30 years! Six successive Presidents of the Republic have called on her talents. A work of formidable aesthetic precision that has earned her the title of Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et Lettres.
The design, creativity and innovation aspects, the use and function of the proposed article for the practice of sport: these are the criteria selected and scrutinised by each of the members, not forgetting the intrinsic feasibility of the project with the production of a 3D printed prototype.
The last stage will take place on the morning of 29 September at SILMO Paris. The jury will meet to select the overall winner. In the meantime, discover the 9 concepts selected for the Optical Design Contest, which promises to be more than captivating.
The nominees
INFRAVISION Revealing the invisible, redefining outdoor exploration by Romain Globeaux – LISAA
SIDE PARK Climbing with confidence by Émilie Chague & Adrien Galois – Ecole Design de Nantes
SYLANS EYEWEAR Glacier glasses revisited by Juliette Favre & Adrien Nabot – Lycée Léonard de Vinci
VISION Improving the comfort of volleyball players by Clément Kimpe – ESDAC
SPORTVISOR GlassesXstreme, a new perspective on sport by Tadj Belakhdar – ESDAC
ECHO GLASS Facilitating sport for the deaf and hard of hearing by Éléa Michel & Jonathan Smith Brière de l’Isle – ENSAAMA
TRIBI Multifunction eyewear for triathlon & biathlon athletes by Hugo Plessis – ESDAC
VIEWAVE Finding your way around a pool without using your eyesight by Orane Reynard & Florian Pillard – ENSAAMA
RAYZOR Augmented reality glasses for football players by Adi Abramov –Shenkar College of Engineering, Design and Art
For more information about SILMO Paris and to join The Optical Journal at this year’s fair, go to their website SILMOPARIS.com.
