I can highly recommend the ‘Brit Insurance Designs of the Year’ exhibition currently on display at the Design Museum on London’s South Bank.

It’s presented as a very broad canvas of design disciplines, and as such it is able to paint with broad strokes the current design trends that inform each disparate ‘category’ and enable the viewer to appreciate the exhibition as a whole. Click here for the list of official winners; however, if you would like to know my personal two winners from each category then please read on (photos of which can be seen by clicking here):

Transport 1. Barclays Cycle Hire 2. Yikebike

The Barclays Cycle Hire scheme has, simply put, changed the way people travel around in, and interact with, London. From the cleverly designed user interfaces (including some great apps), to the robust docking stations and the ‘simplicity itself’ bicycles. If you don’t use them, then what are you waiting for?

A special mention must also go to the Vanmoof No.5 bicycle as I bought one after seeing it at the exhibition. The manufacturer’s ‘less-is-more’ approach to design (also utilised by the Barclays scheme) appealed to me as I had been looking for a town bike that would require little-to-no maintenance.

Product 1. Apple iPad

2. Plumen 001

The ubiquitous iPad has undoubtedly been the most mainstream consumer electronics ‘product’ of the last 18 months. Not only is it a brilliantly engineered device, it also offers a fully realised ‘ecosystem’ of apps to support it, and together these two elements form the basis of a populist alchemy that leaves most other 2010 products looking like rusty base metals.

Interactive 1. Wired Magazine iPad App 2. The Elements iPad App

Newspapers and magazines have struggled to develop apps to improve upon, or even compete with, traditional print media publications. Only recently have publishers begun to realise the potential of this new medium, and one of those trailblazers is, unsurprisingly, a ‘technology’ publication. The iPad app from ‘Wired’ has turned their informative print magazine into a very accomplished interactive digital publication.

Graphics 1. Four Corners Familiars Series 2. Coalition of the willing

The delivery of information is evolving, as demonstrated by the previous two categories, so it’s refreshing to see traditional publishers striving to offer something unique and interesting. The ‘Four Corners Familiar Series’ of reissued print editions of popular classics offer exactly that.

Furniture 1. Thin Black Lines 2. Endless

“Does the world really need another chair?” Those were the words spoken by Dara Ó Briain several years ago at an interiors industry awards show he was tasked with presenting. Whilst I partially agree with the sentiment, it’s great to be proven wrong when something as interesting as ‘Thin Black Lines’ comes along. I didn’t get to sit on it mind you, so it’s possible it may feel like sitting on a pointy fence.

Architecture 1. UK Pavillion Shanghai Expo 2010 2. Media-Tic Building

It’s difficult to determine a winner without visiting each of the buildings on offer; after all, good architecture has to be physically experienced to be fully appreciated (or else it's surely sculpture?). So from my very limited understanding of each project, I would choose the UK Pavilion as the winner based solely on its striking visual impact.

The exhibition is on now and runs until 7th August, 2011.

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