Champagne Chair Contest Winners Announced

DWR announced the winners of it's Champagne Chair Contest late (for EST) this afternoon. They did something different this year by choosing 10 finalists and 7 honorable mentions.  I don't think my email had anything to do with that decision, since I have yet to receive a response from them. (I wonder if they received my original message? Doh!)

Nevertheless, the blog post announcing the winners read...

"On behalf of our judges and everyone here at DWR, we would like to congratulate the winners and all of the contestants on their beautiful, innovative and functional designs this year. Thank you for taking the time to create a champagne chair for our special contest. Please browse all 319 submissions here." 

I guess that's the part I found most meaningful. I was surprised to discover that there had only been 319 submissions. Perhaps, I should feel less bad about not making even a ripple in the design pool that is the Annual Champagne Chair Contest. And who doesn't like being told they had a "beautiful, innovative and functional design"?

F8 Chaise, Aaron Padilla---3rd Place

There's no need for me to cut and paste the DWR post since it was pretty short and to the point. You can read all the details for yourself here.  However, I will give a shout out for the F8 chaise, my personal favorite created by Aaron Padilla. I cannot believe it only won third place, the $250.00 DWR gift card! But hey, I'm not a professional designer. Well, perhaps Aaron will enjoying picking out a nice pillow or some other sort of accessory. Actually, I've taken the liberty of "recommending" a few items for that gift card. We all know DWR products don't come cheap and $250.00 spends like $10.00 elsewhere. He he he...

18"x26" Design 9297 Pillow, $250

Geneva Sound System XS, $249.95

5 Neutra House Numbers, $24 ea

Eames Hang It All, $199.00

8 Almoco 5pc Flatware Settings, $30 ea

2 Corniche Shelves,  $235.00-250.00

Congratulations to Jeffery Molter and Miwa F. as well for their designs of the second and first place winning chairs respectively. Hope to see them all on display at the DWR Georgetown before too long. 

An Open Letter to DWR...

Champagne Chair Contest

I want to thank you for creating a contest and marketing event that continues to inspire creativity and enthusiasm for modern design year after year.  For the first time, I decided to create my own design and enter the contest. I have no professional design training. I am a homeowner who, at best, can be considered to have very good taste. I am also an active member of a growing niche community online  that focuses on modern miniatures. A small group of us (about 4) all chose to enter your contest for the first time. In our discussion of the experience (conceiving then executing a design) a recurring theme emerged. We each spoke of intimidation due to the field of talent. This is not a criticism, it only speaks to the event's success. It inspired me to consider ways in which you might redesign this contest that has grown well beyond its infancy.

Perhaps you might...

1) divide the contest into amateur/hobbyist and design students & professionals 

2) consider superlative recognition in categories like wittiest, most intricate, most creative use of materials, most minimal. 

I'm not necessarily recommending you increase your investment in the budget for prizes. The recognition alone however would be very meaningful to many of your contest participants.

Sincerely,

(Modern Miniatures Collector & Blogger)
http://miniaesthetics.blogspot.com

I submitted the above to DWR via the contact function on their website. It occurred to me that others may also want to join the conversation and share their opinions. To that end, I share this email as a potential catalyst.

Cheers to Chairs: My 1st Contest

A sensible someone would not choose such a formidable challenge. Yet, after inspiration and suggestion over at Call of the Small, I decided to go ahead and create a cork chair to enter in Design Within Reach's (DWR) annual Champagne Chair contest. I hope I followed the rules correctly.  It seemed you could only submit one photo.  The smart ones submitted a single collage photo but several others, like me submitted only one view.  If you submitted your entry via Instagram or Twitter as I did, only one view in a single photo was possible.

I chose the option of tweeting my entry under #dwrchampagnechair.

The talent in this long-running contest is phenomenal and quite intimidating.  I decided to go for it anyhow. I wanted to share a few of this year's entries that intimidated the he*l, I mean stood out to me.

Elevate by elainenmak

"My Loose Interpretation Of" by jackstastic

F8 chaise by asp628

Perch Chair by djasoncrowder

an untitled piece by jcsonifrank

another untitled piece by nandy1702

I doubt much will come from my efforts, but you can best believe I will be taking a screen shot once my little chair is uploaded to the gallery of entrants on the DWR webpage. (A wry grin follows.) You can also check out contest entrants on twitter at #dwrchampagnechair. I'll share more on my chair making experience in a post to follow very soon.  The contest ended today.  They will select 10 finalists.  In the past, a traveling exhibit of these finalists go on display at DWR studios across the country. Be sure to keep your eye out for that. The winners will be announced online on January 28th.

Update. It's official. Here it is...my chair in the gallery of contestants at DWR.com!

Update. More Blogger friends answered the call...

• Linda's Upright Hammock at The Hard Way
• Megan's Squared at Modern Mini Houses