2017 THE PROTOTYPE FINALISTS:

The four prototype finalists provided intriguingly diverse responses to the Yet brief. Winning designer Hiroto Yoshizoe (see opposite page); Jia Wu (China, mentored by Max Lamb) conceived Player’s Pflute, an ingenious modular toy instrument system designed to encourage a child’s relationship with music; Jessica Fügler (US, mentored by Elena Manferdini) examined the phenomenon of colour refraction and diffraction according to optical phenomena in Structural Colour: Static Yet Changing; while Ahran Won (South Korea, mentored by Neri & Hu) explored the concept of a capsule for contemporary living in Having Nothing, and Yet Possessing Everything.

Jia Wu and Vogue Living’s Neale Whitaker. Mentors (left to right) Alex Mustonen and Daniel Arsham, Lexus Award winner Hiroto Yoshizoe, Lexus International president Yoshihiro Sawa. Designer Jessica Fugler. Designer Ahran Won.