Designed to evoke memories, Rewind uses a motion-tracking tool that guides people with dementia to re-enact familiar gestures. These actions are then reflected as audio-visual feedback on a paired device that triggers recollection.
Poh Yun Ru is a socially engaged product designer based in Singapore, who aims to create a positive impact on society by improving the lives of others. Living in a culturally rich and diverse society, she sees design as a methodology to develop intuitive and inclusive solutions for people from all walks of life.
Following her nomination, Poh Yun Ru commented: “I feel immensely grateful that Rewind is now a step closer to improving the lives of more people. This couldn’t have happened without the unwavering support of my mentors, my team of dedicated engineers, programmers, healthcare experts, and users. This opportunity from the Lexus Design Award to turn a project into a real-world product felt nothing short of amazing, and I feel heartened to have met and learned from so many passionate designers from around the world. It has been such a rewarding and inspiring journey, and I am excited to continue designing for a better world and a better tomorrow for all.”
The Lexus Design Award aims to support and nurture young creators. Rewind was selected from six award finalists who were chosen for their original ideas contributing to a better tomorrow, while articulating the Lexus brand’s three core principles — Anticipate, Innovate, and Captivate. Each finalist had to present their work at an online event in front of a panel of judges.
Lexus Design Award judge, Paola Antonelli, commented on the overall importance of design in today’s world: “The Lexus Design Award 2022 finalists offer a wide range of products in different fields of design, employing different types of technology, but they all have one thing in common: care – care for the environment; care for the elderly and differently able; care for the needs of families and communities, and more. They demonstrate that at a time of emergency in the world, design can offer suggestions that are poetic and beautiful, and also feasible and scalable. In the hands of great designers, doing the right thing – by society, the environment, the world – also becomes inspiring and elating.”
Another of the judges, Anupama Kundoo, commented on the Award’s mentorship: “I particularly enjoyed the unique feature of the Lexus Design Award…. that the talented visionary designers are first identified, and then supported personally in their further development through dedicated mentorship.”
Fellow judge, Bruce Mau, added, “The Lexus Design Award’s process, where the finalists are connected to design mentors, is absolutely brilliant, and the impact was plainly evident in the final submissions.”
Simon Humphries, Head of Toyota and Lexus Global Design, praised all finalists for their creativity and imagination in addressing the judging criteria: “The power of creativity and its ability to enrich people’s lives never ceases to amaze me and this year’s entries only reinforced this further. Congratulations to all the finalists who showed such imaginative insights into challenging problems that many just take for granted.”
The six Lexus Design Award finalists’ projects will be presented at a Lexus exhibit at Milan Design Week 2022, the world’s largest design event, to be held in early June.
