The Design Museum in London have announced the seven category winners for this year's 2011 Brit Insurance Design of the Year Awards, including the Branca chair by Industrial Facility (above).

Top: Branca by Industrial Facility
Above: Plumen 001 by Hulger and Samuel Wilkinson

The category winners are:

• Architecture: Open Air Library, Magdeburg by Karo Architekten (see our earlier story)
• Fashion: Uniqlo +J Autumn/Winter ’10 by Jil Sander for Uniqlo
• Furniture: Branca by Industrial Facility - Sam Hecht, Kim Colin and Ippei Matsumoto (see our earlier story)
• Graphics: Homemade is Best by Forsman & Bodenfors for Ikea (see our earlier story)
• Interactive: Flipboard by Mike McCue and Evan Doll
• Product: Plumen 001 by Hulger and Samuel Wilkinson (see our earlier story)
• Transport: Barclays Cycle Hire by Transport for London

Above: Homemade is Best by Forsman & Bodenfors for Ikea

The overall winner will be announced at a ceremony at the museum on 15 March.

Above: Open Air Library, Magdeburg by Karo Architekten

Nearly 100 shortlisted designs across the fields of architecture, product, furniture, graphics, fashion, interactive and transport design will be on show at the museum until 7 August 2011. See the full shortlist in our earlier story.

Above: Uniqlo +J Autumn/Winter ’10 by Jil Sander for Uniqlo

Listen to Stephen Bayley talking about chairing the jury in our podcast for the museum »

Above: Flipboard by Mike McCue and Evan Doll

See also:

Brit Insurance Designs of the Year winner 2010
Brit Insurance Designs of the Year winner 2009
Brit Insurance Designs of the Year winner 2008

Above: Barclays Cycle Hire by Transport for London

The following information is from the Design Museum:

Category winners announced for the 2011 Brit Insurance Design Awards

Chair of Jury, Stephen Bayley and the jury panel select the seven category winners who will now contend to be named the Brit Insurance Design of the Year 2011.

London, 28 February 2011: The category winners for the 2011 Brit Insurance Design Awards were announced today. Celebrating international design from the last 12 months, the seven categories winners of the fourth annual Brit Insurance Design Awards features winners from Sweden, Germany, Japan, Italy, USA and two from the UK. These seven winners will now contend to become the overall Brit Insurance Design of the Year 2011 which will be announced at the Design Museum on 15 March.

The winners include London’s TFL’s Barclays Cycle Hire scheme which wins the Transport category, a popular and familiar feature across the capital since its introduction in the summer of 2010. Retail outlet Uniqlo’s hugely successful Jil Sander collaboration +J Autumn / Winter 2010 collection wins the Fashion category and Ikea’s intriguing take on baking with their Swedish recipe book presented in stunning visual style wins the Graphics category.

Innovative and accessible design was a recurring theme for the 2011 nominations, beautifully demonstrated with the Plumen low energy light bulb taking the Product award. The Flipboard app, for the Interactive category impressed judges as the world’s first social magazine, fundamentally changing how people discover, view and share content across social networks. The elegant Branca chair designed by UK design practice Industrial Facility wins the Furniture category and the community focused Open Air Library in Germany takes the Architecture award.

Stephen Bayley chair of the 2011 jury commented ‘Anything that is made betrays the beliefs, preoccupations and fears of the people who made it. Never more than this year: there’s a strong sense of austerity, responsibility and realism here. I wouldn’t call it retrenchment, more consolidation. 2011 will be remembered for thoughtfulness rather than exuberance, but that’s no bad thing. The best definition of design is, after all, intelligence made visible.’

The seven Brit Insurance Design Awards category winners are:

Brit Insurance Architecture Award 2011
Open Air Library, Magdeburg. By Karo Architekten. Germany

Brit Insurance Fashion Award 2011
Uniqlo +J Autumn/Winter ’10. By Jil Sander for Uniqlo. Japan

Brit Insurance Furniture Award 2011
Branca. By Industrial Facility, Sam Hecht, Kim Colin and Ippei Matsumoto. Italy

Brit Insurance Graphics Award 2011
Homemade is Best. By Forsman & Bodenfors for Ikea. Sweden

Brit Insurance Interactive Award 2011
Flipboard. By Mike McCue and Evan Doll. USA

Brit Insurance Product Award 2011
Plumen 001. By Hulger and Samuel Wilkinson. UK

Brit Insurance Transport Award 2011
Barclays Cycle Hire. By Transport for London. UK

The seven winning designs will now compete for the coveted overall Brit Insurance Design of the Year 2011 which will be announced at the Awards Lunch at the Design museum on March 15, where the winner will be presented with this year’s awards trophy, exclusively designed by Ross Lovegrove.

See also:

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Winner 2010: Min-Kyu Choi	Winner 2009 Shepard Fairey	Winner 2008: Yves Béhar

The winning entries along with the shortlisted designs are currently on show at the Design Museum until August 7 2011.