The (Un)limited Design Contest was an experiment in Open Design, to give designers the opportunity to get to know and participate in open design. After two editions in the Benelux countries and one in Paris, the project initiators have decided to open up the contest for other labs. The contest will be renamed Open Design Contest. Labs around the world can create a local edition, where participants can start iterating on the design blueprints that are already available in the Open Design Contest repository.
The contest is a great tool for labs to spread the idea of open design and to show that the current digital fabrication tools enable designers to produce high quality design pieces. Furthermore, events and workshops around the contest attract a community of designers and creative people to a lab. This makes the contest especially interesting for beginning labs. As the contest expands a design dialogue between new contestants and original creators will be generated.
Microgiants, a design agency from Vienna, will organize the next local Open Design Contest during the Vienna Open Festival. Austrian designers can come to different labs around Austria, make an object and share their blueprint and process online under a Creative Commons license. After the contest the winning designs will be exhibited in Vienna.
