Returning for its eighth edition with 76 works on show, Designs of the Year brings together exceptional work from across the globe spanning six categories: Architecture, Digital, Graphics, Product, Transport and Fashion.Nominations are made by an international panel of experts and their choices provide a look at the forward-thinking and innovative work shaping the world around us. As you can imagine, we’re particularly taken by the Graphics category so we took a trip to the Design Museum to have a closer look. Here are our top picks from the show:

Riposte Magazine

Nominated by Simon Esterson of Eye Magazine, who refers to the publication as ‘a great example of form and content working together’, Riposte plays with the conventions of magazine publishing, and provides an alternative to the selection of celebrity focussed titles for women, common place on our newsstands. Fashion, art, music, design, politics, food and travel are all explored through a variety of essays and features which are honest portrayals of the women on the pages, and not sugar coated success stories. With the first three issues featuring the likes of Nelly Ben Hayoun, Anna Trevelyan, Nathalie Du Pasquier, Debra Sussman and Lizzo, we can’t wait to see who editor-in-chief, Danielle Pender and creative director, Shaz Madini have lined up for issue four.

Toni Halonen: Kenzopedia

Kenzopedia 

We love these totally barmy but brilliant illustrations created by Finnish illustrator Toni Halonen, commissioned by fashion house Kenzo to provide background information on their 2014 collection. The 26 illustrations were featured on the their official platform ‘Kenzine’ and reflect their creative values and the playfulness they adopt while designing. You can check out all of Halonen’s images here.

Marcel: Inglorious Fruit and Vegetables

Inglorious Fruits and Vegetables 

This project was nominated by both Alex Bec and Max Fraser, and is definitely one of our favourite print campaigns from last year. Designed by Marcel for French supermarket Intermarché, the project focusses on making Class 2 fruits and vegetables more appealing to customers who usually opt for perfectly formed produce. By making the ‘inglorious’ fruit 30% cheaper and employing graphics and photography that celebrate their tasty imperfections, sales rocketed on the launch and resulted in benefits for everyone: cheaper produce for consumers, money for the growers of stock that would usually be thrown away, and increased sales for Intermaché. Brilliant! Find out how they went about it here.

Norm: 100 Years of Graphic Design

100 Years of Swiss Graphic Design

Designed by NORM using the perfect dimensions for reproducing Swiss posters, this knock-out book explores the traditions of Swiss graphic design and is packed full of posters, advertising, typography and book design that can’t help but leave you feeling utterly inspired. Mason Wells, a partner at Bibliotheque nominated the project and describes is as ‘a beautiful book that goes beyond the misconception that there is only one the of Swiss graphic design’. We can’t wait to get our hands on a copy.

Sawdust: Wired typography

Other stand out graphics projects include the ‘WIRED’ custom typeface designed by Sawdust, used for the redesigned UK edition of WIRED, and the brilliant ‘Franchise Animated’ project initiated by Jereon Krielaars which sees a playful animated typeface created by a team of 110 animators available to the public for ‘the price of a tweet’. Catch Designs of the Year at the Design Museum, Shad Thames. Find out more information here.

At ICON we’re always looking out for inspiring design and we love working with exciting brands who are doing things differently. Take a look at a selection of our case studies for more information.