designboom features some of our favourite past winners of the ‘A’ design award & competition’

each year, the A’ design award & competition seeks to showcase the best of design, across the range of services, products, and concepts in forty categories. submissions for the 2012 competition are open through february 29th, and in honour of the award, here designboom highlights some of our top picks from previous award winners.

in this article, we’ve loosely focused across the forty competition categories on our favourite goods for the home, but the ‘A’ design award’ is also open to architecture, package and graphic design, craft, fashion and jewelry, electronics, event organization, and many other fields.

more about the ‘A’ design award’ from the organizers

A' design award winners' roundup the ‘unpredictable teapot’ by zhizhong huang and kaixi he

the ‘unpredictable teapot’ by zhizhong huang and kaixi he lets users create their own teapot design by assembling and reconfiguring various components. ‘in the future,‘ the designers note, ‘the user experience will play an increasingly important role in product design. [with the ‘unpredictable teapot’], users can change the teapot’s appearance and function, which brings a lot of of fun in everyday life.‘

A' design award winners' roundup ‘live screen’ self-sustaining vertical garden by danielle trofe

‘live screen’ vertical garden by danielle trofe is a sculptural, self-irrigating planting system for indoor cultivation. tiered planting pods are serviced by a built-in modified drip hydroponic system, designed to regularly pump low volumes of water to each plant. the soilless system uses a combination of lava rocks and coconut husks as a planting medium with the pods. the height, width, and number of pods in the unit is customizable, and LED lights in the screen’s base serve as ambient lighting.

more about ‘live screen’: http://www.adesignaward.com/design.php?ID=23340

A' design award winners' roundup ‘sunflower’ solar-powered lunchbox by edita barabas

the ‘sunflower’ solar-powered lunchbox by edita barabas integrates rotating, collapsible food trays and photovoltaic cells to keep foods hot or cold as needed. spherical solar panels capture energy for storage in an internal battery, which can then be used to heat or cool individual compartments. each dish has its own display through which the desired temperature can be controlled.

A' design award winners' roundup good morning origami calendar in ‘safari’ theme

the origami calendars designed by good morning add an element of play to one’s daily routine. precut shapes are assembled to form animals, each serving as a desktop calendar for two months of the year. the 2011 series was produced in the themes of ‘zoo’ and ‘safari’ animals.

project info art director: katsumi tamura design team: hiroyuki fukazu, kohei miyasaka, takahiro sugawara

A' design award winners' roundup the ‘acquarius toy kit’ by designnobis

the ‘acquarius toy kit’ by designnobis lets children create their own fish toys out of interchangeable wooden and polypropylene body parts. kids can invent their own fish, or learn about different species by reconstructing the forms of real animals.