Spain's 2021 National Innovation and Design Awards

We have just announced the winners of the National Innovation and Design Awards 2021, which are granted by the Ministry of Science and Innovation of Spain, and annually recognize the trajectory of professionals and entities that have integrated innovation and design as essentials elements in their professional strategy and business growth and that contribute significantly to increasing the prestige of Spanish design.

Among the "professionals" in the world of design, this year's top award went to one of the great ambassadors of Spanish design: Jaime Hayón Benchimol. With a successful trajectory of more than twenty years, this designer and artist has left his unmistakable stamp of creativity, quality, and originality in projects, exhibitions, and designs made for leading international brands in a wide variety of fields such as lighting, furniture, decorative objects, and interior design for stores, hotels, and restaurants. Considered by "Time" magazine as one of the most influential designers, all his works are based on a virtuous communion between design, sculpture, craftsmanship, and interior design.

In the "companies" category, the National Design Award was won by Expormim , a Valencian company that knows how to create an extraordinary combination of the values of the traditional craft industry with the avant-garde in the design of high quality furniture, from a standpoint of environmental sustainability and in continuous contact with innovation and the social dimension of design. After more than sixty years of history, it has managed to recover the cultural values of the handcrafted production of natural materials such as wicker and rattan and to revalue the creative process, on the basis of a strategy based on the culture of design and the culture of the project.

In the "Innovation" section, the National Award in the "Large Company" category went to Cosentino, a Spanish multinational and world leader in the production and distribution of innovative, high-value surfaces for the world of design and architecture. For decades, the Andalusian company has been firmly committed to a strategic R&D&I management model that places innovation at the center of its value chain and is based on the implementation of its own research and technological development centers. With this, Cosentino has become today one of the pioneering brands and a world leader in its respective segments such as Silestone®, Dekton® or Sensa by Cosentino®, achieving technologically advanced surfaces that can be used to create unique environments and designs for the home and public spaces, always respecting the environment and with the highest standards of corporate social responsibility.

The other "professionals" awarded in the field of design were Danny Saltaren Andrade, Ramón Úbeda Castro. Danny Saltaren has won the award in the "Young Designers" category, for being, despite his young age, one of the greatest exponents of digital design and innovative entrepreneurship, and an example of the important role that strategic design must play in the digital transformation of the Spanish economy. For his part, journalist, graphic designer, product designer and art director Ramón Úbeda received a "Special Mention in Design" for exceptionally representing the importance and transcendence of research, dissemination, strategic management, communication, and the generation of quality content as fundamental pillars of the design ecosystem. In addition, awards were given to Dr. Eduardo Anitua, for his "Innovative Career" and to the biotechnology company CerTest Biotec. in the "Innovation of Small and Medium Enterprises" category.