Design Museum's Designs of the Year Awards 2012

The Design Museum opened its ‘Designs of the Year' exhibition yesterday in a celebration of global design innovation at its home in Shad Thames, London. Designs from across the world within seven categories – Transport, Architecture, Digital, Fashion, Furniture, Graphics and Product – have been nominated by industry experts, with the nominations now on show at the Design Museum. The first of the transportation nominations is the Autolib, a Parisian electric car commissioned by Paris' Mayor, Bertrand Delanoë.

2010 Audi Hybrid Q5 coming to the U.S.

Audi will offer a hybrid version of its Q5 crossover in the United States starting in late 2010, says Wolfgang Hatz, head of powertrain development for the Volkswagen group. In an interview Sunday at the Detroit Auto Show , Hatz said Audi must offer a hybrid model to compete with rival vehicles that already offer the technology, such as the Lexus RX 400H. The BMW X6 will be offered as a hybrid late this year, and Mercedes plans to roll out a hybrid in each of its major models starting with the S400 hybrid this year.

Worth a read: Wired's 'Why Getting It Wrong Is the Future of Design'

Wired has just published a series of short articles entitled 13 Lessons for Design's New Golden Age. While there are some interesting examples cited in the piece, the concluding article, ‘Why Getting It Wrong Is the Future of Design' by the former creative director of Wired magazine, Scott Dadich, feels like it has particular resonance for car design. Dadich's Wrong Theory uses disruptive examples from the world of art, plus his own experience of working at Wired, to explain how design goes through phases: establishing a direction, creating a set of rules that define that direction and finally someone who dares to break from that direction.