Art Center Team Wins Equality Award for Product Aimed to Make Menstruating Safer for Girls Living in Poverty

Today ArtCenter College of Design celebrates winning students and their innovative prototypes honored with International Design Excellence Awards (IDEA) by the prestigious Industrial Designers Society of America (IDSA) at the organization’s 50th anniversary gala in Seattle on Saturday, August 22, 2015.

The ArtCenter student team who designed “Flo” received a Gold Award and the prestigious Equality Award in recognition of products that give access to great design concepts to those who ordinarily would not have access.

Lead student designer Mariko Higaki Iwai accepted the honors for “Flo,” developed for young girls in third world countries dealing with the challenges of menstruation without proper sanitary products.

Overall, ArtCenter student designs garnered two Gold Awards and one Silver continuing the College’s long-standing tradition of producing students who create pioneering products. The jury selected only 28 Gold Award winners among more than 1,700 entries from around the world.

“Flo” is the result of a recent ArtCenter Designmatters’ Girl Effect studio, a transdiciplinary collaboration led by the Product Design Department with Yale School of Management based on field research from Fuseproject and Nike Foundation. The story about “Flo” has generated thousands of social media shares and impressive media coverage.

“Flo” is just one of the many examples of social innovation products created by students who participate in ArtCenter’s groundbreaking Designmatters program, which has established a 14-year history in the field of design for social impact.

“It is very rewarding to receive this high-profile recognition and validation for a social innovation that so beautifully illustrates how design and education converge to make reality-based solutions with potential to positively impact lives by making menstruation more manageable for women throughout the world,” said Dr. Mariana Amatullo, co-founder and vice president of Designmatters at ArtCenter. “The project is also a tribute to the exemplary talent and dedication of our Product Design faculty.”

Shirley Rodriguez walked away with a Gold Award for “Monstas,” interactive exercise toys for children with Juvenile Arthritis. ArtCenter alumnus Kenneth Tay, who is currently working at Artefact in Seattle, accepted a Silver Award for “Synchrony.” Designed while Tay was a student at ArtCenter, Synchrony is a music therapy platform to help parents and children with autism develop intimacy and promote understanding of each other through improvised music play. Both concepts were also recently honored by the Core77 design award competition.

Iwai, Rodriguez and Tay have emerged from ArtCenter’s Product Design Department, emphasizing consumer product designs that improve lives through a blend of functionality, relevance and sensory appeal.

About Art Center College of Design Founded in 1930 and located in Pasadena, California, Art Center College of Design (artcenter.edu) is a global leader in art and design education. Art Center offers 11 undergraduate and seven graduate degrees in a wide variety of visual and applied arts as well as industrial design disciplines. In addition to its top-ranked academic programs, the College also serves members of the Southern California region through a highly regarded series of year-round educational programs for ages nine through adulthood. Renowned for both its ties to industry and social impact initiatives, Art Center is the first design school to receive the United Nations’ Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) status. Throughout the College’s long and storied history, Art Center alumni have had a profound impact on popular culture, the way we live and important issues in our society.