DAME Design Awards shortlist 74 products from 153 entries

The 35th edition of the DAME Design Awards, Metstrade’s competition for marine equipment design, has drawn 153 products from 30 countries, another record number of entries. The international jury has put 74 of them through to the final stage, the largest shortlist in 23 years. Winners will be announced on 17 November, the opening day of the show.

The jury is made up of 11 design and user experts. After three weeks reviewing entries online, its members spent two days in a purpose-built facility at RAI Amsterdam, testing the products hands-on and debating them. This year two guest members joined the panel: sailor Toby Hodges, Test Editor at “Yachting World”, and Leonie von Baeyer, a technical design student at Deggendorf Institute of Technology in Germany.

“The level of design and development required to achieve nomination rose,” says jury chair Andre Hoek. Even so, once the results were counted after two long days, more products had reached the final stages of judging than at any point in more than two decades. Hoek says the jury room “was filled with evidence of several strong industry priorities for smart product development, including sustainability, electrification, automation, AI and the networking of all things.” He adds: “It was equally encouraging to see strong entries that had taken an item of equipment, accepted as a norm for many years, and turned it into something much better.”

All 74 nominees will be on display in the DAME Design Awards showcase in the Elicium (Hall 13), at the centre of Metstrade. Category winners are chosen from the nominees across eight categories, and the overall winner is then selected from that group. The jury will also hand out Special Mentions and may, at its discretion, name an Environmental Design Award winner. The results will be revealed at the Official Opening in the Harbour 8 events facility near entrance F, following a keynote by Bruno Thivoyon, CEO of Groupe Beneteau. Details of nominees and winners will appear in the Jury Report, published afterwards on damedesignawards.com.

Metstrade Exhibition Manager Tessa Meijer notes that participation keeps climbing: “Just when we thought we had hit a milestone in terms of DAME participation last year, so we see the numbers rise again for our 35th anniversary.” The same day will see the unveiling of a DAME hall of fame featuring all 35 overall winners from 1991 to 2025, set up in the main corridor running from entrance C to Hall 13. According to Meijer, a high percentage of those products, or their close successors, are still exhibited at Metstrade.

New this year, nominated companies are invited to a free fast-track sustainability training session on the afternoon of 16 November, the eve of the show. The programme at RAI Amsterdam is run by the Marine Impact Lab and co-hosted by The Sustainability Toolbox and MarineShift 360, with workshops, expert guidance and networking aimed at helping companies assess, strengthen and communicate the sustainability value of their products.

At 11:00 on 17 November the Metstrade Theatre will host a 35th anniversary panel titled “Great design is more than skin deep”, with designer and former DAME chair Tony Castro, current jury member Arjen Jansen of TU Delft and Kim Hollamby, the competition’s non-voting secretary. This year’s entry fees will be donated to the KNRM, the Royal Netherlands Sea Rescue Institution, a volunteer lifeboat organisation.

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