Girls rule at LG TV design competition

Girls rule at LG TV design competition

Evi Mariani, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Women finalists have taken out first prize in this year's LG
competition with their insightful TV design for high-end
apartments, putting a feminine touch on the usually male-
dominated competition.

The three-member team's design outdid seven other designs that
reached the final. And they were the only women competing in the
contest.

"On top of their unique design, the three easily won the
jurors' hearts with their thoughtful and well-prepared
presentation," said product designer Mizan Allan de Neve who was
the head of the jury.

"They gave much attention to details, like giving out hand-
outs in English and Korean for the benefit of the four Korean
jurors," he said.

Mizan added that the team communicated and coordinated tasks
among themselves very well, thus generating a good result in
design, the mock-up TV and the presentation.

"I think if the team was all male they would have been busy
arguing among themselves," he said.

The three women, Devanny Gumulya, Yoanna P. Elisha, and Gilda
Alisia, who joined forces to design their rotating LCD TV are
third-year students at the design department at Pelita Harapan
University.

Their design, called Rotmill from "rotate" and "mill", allows
users to move about while watching TV.

"Moreover, the TV not only rotates horizontally but it can
also rotate vertically," Mizan added.

Devanny said that the TV would be suitable for apartments with
a spacious living room and open kitchen.

"So you can prepare breakfast while watching TV," she said.

The team has also designed a remote control for rotating the
TV.

For the design and their effort the three won the Digital
Prize of Rp 40 million (US$4,120).

Second prize, the Diamond Prize, was awarded to Bismo J.
Joyodiharjo, a post-graduate student from the product design
department at the Bandung Institute of Technology, who received
Rp 20 million.

Bismo's design, called Paper Clip, was the only one design
cathode-tube TV sets, with all the others being for plasma or LCD
TVs.

"Bismo's design stood out due to the pipe-like speakers
attached to the sides of the set," Mizan said.

Mizan added that Bismo's TV mock-up, like the Rotmill mock-up,
had fine details.

"Mock-up is certainly very important in the judging process,"
he said.

One finalist, Puput Ardiansyah, a student at the architecture
school of Yogyakarta's Gadjah Mada University, did not build a
mock-up of his very interesting design.

Therefore, he only got bronze prize, along with other three
finalists, whereas Puput's design Attila previously received warm
appreciation from some people.

Th LG design competition was the second one to be held since
the first one in 2003.

The South Korean electronic manufacturer has developed 2003's
winning TV set design has started marketing it.

"This year's competition received 360 designs from individual
and group participants from all over the country, far more
compared to the 160 designs in the last competition," Dino
Fabriant, LG Indonesia's industrial design head, said.

He added that generally, the quality of this year's submitted
designs were superior in terms of technology, style and
production process.

Apart from producing TVs, LG also produces VCD and DVD
players, washing machines, cell phones, audio sets and home
theater systems, refrigerators and air-conditioners.

PT LG Electronics Indonesia has a plant producing
refrigerators and televisions in Tangerang, Banten, and another
producing DVD players and home theater sets in Cibitung, West
Java.