San Francisco Design Week sixth annual design awards winners announced

SF, CA June 2023 – San Francisco Design Week (SFDW) announced winners of the sixth annual 2023 DESIGN AWARDS today. This year’s theme, “PLOT TWIST” was met by award winners from leading design firms, in-house teams, and creative individuals, for their ground-breaking design and commitment to thought leadership in meeting the needs of a positive future for society.

“We are extremely excited San Francisco Design Week Awards is returning this year,” says SFDW Director Dawn Zidonis. “As with previous years, the quality of the many entries exceeded our expectations of our theme, ‘PLOT TWIST’. Congratulations to this year’s outstanding winners!”

About SFDW & the SFDW Design Awards

San Francisco Design Week (SFDW), is the premier gathering of the world’s most active design community. The theme, “Plot Twist” was met by award winners from leading design firms, in-house teams, and creative individuals, who are honored today.

SFDW Design Awards is an international design competition seeking to encourage thought leadership by supporting designers whose works can contribute towards a positive future for society. The Design Awards celebrates and recognizes exemplary work in all fields of design, including architecture, interior design, industrial design, communication design, and user experience design.

Twenty-eight award winning projects and 17 honorable mentions were selected by a jury comprised of distinguished professionals, who reviewed submissions from an exceptionally competitive pool of applicants from USA, Europe and Asia. The winning projects were selected from design submissions in the following categories: Architecture; Bio-Tech; Civic Design; Conversation Design; Communication Design; FashTech; FinTech; Health and Wellness; Industrial Design; Interior Design – Residential, Office, Commercial & Restaurant/Hospitality; IoT Internet of Things; Social Impact; Student; Systems Design; Travel & Hospitality; Urban Mobility; UX User Experience; VR/AR/XR; and Wild Card. The 2023 Design Awards are juried by top industry Bay Area professionals and seek to encourage thought leadership by supporting designers whose work can contribute to a positive future for society.

2023 San Francisco Design Week awards winners

*2023 SFDW Award Winner – VR / XR / AR. The Biennale Pavilion by LMNL Studio x Windy Chien. Image Credit: Courtesy of LMNL Studio x Windy Chien. Videographer: Michael Cochran.*

Architecture – Residential – S^A | Schwartz and Architecture (San Francisco, USA)The Leit House

*2023 SFDW Award Winner – Architecture. Leit House by S^A | Schwartz and Architecture. Photo Credit: Douglas Sterling Photography.*

*2023 SFDW Award Winner – Interior Design: Office. Emergence Capital by Fennie + Mehl. Photo Credit: Matthew Millman.*

2023 SFDW Award Winner – Interior Design: Restaurant / Hospitality.
Harlan Records Bar by Marissa Marsh. Photo Credit: Ashley Ann Photos.

*2023 SFDW Award Winner – Industrial Design. Quartet (sustainable furniture) by Otelier. Photo Credit: Yvonne Hung.*

2023 SFDW Award Winner – Travel & Hospitality. Yosemite Valley Concessions by Multistudio. Photo Credits: *Dan Ryan Studio and Jason Roehner Photographs.*

*2023 SFDW Award Winner – Industrial Design. Rapid Machine Operator ROM (all-in-one robotics system) by Card79 and Rapid Robotics. Photo Credit: Courtesy of Card79.*

Biotech – Abi Lambert Design Lab with Silt Studio (Atlanta, USA) Biosphere

2023 SFDW Award Winner – Biotech. Biosphere by Abi Lambert with Silt Studio.
Photo Credit: Austin Presley.

*2023 SFDW Honorable Mention – Architecture. Mourning Dove by S^A | Schwartz and Architecture. Photo Credit: Douglas Sterling Photography.*

2023 SFDW Honorable Mention – Wildcard. Hidden Room by Min Design.
Image Credit: Hayfa Algwaiz.

*2023 SFDW Honorable Mention – Student Category. User Dependent Kinetic Facade by Alper Kunduz, Atalim University, Ankara, Turkey. Image Credit: Alper Kunduz.*

2023 Award winners

Architecture – Residential – S^A | Schwartz and Architecture (San Francisco, USA)The Leit House
Biotech – Abi Lambert Design Lab with Silt Studio (Atlanta, USA) Biosphere
Civic – IDEO (San Francisco, USA) Giving Our Students the Delicious and Dignified Dining Experience they Deserve
Communication Design – Hybrid Design (San Francisco, USA) The Material is the Message
Communication Design – Oxide Design (Omaha, USA) Luminarium Branding
Communication Design – IDEO (San Francisco, USA) Cities United

Conversation Design & Internet of Things – Kritika Kushwaha (USA + India) Spark (Speech Pattern Analysis and Remediation Kit)

Design Systems / Systems Design – Cisco, Di Song (USA) Accessibility Reflow – 400% Zoomed Design
Fashtech – Etalon, Kristina Rudzinskaya (San Francisco, USA) Etalon Posture Bra
Fintech – Robinhood (San Francisco, USA) Robinhood Retirement
Health and Wellness – Hybrid Design (San Francisco, USA) Scoutwell Brand Identity (Cannabis sleep-tracker)
Health and Wellness – Blink UX (San Francisco, USA) Partner to Decide

Interior Design – Residential – Min Design (San Francisco, USA)New York Residence
Interior Design – Office – Fennie+Mehl (San Francisco, USA) Emergence Capital
Interior Design – Commercial – HGA (San Francisco, USA)Marine Mammal Center – Interior & Exterior Renovation

Interior Design – Restaurant / Hospitality – Marissa Marsh Design (San Francisco, USA)Harlan Records Vinyl Bar

Industrial Design – Card79 and Rapid Robotics (San Francisco, USA) Rapid Machine Operator ROM (all-in-one robotics system)
Industrial Design – Otelier (San Francisco, USA) Quartet (sustainable furniture)
Social Impact – IDEO (San Francisco, USA) Transgender Law Center

Travel & Hospitality – multistudio (San Francisco, USA) Yosemite Valley Concessions
Urban Mobility – Waymo (San Francisco, USA) Waymo Driver
UX User Experience – Card79 (San Francisco, USA) Lotza.io

VR / XR / AR – LMNL Studio x Windy Chien (San Francisco, USA) The Biennale Pavilion

Wild Card – multistudio (San Francisco, USA) The Deck of Spaces (K-12 edition)
Student Category– Fan Fang, SVA NYC (New York, USA) Kudo – the cutest way to fight climate change
Student Category -Ruijie Jin, CCA (San Francisco, USA) BREEZ Asthma inhaler
Student Category – Stephanie Smith, CCA (San Francisco, USA) A Maker’s Approach to DEIB

The 2023 San Francisco Design Week Awards:

Where innovation meets social responsibility

Not just another design competition. The San Francisco Design Week Awards is an international design competition seeking to encourage thought leadership by supporting designers whose works can contribute towards a positive future for society. SFDW is the premier gathering of the world’s most active design community. Entries for the prestigious SFDW Awards are judged by a jury composed of leading Bay Area design professionals; those selected are showcased and have a permanent presence on the SFDW Awards website. For more than 17 years SFDW has provided design professionals with the opportunity to grow their networks, enhance their visibility, find investors for future products that are shaping the future and build their careers. They welcome applicants from across the entire range of design industries.

Sandra Vlock on learning to call herself an artist

Jury of top industry professionals:

Audrey Liu: Executive Vice President, Head Of Design at Lyft
Kit Hinrich: Founder and Creative Director at Studio Hinrichs
Suzanne Tucker: Founder of Suzanne Tucker Home
Britt Lindberg: FAIA, Technical Director at Gensler and AIA Secretary
Vincent Braitwaithe: Executive Design Leader & Sr. Program Manager, Design Operations Github
Shujan Bertrand: Founder of Aplat