The results of the 2016 Good Design Awards are out and among the list are some incredibly creative, and quirky, products.

The annual design awards which celebrates excellence, innovation and creativity in design has been running since 1958 and has been overseen by CEO Brandon Gien for the past 20 years.

“When you pick a product up and it makes you smile, that’s not an accident… somebody’s thought really carefully about how to do that,” he said.

The best designs, he said, were ones that were solving a clear problem.

“I always position design in a problem solving context. The projects out there that do really well, they are solving very clear problems. They’re not just a kettle that boils water or a toaster that makes toast.”

Business Insider took a look at the shortlisted projects this year and found some hidden gems and innovative products that would not have existed a decade ago.

“It’s those projects out that there that are solving a problem in a way that says ‘right, our children are playing too many video games, using their iPads’. How do we get them outside in a clever way and use technology because they’re obviously drawn to it and design a product around that experience?

“The pet feeding console is probably another example of that. People are working longer hours, they are probably away from their pets longer, feeling bad about leaving their pets at home without supervision. How we solve that problem?

“So it think it’s more a case of saying technology is growing at such a rapid rate… So how we do take a static product, hook them up to technology, link them up to the grid and actually make them more intelligent to solve a problem?”

This year, the categories spanned from service design, digital design, business model design through to social innovation and architectural design with all finalists judged against a specific evaluation criteria.

The winners were announced on Friday with Flow Hive taking out the top prize.
Here’s a selection of the coolest and quirkiest entries below.

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