Designs of the Year 2015 - our picks of the rest

Yesterday we brought you the full list of nominations for the graphics category of the Design Museum’s Designs of the Year, and today we thought we’d take things down a notch, and present five things from the other categories that particularly tickled our fancy over at It’s Nice That. As ever, the nominations are a wildly varied bunch so it’s not been easy, but here goes:

Monument Valley, by ustwo (digital)

The beautifully-designed Monument Valley game by ustwo is inspired by the labyrinthine drawings of M.C. Escher, resulting in a platform that feels as much like an architectural puzzle as it does an app.

Claire Warnier and Dries Verbruggen: Of Instruments and Archetypes (digital)

Also in the digital category is Of Instruments and Archetypes, created by a team comprising Claire Warnier and Dries Verbruggen, Unfold (concept, design and hardware), Penny Webb (design and prototyping), Jesse Kirschner (concept and software). The clever little devices are wireless digital pieces that measure physical objects and transfer the findings in realtime to an on-screen, digital 3D model. Clever!

Frank Gehry and Gehry Partners: Fondation Louis Vuitton (architecture)

This mighty impressive building for the king of monogrammed handbags is in Paris, and is formed of a “glass cloud” of 12 curved sails that emerge from the Bois de Boulogne, created with more than 3000 curved glass panels. It houses the brand’s permanent art collection and temporary displays.

Technology Will Save Us: DIY Gamer Kit

The wonderful folk over at Technology Will Save Us make even the least technologically able of us into real-life electronic wizards through their smart, cute and very simple little kits and guides. It’s their DIY Gamer Kit that’s made the list (they also make DIY Synth Kits and DIY Speaker kits, which from experience, I can tell you are really great), which lets users build a handheld games console from scratch, then code and invent games using software and open-source platform Arduino.

Jane Howard and Michael Harrison: Archivist magazine (digital)

This magazine is nominated in the fashion category, perhaps because of the sumptuous fashion photography by Axel Hoedt. The journal is non-seasonal, and the 2014 edition shows clothes by the designer Hussein Chalayan worn by ballet dancer Lida Fox, supermodel Kristen McMenamy and German actress Bibiana Beglau.