Design Museum announces Designs of the Year 2015 category winners

It's that time of year again when the Design Museum in London recently revealed the category winners for the anticipated Designs of the Year 2015. As usual, the annual competition reels in a fun mix of memorable and inventive designs, with this year's bunch including deformed vegetables, a distinctive eco-friendly university, and microchips that imitate human organs.

Starting out with 76 nominees this year, the jury selected the winners for each category: Architecture, Digital, Fashion, Graphics, Product, and Transport.

The category winners will now compete to become the Design of the Year 2015 overall winner. Stay tuned for the announcement in June. Previous overall winners include the Heydar Aliyev Center by Zaha Hadid Architects in 2014, the London 2012 Olympic Torch by Edward Barber and Jay Osgerby in 2012, and Shepard Fairey's Barack Obama "Hope" poster in 2009.

Check out the category winners below.

ARCHITECTURE: UC INNOVATION CENTER – ANACLETO ANGELINI
Designed by ELEMENTAL

"This open and eco-friendly university building in Santiago features a thermal mass on the perimeter and open air squares throughout. It creates the right environment for knowledge-creation and reduces energy costs by two-thirds."

GRAPHICS: INGLORIOUS FRUITS & VEGETABLES
Designed by Marcel for Intermarché

"An advertising campaign conceived to rehabilitate imperfect fruits and vegetables by celebrating the beauty of the ridiculous potato, the hideous orange or the failed lemon. Though they might be ugly looking, they are as good as any others, but 30% cheaper."

TRANSPORT: GOOGLE SELF-DRIVING-CAR
Designed by YooJung Ahn, Jared Gross and Philipp Haban

"A vehicle which drives itself at the push of a button. The car is intended to be simple, friendly, and practical, with some surprises, including a lack of steering wheel or pedals."

PRODUCT: HUMAN ORGANS-ON-CHIPS
Designed by Donald Ingber and Dan Dongeun Huh

"Scientists from the Wyss Institute at Harvard University have designed and fabricated microdevices lined with living human cells that mimic the complex tissue structures, functions and mechanical motions of whole organs. The chips promise to advance personalized medicine, accelerate drug discovery and decrease development costs."

DIGITAL: THE OCEAN CLEANUP
Designed by Boyan Slat, Jan de Sonneville PhD and Erwin Zwart

"Calling itself ‘the largest clean up in history’, this project aims to use crowd funding to develop environmentally friendly, large-scale, and efficient removal of plastic pollution from aquatic ecosystems."

FASHION: THOMAS TAIT AW13/14
Designed by Thomas Tait

"Central St Martins graduate Thomas Tait presented a technically and aesthetically skilled collection which combined colour, cut and materials with vision and confidence."

The 2015 Designs of the Year jury: Anish Kapoor, Artist (Chair); Hilary Alexander, Writer and stylist; Alexis Georgacopoulos, Director of Ecole cantonale d'art de Lausanne; Farshid Moussavi, Architect and Professor at Harvard University Graduate School of Design; and Richard Woolley, Studio Director, Land Rover Design Research & Special Vehicle Operations

All of this year's nominees are currently exhibited at the Design Museum, which was recently extended to March 31, 2016. The public can participate in the competition by stopping by the museum and picking their favorite designs with the Visitor Vote.

Catch a glimpse of the exhibition in the photos below.