The Optical Design Contest is intended to be a stepping stone for the next generation, and an opportunity for them to stimulate their creativity through a responsible design approach.

Launched last year, the Optical Design Contest is preparing a new opus with the same objective: to be a stepping stone for the next generation and to stimulate creative innovation in eyewear through the eyes of students from design schools around the world. Based on the highest standards, this second edition takes on an essential theme that will be making headlines in 2023 and 2024: Sport

The contest is open to all students enrolled in a design course at a level equivalent to or higher than the third year post-baccalaureate, and presents a detailed set of specifications designed to provide a comprehensive framework for the projects and a clear commitment to design. Lenses, frames, connected products, low vision or equipment for opticians and manufacturers, these designers of tomorrow will be able to create their concept by drawing inspiration from the vast world of optics and eyewear.

Chaired by Marie-Christine Dorner and made up of optics and design professionals, the jury met in mid-June to assess the projects received from the various design schools and select the most pertinent.

Marie-Christine Dorner is a multi-talented and worldly-wise interior architect, designer and scenographer who graduated from the Camondo school in 1984. She has been involved in artistic creation and aesthetics for three decades. Fascinated by all the cultures she came into contact with during her round-the-world trip at the age of 25, she decided to settle in Japan for a year, where she began her career. This professional experience shaped her philosophy and stylistic signature of simplicity and refinement, elegance and restraint. Recognised for her “multicultural French touch”, she has designed furniture and objects for Cinna, Ligne Roset, Baccarat, Bernardaud and Cristallerie Saint-Louis.

With her command of space and volumes, she has designed houses, apartments, French ambassadors’ residences for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, restaurants and boutiques. She is also consulted for the design of structures for special events, and is notably the creator of the timeless 14 July Presidential Grandstand - and has been for over 30 years! Six successive Presidents of the Republic have called on her talents. A work of formidable aesthetic precision that has earned her the title of Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et Lettres.

The nominees at the Optical Design Contest - SILMO Awards

The contest is open to all students enrolled in a design course at a level equivalent to or higher than the third year post-baccalaureate, and presents a detailed set of specifications designed to provide a comprehensive framework for the projects and a clear commitment to design.
SILMO d'Or - SILMO Awards
IOA Award - SILMO Awards