By Deborah Kassoff

I was fortunate to be a member of the judging panel for the Threadless Loves Innovation t-shirt design challenge. We were presented with designs from five finalists and each was incredibly creative and compelling and told a different story conveying the artist’s passion for innovation. But the winner we chose “Innovation Revolution” captured the full breadth of what the judging panel agreed is the meaning of innovation, through an amazingly unique work of art.

Personally, I was struck by how “Innovation Revolution” presented the concept of innovation as a result of the human mind. The complex image immediately conveys that very simple message. At first glance you see the mind-bogglingly comprehensive forest of amazing things humanity has created. Then upon closer inspection you see more – innovation is medicine, communications, music, entertainment, transportation, architecture. Look again and you’ll notice a chronological telling of the story of innovation – a wheel, a sundial and Egyptian pyramids lead the way to a telescope, a sailing ship, a submarine and a hot-air balloon. Now look even closer. A television, a locomotive train, a syringe, a satellite dish, the Concorde and the Empire State Building.

This is a work of art that moved me with a sense of awe of what mankind has been able to create over time. It also makes clear that innovation is what brought us the fascinating, life-altering technologies which are entwined, but perhaps not often thought about, in our everyday lives.

The designer, David Fleck, will be traveling from Scotland to enjoy an expenses-paid trip to the 2010 International CES next month, to witness the best of innovation in consumer electronics.

His winning design will be on display and will also be given away through a variety of social-media challenges at CES (details to follow closer to the show). For those unable to join us at CES, the shirt will also be sold on Threadless.com starting December 28.

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This entry was posted on Monday, December 14th, 2009 at 3:59 pm and is filed under CES, Innovation Movement, Social Media, Uncategorized. Reply to this post, or trackback from your own site. Follow responses to this entry through the comments RSS feed.