LONDON.- Beijing National Stadium by Herzog & De Meuron and Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition have been declared two of the most innovative and progressive international designs from the last 12 months – as announced by the Design Museum today across seven major design categories.

Other winners include Meyra-Ortopedia’s Mex-x wheelchair for kids, which trumps the Transport category, and One Laptop per child by Yves Béhar of Fuseproject, a groundbreaking programme taking the Product category. Hussein Chalayan walks away with the Fashion category for Airborne Autumn/Winter 07 with Martino Gamper’s 100 Chairs in 100 Days triumphant in the Furniture category.

All designs are part of the100-strong shortlist at the first ever Brit Insurance Designs of the Year exhibition at the Design Museum until April 27, with the seven winners now vying for the overall win at the prestigious inaugural Brit Insurance Design Awards, hosted by Wayne Hemingway next week on Tuesday 18 March.

The expert panel of judges includes Rolf Fehlbaum, Lars Müller and Antonio Citterio who spent hours deliberating the final seven.

Deyan Sudjic, Director of the Design Museum said: “The judges certainly had a difficult job in narrowing down such a comprehensive shortlist to just one winner per category. Their final selection however, is a definitive celebration of some of the most internationally innovative designs from the past year.”

Architecture - The judges commented, “The architecture of the Beijing National Stadium defines the contemporary stadium in a way that has not been seen since the 1972 Olympics in Munich. It embodies the emergence of China as a modern state and crowns the achievements of the remarkable careers of Herzog and de Meuron.”

Graphics - The judges commented, “It’s a great achievement by its creative director Paul Buckley in commissioning a highly skilled group of illustrators and cartoonists whose creative visions have produced some fantastic atmospheric yet very individual covers with high artistic flair and design integrity. ”