GoKawiil
Tech News
Fast Company named winners of its 2026 Innovation by Design Awards for the Europe, Middle East, and Africa region, recognizing products, packaging, and built projects focused on waste reduction and resource reuse. The top honor went to Yoto Mini, a screen-free audio player developed by Yoto and Heirloom, praised for giving children access to stories, music, and podcasts without phones or AI.
Fast Company's 2026 Innovation by Design Awards recognized winners in its enduring impact category, reserved for companies operating at least 15 years. The top honor went to The Coolest Ihram, a design by Landor featuring temperature-regulating fabric intended for pilgrims making the journey to Mecca.
Fast Company has released its 2026 Innovation by Design Awards, with Google topping the design company of the year category. The recognition credits Google's work redesigning interfaces across its widely used products to weave in AI features while keeping the experience user-friendly. The full list also includes other honorees recognized for design that spans products, services, and overall customer experience.
A Data Love Letter to the Subway, an animated short displayed across 52 screens at NYC's Fulton Transit Center, transforms MTA ridership and transit data into abstract moving shapes and dot clusters. Commissioned by MTA Arts & Design, the two-minute piece played hourly and was seen by roughly 300,000 commuters daily between October and December 2025. It has now won a 2026 Innovation by Design award in the data design category.
Fast Company named the North Face's Universal Collection as the top design in its 2026 Innovation by Design Awards for North America. The collection was developed in partnership with the disability community to adapt camping and outdoor gear so it's usable by people with a range of physical needs.
Fast Company's 2026 Innovation by Design Awards named its Latin America category winner, with Nordeste by Design Bridge and Partners taking top honors. The project is a destination brand unifying nine Brazilian states in the Northeast under one flexible visual identity that highlights regional cultural diversity rather than typical tourism imagery.
Yoto's Mini, a screen-free portable audio player for children, has been named winner of the Best Design Europe, Middle East, and Africa category at the 2026 Innovation by Design Awards. The device lets kids listen to stories and music without a screen or algorithm-driven recommendations, relying instead on physical cards to select content.
Australian fintech Zeller has released Terminal 2, an affordable all-in-one point-of-sale device built and designed domestically. The product won Best Design in Asia Pacific at the 2026 Innovation by Design Awards, recognized for reimagining payment hardware as a consumer-facing product rather than purely functional equipment.
Fast Company named the winners of its 2026 Innovation by Design Awards in the architectural design category, honoring buildings and interiors that address challenges in the built environment. The top prize went to UC Berkeley's Grimes Engineering Center, designed by Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, an adaptive-reuse project featuring a new seismic-responsive structural system aimed at improving earthquake resilience.
Fast Company's Innovation by Design Awards named its 2026 advertising and marketing winner: '1837 Tiffany Blue Conservation,' created by agency L&C for Tiffany & Co. in partnership with Pantone. The campaign repurposes Tiffany's signature blue color as a vehicle for promoting ocean conservation, and the awards also recognized several other honorees in the category.
Fast Company named the winners of its 2026 Innovation by Design Awards in the accessible design category. Make Good's Toddler Mobility Trainer, an open-source device that can be fully produced with 3D printing, took the top honor, alongside a list of other recognized projects in the category.