Every year, Fast Company’s Innovation By Design Awards honor the best design in business, from products to buildings to UX. This year, we received more than 4,300 entries—a record—and the 22 winners and 483 honorees, selected by a roster of experts from across the design world, represent the best work from an immensely competitive group.
Together, they paint a picture of design as an agent for positive change in an uncertain world, from a project that makes books more accessible to shoes that can be indefinitely recycled. See the 22 winners below, and click through the links to browse all of the honorees from each category. We’re honored to recognize this work as the best of the best, and hope it inspires you as it does us.
Read more coverage of the winning designs here.
Design Company of the Year
Nike
An athletic-wear company that has expertly merged its digital and physical retail to create experiences customers love.
See all of the honorees in Design Company of the Year here.
Apps and Games
Insta Novels
New York Public Library, Mother
A new format for presenting literature in the social media age, with eye-catching, clickable Instagram Story versions of classic books.
See all of the honorees in Apps and Games here.
Data Design
NAE Cities Index
New American Economy
An interactive website that ranks how the 100 largest American cities welcome immigrants.
See all of the honorees in Data Design here.
Experimental
After Ancient Sunlight
Charlotte McCurdy
A carbon-negative, algae-based plastic raincoat.
See all of the honorees in Experimental here.
Fashion and Beauty
Futurecraft Loop
Adidas
A 100% recyclable performance running shoe.
See all of the honorees in Fashion and Beauty here.
General Excellence
Roo
Planned Parenthood, Work & Co
A discreet and easy-to-use AI chatbot app designed to answer teens’ (or anyone’s) sex education questions anonymously, 24/7.
See all of the honorees in General Excellence here.
Graphic Design
Braille Institute, Applied Design Works
A typeface designed to increase legibility for people with low vision.
See all of the honorees in Graphic Design here.
Health
MedModular
EIR Healthcare
A factory-made, prefabricated “hospital room in a box” that can be set up individually, in stacks, or inside existing structures.
See all of the honorees in Health here.
Learning
Kupu
Spark, Te Aka Māori Dictionary, Google
An app that translates photographs of English words into te reo Māori, an endangered indigenous language.
See all of the honorees in Learning here.
Mobility
Fast Forward: The Plan to Modernize New York City Transit
Bridgeable, MTA New York City Transit
A comprehensive plan to fix New York City’s aging subway system, transform the MTA’s organizational structure, and make transit more accessible to people with disabilities.
See all of the honorees in Mobility here.
Products
Xbox Adaptive Controller
Microsoft
A customizable game controller designed for users with limited mobility.
See all of the honorees in Products here.
Retail Environments
Nike House of Innovation—NYC and Shanghai
Nike
A store experience that combines online and offline shopping, allowing customers to check out through the Nike app or scan mannequins and instantly order outfits.
See all of the honorees in Retail Environments here.
Social Good
501CThree, Trinity Baptist Church
A mobile filtration unit designed in Flint, Michigan, that plugs into the public water system and pumps out safe, lead- and contaminant-free drinking water.
See all of the honorees in Social Good here.
Spaces, Places, and Cities
Hunter’s Point South Waterfront Park
SWA/Balsley, Weiss/Manfredi
A public park built on a former contaminated rail site that’s designed to nurture local ecology while withstanding rising sea levels and increased coastal flooding.
See all of the honorees in Spaces, Places, and Cities here.
Students
RED: Residue Enabled Design
Kevin Rouff, Luis Paco Bockelmann, Guillermo Whittembury, Joris Olde Rikkert, Imperial College London
A project that explores turning “red mud,” a waste product of aluminum manufacturing, into a building material and beautiful ceramics.
See all of the honorees in Students here.
Timeless Design
Nike Air
Nike
A simple bubble on the side of a shoe that provides cushioning, which revolutionized sneaker design and cemented Nike’s identity as an innovation leader.
See all of the honorees in Timeless Design here.
User Experience
CupClub
A reusable takeaway-cup service for universities, airports, and other campuses that makes eliminating throwaway plastic easy for both food services and customers.
See all of the honorees in User Experience here.
Workplace
Shaw Create Centre
Gensler
An eco-friendly redesign of the drab suburban office park.
See all of the honorees in Workplace here.
Best Design Asia-Pacific (APAC)
Kojimachi Terrace
Nendo
An office building that brings the outside in with adjustable open-air terraces and a three story “sky forest.”
See all of the honorees in Best Design Asia-Pacific (APAC) here.
Best Design Europe, Middle East, and Africa (EMEA)
Do Black credit card
Mastercard, Doconomy
A climate-focused credit card that shuts down when users’ purchases hit a “carbon emissions limit.”
See all of the honorees in Best Design Europe, Middle East, and Africa (EMEA) here.
Best Design Latin America (LATAM)
3D-printed community
New Story, Icon
A plan to build a community of more than 50 homes using a proprietary 3D printer.
See all of the honorees in Best Design Latin America (LATAM) here.
Best Design North America (NA)
The Weather Channel’s immersive mixed-reality experiences
The Weather Channel
A tool for telling weather news that allows presenters to be placed into interactive graphics illustrating extreme weather.
See all of the honorees in Best Design North America (NA) here.