Press Release: Local Projects Sweeps Fast Co. Awards

Celebrating 10 years of Innovation by Design, the 2021 honorees include nearly 600 projects, products, and services from Nike, Verizon, Microsoft, and others.

New York, NY, September 22, 2021 — Local Projects today announced that it swept Fast Company’s Innovation by Design Awards  2021, winning: Design Company of the Year, Best Design in North America for its work for Greenwood Rising and the Enduring Design award for its  work for the Hyde Park Barracks Museum.

Headquartered in North America and founded by Jake Barton in 2004, Local Projects is widely recognized as the world’s best experience design studio, a position that this year’s Fast Company award further underscores.

Local Projects’ work for global brands like IBM, Target, and Bloomberg as well as the iconic experiences it created for Cooper Hewitt, the 9/11 Memorial and Museum, Gallery One at the Cleveland Museum of Art and a myriad of other prominent clients showcases Local Projects’ legendary ability to fuse CX, experience and technology to drive unforgettable emotional experiences. In 2017, Local Projects became part of the MTM collective, a position that allows the firm to work in collaboration with other MTM companies that are the best in their respective categories.

Local Projects’ experiential design for Tulsa’s Greenwood Rising, a history center about the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre and the resilient community that survived it, earned the firm this year’s Fast Company Best Design North America, and was a finalist in the Social Good and General Excellence categories

Sydney’s Hyde Park Barracks Museum won Enduring Impact: 15+ Years in Business categories, was an honorable mention in the Social Good category, and was a finalist in the General Excellence and Best Design APAC categories.

Norton Art+, an augmented reality experience that created unique interactions for six contemporary pieces of art at the Norton Museum of Art was named a finalist in the Apps and Games category.Planet Word, the world’s first voice-activated museum of language, received honorable mention in the General Excellence category and was a finalist in the Learning category.

“We are very grateful that the work we do for our clients is experienced by diverse communities around the world, and we are thrilled and honored that we’ve won three of Fast Company’s top design awards,” said Barton. “The purpose is to express meaning and provoke deeper thought and engagement.”

“What has motivated the unique design approach in each one of these award winning projects is truly the content and collaborative creativity of our clients,” added Whitney Rutter, Local Projects’ Managing Director. “We’re honored and humbled to design for their collections and stories.”

Fast Company’s October 2021 issue will celebrate the 10th anniversary of the Fast Company Design awards, and showcase Local Projects and this year’s other winners and finalists. Fast Company’s Design awards recognize companies that transform society through design and is the only competition to honor creative work at the intersection of design, business, and innovation —  recognizing the people, companies, and trends that have steadily advanced design to the forefront of the business conversation.

“Design is not just a beauty contest,” said Stephanie Mehta, editor-in-chief of Fast Company. “It’s something that can change the world and create solutions in a time when we face pressing global issues such as systemic racism, climate change, and a global pandemic. Many of these entries showcase these challenges while providing hope for the future through their steadfast commitment to elevate design.”

To see the complete list of this year’s winners and finalists, go to: https://www.fastcompany.com/innovation-by-design/2021