Industrial designer Dave Hakkens graduated from Design Academy Eindhoven in 2013. He wants to create a better world through making people aware of mass production and the way in which we deal with products. His modular phone project Phone Bloks and the recycle installation Precious Plastic attracted wide international attention.

By implementing the open source principle in all levels of his designs, Hakkens demonstrates an innovative vision on intellectual property. The ambition to make his products accessible to everyone fits seamlessly with this aspiration. In addition, he succeeds in fostering a broad support base by reaching a large audience via social media and even engaging them in the realization of his designs.

The jury has never witnessed before that a graduation projects, i.e. Dave Hakkens’ Phonebloks, received so much attention, but welcomes it emphatically. Like Hakkens himself, the jury does not see the product as a ready-made solution, but rather as an effective and innovative way to pressurize large producers and make them think about modular systems. With his open source approach and clever use of social media, Hakkens succeeds in sharing knowledge and mobilizing a huge group of people.