Sachtler and Vinten’s flowtech® tripod technology racked up yet another honour on 26 April, when the great and the good from the global design industry gathered at London’s iconic Old Truman Brewery for the 56th annual Design and Art Direction (D&AD) Awards. flowtech received a coveted Graphite Pencil award in the D&AD Consumer and Industrial Product Design category, sharing company with standout products such as Apple’s iPhone® X and Homepod.
Founded in 1962 by an esteemed group of British designers, D&AD offers inspiration to the global community of creative thinkers by recognising the finest in design and advertising. The D&AD Awards are considered the ultimate creative accolade, with participation from the best products and companies in the world. Tim Lindsay, CEO of D&AD, commented, “This has been an outstanding year for creativity. We received entries from 50 countries across all continents, attesting to the truly global nature of our programme and the impact of D&AD in stimulating and celebrating talent from around the world.”
Designed for filmmakers, cinematographers, and professional camera operators, flowtech features an all-new carbon-fibre technology with the world’s fastest-deploying tripod legs, a highly versatile height range, unique quick-release brakes, and easily adjustable levers for quick and easy setup in any type of remote production environment. Since its launch at last year’s IBC show, flowtech has taken the video production, broadcast, and film industries by storm and garnered numerous accolades including the IABM’s Broadcast and Media (BaM™) award at the 2018 NAB Show.
Filipe DeAndrade, acclaimed wildlife videographer and director, recently tried out the flowtech on location in Costa Rica for a new National Geographic documentary. DeAndrade and his team travelled through Costa Rica for six months capturing footage of breathtaking landscapes, exotic species, and pristine coastlines. He commented, “This new tripod is adaptive, lightweight, and durable — it’s a complete game-changer. With just this one tripod, I was able to film at eye level with smaller animals and then get high to film birds in canopies. This level of versatility in a tripod’s design is going to disrupt the industry.”
The D&AD Award was bestowed on flowtech by a jury comprising Benjamin Hubert, founder of design agency Layer; Ruth Berktold, principal at YES Architecture; Roshi Givechi, designer; Jon Marshall, design director at Map; Ruth Wasserman of Made.com; Karen Welman, chief creative officer at Pearlfisher; and Yeongkyu Yoo, creative director at Cloud & Co.
“The D&AD Graphite Pencil award is a tremendous honour because it recognises the design efforts of our team to create a truly customer-driven tripod solution,” said Steve Kenchington, vice president of engineering, The Vitec Group. “Our designers and engineers went to great lengths to develop a solution that truly supports the way camera operators work in the field, with unique features that transform their production workflows. We’d like to congratulate our team, as well as the customers that have given us the access, feedback, and input necessary to create such a groundbreaking product.”
