Benz’s winning design, the Claw Spanner
A Queensland College of Art graduate has won a prestigious international Red Dot award for his redesign of the traditional spanner.
YueXiao Ma, also known as Benz, was awarded in the Design Concept category of the event, which is widely regarded as the ‘Oscars’ of the design world.
Benz says he was driven to design the Claw Spanner due to the traditional flaws visible in the standard design of utilitarian tools.
“By analyzing these deficiencies, I was able to find solutions to the damage caused to nuts by the high slippage of normal adjustable spanners.”
“The Claw Spanner addresses these problems by adjusting the position of the upper and lower jaws of the spanner or by controlling the slider’s position of the spanner.
“As a result, this spanner now fits all sizes of nuts and effectively solves the high slippage issue of everyday spanners.”
Originally a student of Shandong College of Art in China, Benz came to Australia to complete his Bachelor’s degree and Masters focusing on Product Design at the Queensland College of Art under tutor Jon Harris. He graduated in November 2011.
Benz at the official award ceremony in Singapore this month.
Benz says while he is excited at being recognised at this level, he knows this is only the beginning.
“I now know I have to work even harder to pursue my love of design professionally.”
“Design is not merely giving quality to the tangible product — it’s also about product development, marketing, branding and assigning particular cultural values.”
The Red Dot Award: Design Concept centres on design concepts, ideas and visions and focuses on young, up-and-coming creative talents, designers and design companies from around the world.
Last year, the design competition received 3672 entries from 56 countries, submitted by 230 companies, 90 design universities, 960 designers, 1,221 teams comprised of 3,883 designers.
