But as good as The Little Prince was, we’re not here to talk about Antoine. That little design anecdote above simply provided a nice intro for talking about my favorite name in the 2017 Sithole Regional, the fifth-seeded Dutch industrial designer and sitting enthusiastHella Jongerius. The New York Times describes Ms. Jongerius as world-renowned for striving to make color -- long disregarded in the design world -- an essential component of her aesthetic. And while the couch mentioned in the lede of that story was constructed using the reddish end of the spectrum, she is also known to work in “Di Cerulean Stylo.”
Ms. Jongerius has won the Rotterdam Design Prize for her work, but not all schemes are award-worthy. Take, for example, the case of her first-round opponent, 12-seed Di Cerulean Stylo. Ms. Stylo tried to poison her mother using seeds from the rare Southeast Asian Cerbera odollam plant, commonly known as the “suicide tree.” The ending to this story would have been much more tragic had Ms. Stylo not freely admitted to a wire-wearing relative the specifics of her plan, which included serving the exact same meal to said relative so as not to tip off the authorities.
Suffice it to say, few things go together like Name of the Year and beautiful design, whether it’s our new logo or our new bracket, both courtesy of Kristen O'Callaghan. So get to the voting down below and don’t forget to follow us on Twitter; we promise our feed is Hella tight.
SITHOLE REGIONAL, ROUND 1
#1 Marmaduke Trebilcock, 19th-century Cornish immigrant and Wisconsin lawyer, vs. #16 Magic Urika, Namibian resident who spoke out against cemeteries honoring 20th-century German occupiers
#8 Tony Orlandoni, cheese engineer, vs. #9 Subu Dubey, New York internist
#5 Hella Jongerius vs. #12 Di Cerulean Stylo
#4 Dick Posthumus, 61st Lieutenant Governor of Michigan, vs. #13 Naquez Pringle, Kentucky Wildcats defensive tackle
#6 Dr. Prospero Gogo, Vermont interventional cardiologist, vs. #11 Bumper Pool, inside linebacker committed to Arkansas
#3 Faraj Fartass, French rugby centre, vs. #14 Cinnamon Danube, Institutional Research Analyst at UC Merced
#7 Heavenly Joy Jerkins, 6-year-old singer at this summer's RNC, vs. #10 Tugg Snowbarger, San Diego realtor
#2 Fortunate Sithole, midfielder for Scunthorpe United FC, vs. #15 Waylain September, South African cricketer