The colorful, fast-paced and singularly devised awards program begins streaming at 8:00 p.m. Copenhagen time (18:00 GMT, 14:00 Eastern, 11:00 Pacific) Friday August 28, with the assistance of DR2, on at www.DesignToImproveLife.dk. Everyone is welcome to come watch the show and, by clicking on the Connect with Facebook button, interact with Friends on Facebook to discuss, debate and learn about Design to Improve Life, Denmark's INDEX: to a better world.

The coveted INDEX:Award 2009 carries a total purse of 500,000 euros (more than US$700,000) and originates under a hall-wide multi-media screen installation specially created for Copenhagen's new Koncerthuset.

After the major awards of 100,000 euros each have been given in the five major categories of INDEX: Design to Improve Life - Body, Home, Work, Play, and Community - the People's Choice Award will be announced. Chosen by global vote at www.DesignToImproveLife.dk using Connect with Facebook, this prize carries a special prize from Fritz Hansen: An "Egg" chair, one of the classic examples of world-leading Danish design by Arne Jacobsen.

The five major awards have been chosen by the INDEX: Jury of 11 experts from five continents. They began with an initial nomination pool of some 725 designs, worked them down to 69 finalists, and then chose the five winners for the biennial award in long sessions of collegial research and debate. The Jury, the INDEX: Board, CEO Kigge Hvid, many of the group's international Senior Advisors body and Regional Ambassadors will be on hand Friday to celebrate the results of the long process to pinpoint and promote humanitarian design that makes a difference in how people live. The program's creation and direction is led by Porter Anderson of Porter Anderson Media, serving as INDEX: Executive Producer and Creative Consultant.

Using three major criteria - form, context, impact - the INDEX: Jury, like the organisation, itself, is committed to leading designers to turn their genius to the needs of people both in the developing and developed worlds.

Created with special attention to the human foundation of the INDEX: mission and purpose, as mandated by its establishment in 2002, Friday's show will offer extensive video presentations about each award-winning design and the personalities behind it. What's revealed in these probing interviews is the passion that lies behind each Design to Improve Life brought to Koncerthuset and the world stage for INDEX:Award 2009. Each designer or team leader speaks of the deep concern for human welfare driving the idea, the development and the struggle to implement potentially powerful designs in a fast-changing world.

One INDEX: juror, Patrick Frick of The Value Web and Blatter + Frick, refers to this as INDEX's role in a world today gripped by a positive force he calls "(P)anarchy."

"The world we're going to see," Frick says, "is one I would title or brand as '(p)anarchy.' And (p)anarchy is a way of organising. It's bottom-up, it's grassroots, it's organic. There's no central command who would direct any kind of movement or people. And that's very close to nature."

A special presentation in Friday's show will focus on Frick's and his juror-colleagues' assessments of where the move toward Design to Improve Life stands today - and on how "INDEXing horizons" is the key impetus behind the organisations' world-famous awards.

For more information, please contact:
INDEX:Award
Njalsgade 106, 2. floor
DK-2300 Copenhagen S
Denmark
T: +45 33 89 20 05
E: info@indexaward.dk
W: www.indexaward.dk
About INDEX:
A wholly owned subsidiary of the Danish Design Center (DDC), INDEX: is a global network organisation originating in Copenhagen, Denmark. Kigge Hvid, CEO of INDEX:, explains, "INDEX:'s mission is to secure high-quality Design to Improve Life internationally. Therefore we inspire, collect, advocate, communicate, evaluate, connect and discuss Design to Improve Life globally." The award is given in five categories; Body, Home, Work, Play and Community.