Dwell Staff

This year we debuted the Modern World Awards, giving our favorite product and furniture discoveries a place to shine on the show floor.

We are excited to announce that the entry period of our Methodology upcyling competition is extended through July 24th. Make good use of the gift of time and enter your ideas now! The submissions we've received so far have been fantastic and we can't wait to see what else everyone can come up with. Build a prototype for easy-to-craft designs, or show us the most fantastical of ideas through a drawing or rendering. Don't delay! The winner of the contest will receive a year's supply of method products, worth $300.

Among the many wares that were exhibited on the Dwell on Design show floor, 11 stood out for excellence in their respective categories. Read on for the winners of the 2011 Dwell on Design Awards.

Branching out and doing your own thing is a brave and bold move at any time and any age. That said, the 21 visionaries we profile here—–designers 
of interiors, graphics, architecture, exhibitions, furniture, landscapes, 
and communities both online and off—–are all younger than 40 and are building their careers in the United States during an economic recession. Their mediums range wildly, from high-end residential town houses 
to urban postindustrial landscapes, but what they all share are uncommon tenacity and highly personal approaches to blazing their own paths. We’ve found editors who reinvented themselves as unconventional bloggers when their magazine shuttered; community activists who are transforming foreclosed houses in Detroit into models of environmental sustainability; and designers who’ve built burgeoning furniture companies in their own backyards. Neither an exhaustive compendium nor an exclusive best-of list, this roundup is a sampling of rising stars whose work continues to catch our eyes and imaginations.