Launched in 2003, supported by the Cultural and Creative Industries Development Agency (CCIDA) of the Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region as the lead sponsor, the DFA Awards continues its mission to honour extraordinary individuals and projects that have made a lasting impact in Asia, recognising the industry giants whose work has fundamentally shaped our world. The 2025 awardees represent a diverse spectrum of design excellence, including Don NORMAN, DFA Lifetime Achievement Award (DFA LAA) winner; Christina ONG, DFA Design Leadership Award (DFA DLA) winner; MA Yansong, DFA World’s Outstanding Chinese Designer (DFA WOCD) winner; André FU, DFA Designer of the Year (DFA DOY) winner; and Rahul MISHRA, DFA Asian Design Vanguard (DFA ADV) winner.
This year, the DFA Awards introduced the new accolade of the DFA Asian Design Vanguard with the aim to honour the contributions of Asian designers in any region of the world, who have strong vision to redefine global demand through design. This designer demonstrated the innovation of creativity, impacting market with significant commercial success locally and globally. Parallelly, has created cultural influence through design or cross-industry reach. To synchronise the new award programme, the trophy, designed by esteemed designer Mui KINOSHITA, features a triangular cut-out at its centre that symbolises A-D-V, dramatically frames light and shadow to create dynamic views from every angle to distinguish the Award’s eminent status.
Mr. Joseph LO, Chairman of HKDC, said, “This year’s cohort of laureates represents a powerful convergence of legacy and future-forward thinking. We see a profound depth of contribution, from Don NORMAN’s foundational theories that inspired us on how to interact with the world through design, to Christina ONG’s visionary leadership in designing global lifestyle empires that seamlessly bridge fashion, hospitality and wellness. We also celebrate the distinct design languages of MA Yansong and André FU blending the modern and cultural element to a stylish living. The inaugural DFA Asian Design Vanguard award allows us to honour a unique creative force, Rahul MISHRA, whose work is fundamentally influential and setting a new benchmark for what Asian design can connect social change and cultural preservation.”
DFA Lifetime Achievement Award 2025 (DFA LAA)
Don NORMAN
Founding Director emeritus
Design Lab, University of California, San Diego
Don NORMAN is a visionary leader who has profoundly shaped how we interact with technology. Renowned for championing the principle that design must serve people, his work seamlessly bridges the gap between social sciences and engineering, bringing a deep human perspective to product creation. His influential career includes pivotal leadership roles in the industry, such as Vice President of Advanced Technology at Apple, Executive at Hewlett Packard, and Founding Director of the Design Lab at the University of California, San Diego, which has inspired generations of designers, engineers, and business leaders worldwide. His ideas have been so transformative that Business Week (now known as Bloomberg Businessweek) once named him one of the world’s 27 most influential designers.
NORMAN’s exceptional contributions have been recognised with numerous honours, including lifetime achievement awards from ACM (Association for Computing Machinery), and the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society. His ongoing global impact is reflected in his advisory roles at leading institutions like Tongji University and the Hong Kong Polytechnic University.
The DFA Lifetime Achievement Award 2025 celebrates Don NORMAN’s profound legacy — a career dedicated not just to humanising technology, but to empowering us all through design that is intuitive, accessible, and deeply respectful of human experience. His pioneering concepts have become the foundational lexicon for the entire field, ensuring that his principles will continue to guide the creation of meaningful technology for generations to come.
DFA Design Leadership Award 2025 (DFA DLA)
Christina ONG
Founder
COMO Group
Christina ONG is a visionary of global luxury, renowned for building an empire that seamlessly spans fashion, hospitality, and wellness. As founder of the COMO Group, her impeccable taste and astute leadership have established her as Singapore’s preeminent style icon and a powerful shaper of international lifestyle trends across five decades.
Her journey began in 1972 with Club21, a single Singapore boutique she expanded into a global network of luxury stores across Asia and beyond. Her strategic acumen drove the celebrated revival of British luxury brand Mulberry. Her transformative vision extends to hospitality, where her Group owns a collection of award-winning Asian properties including Metropolitan Bangkok, Uma Ubud in Bali, and Uma Paro in Bhutan. Central to her philosophy is COMO Shambhala, a pioneering wellness brand that integrates holistic well-being focused on balancing mind, body and spirit into each property, from urban retreats to resort sanctuaries. These achievements have earned her honours including the Italian Cavaliere del Lavoro award and the Singapore Women’s Hall of Fame.
The DFA Design Leadership Award 2025 celebrates Christina ONG for masterfully curating a global lifestyle aesthetic that merges commerce with culture, and architecting complete ecosystems of luxury that empower artisans, champion wellness and set timeless standards of excellence. Her career stands as a powerful testament to how visionary leadership can redefine an industry through design and conscious enterprise.
DFA World’s Outstanding Chinese Designer 2025 (DFA WOCD)
MA Yansong
Founder
MAD Architects
Beijing-born MA Yansong is synonymous with the leading voice in a new generation of architecture. His vision is to create a future where cities balance humanity, nature, and the environment through futuristic, organic designs that reflect a contemporary Eastern affinity for nature.
Notable projects that embody this philosophy include the sprawling Quzhou Sports Park, the dynamic Shenzhen Bay Culture Park, the visionary Lucas Museum of Narrative Art in Los Angeles, and the immersive Tunnel of Light in Japan. His significant contributions have been recognised with honours such as being named to the ’20 Most Influential Young Architects’ list by ICON, a British design and architecture magazine, in 2008, receiving the RIBA International Fellowship in 2010, being selected as a Young Global Leader (YGL) by the World Economic Forum in 2014, and being named one of the TIME 100 Most Influential People in the World in 2025.
The DFA World’s Outstanding Chinese Designer 2025 honours MA Yansong for his groundbreaking contributions to architecture and urban design, celebrating his visionary approach that integrates humanistic values, the poetic essence of nature, and cutting-edge technological innovation. His work continuously reshapes the future of our urban environments and demonstrates exceptional creative leadership, establishing a new paradigm for what Chinese designer can achieve on the global design stage.
DFA Designer of the Year 2025 (DFA DOY)
André FU
Founder
André Fu Studio
DFA Asian Design Vanguard 2025 (DFA ADV)
Rahul MISHRA
Founder & Creative Director
Rahul Mishra
Rahul MISHRA, a pioneering Indian designer, is renowned for integrating traditional craftsmanship with global haute couture. He made history as the first Indian designer invited to showcase at Paris Haute Couture Week, following his 2014 International Woolmark Prize win. In 2023, the French government also honoured him with the “Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres” for his contributions.
MISHRA champions “mindful luxury,” using fashion as a force for empowerment. Through his couture line and ready-to-wear brand, AFEW Rahul Mishra (AFEW), he creates sustainable employment for over a thousand Indian artisans. His work has drawn acclaim from industry legends; fashion critic and former International Vogue editor Suzy Menkes calls him a “national treasure.” AFEW offers effortless luxury inspired by nature’s elements—Air, Fire, Earth, and Water—blending timeless style with modern wearability. Both his couture and ready-to-wear collections are available at his flagship stores in Mumbai, New Delhi, and Hyderabad, and through international retailers like Saks Fifth Avenue, cementing his influence on the global fashion stage.
The inaugural DFA Asian Design Vanguard 2025 celebrates Rahul MISHRA as a visionary who is redefining the fashion industry, proving that design can be a powerful vehicle for social change, cultural preservation, and ecological responsibility. By creating a sustainable bridge between Indian artisans and the global fashion market, he demonstrates how luxury can be both beautiful and benevolent. His work offers a compelling blueprint for a more conscious and interconnected design future.
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About DFA Awards (www.dfaawards.com)
Since 2003, the Hong Kong Design Centre has launched the DFA Awards to underpin the role of designers in society, to celebrate design leadership and exemplary designs and projects with commercial success or impact in Asia, as well as to recognise the rising force of emerging designers in Hong Kong. The DFA Awards, through its seven major award programmes, has grown in its international influence in Asia. The seven award programmes include DFA Lifetime Achievement Award, DFA Design Leadership Award, DFA World’s Outstanding Chinese Designer, DFA Designer of the Year, DFA Asian Design Vanguard, DFA Design for Asia Awards and DFA Hong Kong Young Design Talent Award.
About Hong Kong Design Centre (www.hkdesigncentre.org)
Hong Kong Design Centre is a strategic partner of the HKSAR Government, harnessing the city’s distinctive East-meets-West position to create value through design.
To achieve our goals we:
- Cultivate a culture of design
- Bridge stakeholders to opportunities that unleash the power of design
- Promote excellence in various design disciplines
About Cultural and Creative Industries Development Agency (www.ccidahk.gov.hk)
The Cultural and Creative Industries Development Agency (CCIDA) established in June 2024, formerly known as Create Hong Kong (CreateHK), is a dedicated office set up by the Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region under the Culture, Sports and Tourism Bureau to provide one-stop services and support to the cultural and creative industries with a mission to foster a conducive environment in Hong Kong to facilitate the development of arts, culture and creative sectors as industries. Its strategic foci are nurturing talent and facilitating start-ups, exploring markets, promoting cross-sectoral and cross-genre collaboration, promoting the development of arts, culture and creative sectors as industries under the industry-oriented principle, and promoting Hong Kong as Asia’s creative capital and fostering a creative atmosphere in the community to implement Hong Kong’s positioning as the East-meets-West centre for international cultural exchange under the National 14th Five-Year Plan.
Disclaimer: The Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region provides funding support to some of HKDC’s activities/projects only, and does not otherwise take part in such funded activities/projects. Any opinions, findings, conclusions or recommendations expressed in this publication and relevant materials/events (or by members of the project teams) are those of HKDC only and do not reflect the views of the Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, the Culture, Sports and Tourism Bureau, the Cultural and Creative Industries Development Agency, the CreateSmart Initiative Secretariat or the CreateSmart Initiative Vetting Committee.
