Amid the global coronavirus pandemic, good hand hygiene has become a key defence strategy in the fight against the virus – particularly as many people continue to flout social distancing recommendations.

Experience design studio Bompas & Parr has teamed up with London’s Design Museum on Fountain of Hygiene, a new global competition and showcase for creatives of any age. The brief is to design “inspired takes on the sanitiser pumps now on counters across the globe”, and follows initiatives from large-scale brands engaging with hand hygiene – namely LVMH’s enormous pivot from perfume production to hand sanitiser manufacturing.

Fountain of Hygiene sets out to encourage good hand hygiene by engaging people on a creative level. “The project seeks to challenge and inspire the design community to envision the future of sanitiser and safe socialising by exploring the aesthetic, functional, social, gestural and experiential possibilities of enhanced hygiene,” according to the brief on the Bompas & Parr website.

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Design future hygiene for @britishredcross This week we are launching a Sanitiser Design Competition with The Design Museum. Full details on how to enter in bio. The aim is to stimulate innovation in design artefacts, rituals and habits to get people safely back into the public realm.  Meanwhile raising funds for the Red Cross. The results will be displayed at the @designmuseum (restrictions allowing) and online. Shortlisted entries will be auctioned by @christiesinc and with the project documented by our media partner @dezeen. . . . #bompasandparr #designmuseum #britishredcross #dezeen #christies #competition #design #creatives #designers #makers #handwashing #opencall #sanitiser #soap #covid19 #coronavirus #innovation

A post shared by Bompas & Parr (@bompasandparr) on Mar 19, 2020 at 12:26pm PDT

Creatives are invited to submit design concepts that could enhance “sanitiser pumps, sprays, wipes, dispense units or even gestures and rituals”, and are asked to be conscious of their use in domestic and public environments.

There are seven categories to enter, spanning from those that imply more practical inventions – such as Industrial Design or Luxury Design – to categories allowing for more radical approaches to hand sanitisation, like Hygiene Innovation Beyond the Sanitiser. There are also categories aimed at younger participants. Entries will be judged on innovation, functionality, social impact and design aesthetic, with the judging panel to be announced soon.

There is set to be an exhibition for the winners of each category held at the Design Museum in early April, but with that seemingly unlikely to go ahead at this stage, there are also plans in place to display a showcase online instead. Christie’s will be auctioning models of the ten best submissions decided by a panel of judges, and proceeds will be donated to the British Red Cross.

Find more information on the competition here; bompasandparr.com