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Results of 'Grand Prix for design' were announced in Berlin

October 27, 2017

The German Red Dot Design Award has become an international benchmark for the design industry. Since 1955, the organization has acknowledged hundreds of innovative ideas. Now the new winners were revealed.

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Red Dot Award: Communication Design L’EAUNDRY Fragrance Laundry Detergent
Image: KOREFE/Red Dot Award

Every year, the world's biggest design competition is an invitation to the top rung of product designers and companies. Anyone can send in existing products for consideration, and past winners range from a smartphone to a lemon press and a toothbrush.

An award for DW

This year, Deutsche Welle's relaunch of its lifestyle magazine Euromaxx won an award in the category of Communication Design. "The fresh studio layout where we use real decoration with augmented reality has given us new possibilities on how to stage the show, and the look as well," said Rolf Rische, the head of DW Culture.

The elaborate, photorealistic 3D animation, which is the core of the Euromaxx redesign, was conceived by a Munich agency Luxlotusliner in collaboration with the DW design department and the set designer Andreas Bergmann.

Logo Red Dot Award

From Essen to the whole world

The Red Dot Design Award was born in 1954 in Essen in western Germany with one mission: to facilitate an appropriate design of the environment for the public at large.

Since then, the organization has grown up to be an international benchmark for all categories of product design, and has even opened museums in Taipei, Singapour and its birthplace where the winning pieces are exhibited. 

Read more: From the socially conscious to the superfluous: Red Dot Award-winning designs

This year alone, about 5,500 manufacturers and designers from 54 countries submitted new designs for the "Red Dot Award: Product Design," more than ever before.

Others vie for separate prizes for communication design.

Something for everyone

Brands and designers can compete in 48 product design categories that include computers, yachts, tools, furniture, but also jewelry, baggage, eyewear or washing machines. 

This fact has been criticized in the past by German designer Achim Schaffrinna, who wrote for Design Tagebuch ("Design Diary") in 2012 that "the award is given up to 830 products annually," and that he wished the award had been an "actual seal of quality."

The winners of the Red Dot Design Award will be revealed at the opening gala on October 27 in Berlin.