EVENT COVERAGE
Red Dot Design Award 2007
Red Dot Museum, Singapore.
30 November 2007
Christmas came early for Prof. Dr. Peter Zec and the newly minted design award recipients this year.
The president-founder of red dot GmbH & Co. KG and International Council of Societies of Industrial Design (ICSID) Senator (he completed his presidency term in October) was part of the 15-member jury that conferred the prestigious President’s Design Award and barely three days after the ceremony, he was at red dot Museum to present the esteemed “red dot award: design concept” in person.
Ranking among the largest and most renowned in the international design competition circuit, the international “red dot design award” was conceived in Germany in 1955. The only competition that maintains a museum to showcase its winners, it comprises “red dot: product design”, the “red dot: communication design” and the “red dot: design concept”, which is organized in Singapore.
But even Santa Claus gets presents. “red dot: design concept” received enthusiastic response this year, with entries surging from last year’s 478 entries to 884 entries this year. There is a 25% jump in number of participating companies and entries came from more countries as compared to last year — an indication of a truly international platform.
“When we started this competition way back in 2005, one of the primary motivations is to link talented designers and emerging design companies to the industry,” explained Ken Koo, President of red dot Singapore.
“red dot: design concept” bridges the gulf by serving as a springboard for new ideas neither available in the market nor produced for sale yet. Talented designers from all corners of the world can compete with their peers on an international level. As the award does not have separate categories for students and professionals, this presents new blood the rare opportunity to compete directly with veterans and even design teams.
Said Prof. Dr. Zec “This makes the competition extraordinary. Industry professionals may do a better job of presenting and executing their ideas, because of their professional background and the facilities they get.
“But the jury sees a great deal of innovation coming from young designers and students too.”
The “red dot design award” has long been lauded to be a sneak preview of tomorrow’s possibilities. “What we see from the competition reflects what goes on in the world. After the tsunami, we had a lot of submissions relating to the catastrophe,” said Koo.
“This year, we have seen quite a few green concepts like Solarcell and United_Bottles.”
Koo lets on that among the extensive list of adjudication criterion, the jury placed more emphasis on the degree of innovation and production viability. “It is a balance between how innovative the ideas are and its credibility, which in turn forms the balance between individual designers and markets.”
One of the six-member jury panel for 2007 is German design heavyweight Werner Aisslinger, celebrated for his modular structures. A familiar name in eminent museums around the world, his works are on display in MoMA and the Centre Georges Pompidou among many others. “In a time where virtually everything is possible on a technical level, creativity is an increasingly important asset. Design is not only shape and form and colors, it is also the concept behind,” he said.
“This ability to conceptualize a design is the future power of the design world.”
Another juror is Song Kee Hong, co-founder and design director of DesignExchange, one of the largest design agencies in Singapore. He has received almost 20 design awards and one of which is none other than the red dot design award itself.
Both of them were present at the ceremony that took place the red dot Museum in Singapore to hand out the awards. Out of 123 winning concepts from 26 countries, designers of 85 winning concepts traveled from places as far as Iran and Slovenia to receive their honors on a catwalk, which seems to have become a signature feature of red dot award ceremonies.
No red suit for Prof. Dr. Zec though. The world-recognized German cut a striking figure in white. You could say that it’s a symbol for red dot’s unwavering stand of awarding excellence through pure independence and impartiality.
Still, it was a tough fight. The jury of world-recognized design experts awarded 105 “red dot awards” and 18 “red dot: best of the best” awards. The single most exceptional entry out of the entire competition is awarded the “red dot: luminary”. This year, Saab Automobile AB and GM Europe Design bagged the honor for their Saab Aero X Concept Car. To showcase its future design direction, the team returned to Saab’s heritage as an aircraft maker and the result was a brilliant incorporation of intelligent features.
Given the spike in entries, red dot has fulfilled its objective well. But it is not one to rest on its illustrious laurels. Renowned as the cradle of trailblazing designs, red dot is strengthening their support by spearheading red dot Future this year. Through international exhibitions and direct presentation to companies in Singapore, the impetus will encourage the investment into the winning design concepts for further development and more international exposure.
Designers of 61 winning concepts have signed up for the program, which has commitment from six companies from Singapore: Meiban Group, Pico Art International, Gencast Design, Stikfas, Gregory Ong & Co. and DesignExchange.
“With this program, we hope it will provide more guidance and more aggressive promotion of your fantastic work to the companies, so the industry match-making will bring about more possibilities of concept realization,” announced Koo.
On top of all that, red dot unveiled a new prize sponsored by LANXESS Pte Ltd. The company shares the same passion as red dot: Award-winning works should not remain an idea but take the next step to make it happen. “The biggest hurdle talented designers face is commercializing a great new design,” said managing director Ian Wood. “Hopefully, this award can help them to successfully navigate that road.”
It lends a hand to the design community with vital initial funding to support a winning concept through commercialization, specifically SGD $12,000. For its inaugural year, the LANXESS prize was awarded to both Switzerland’s Instant Architects for their project United_Bottle and Korea’s trio Lee Jung-Hyun, Chae Won-Sik & Jeong Rhea for Abracadabra!
Said Prof. Dr. Zec: “In our globalised world of global communication, I think a competition like the ‘red dot award: design concept’ really makes sense — bringing people together and showing that design can be a real serious business, even on a concept level. And this year’s results is an affirmation.”
red dot: Best of The Best for Education
• Interactive DVD for the Illiterate by Jana Hesselbarth, Germany
• SQUAREPLAY by Jasmina Fercek, Tjasa Bavcon and Katja Burger, Slovenia
• THE WISDOM WELL - an interactive Floor for Learning by Center for Interactive Spaces & The Alexandra Institute, Denmark
red dot: Best of The Best for Entertainment
• E-Paper by Chocolate Agency, China
red dot: Best of The Best for Fashion
• Skin by Philips Design, The Netherlands
red dot: Best of The Best for Green
• Solarcell by Pichaya Puttorngul, Thailand
red dot: Best of The Best for Habitat
• UNITED_BOTTLE by INSTANT ARCHITECTS, Switzerland
red dot: Best of The Best for Illumination
• daylight comes sideways* by Daniel Rybakken, Norway
red dot: Best of The Best for Interaction & Communication
• Gigaset Design Visions: Helium by Siemens Home and Office Communication Devices GmbH & Co. KG, Formwelt Industriedesign & m-creative, Germany
• handshake by Hideaki Matsui, Yun Dong Ho & Park Jea Wan, USA / Korea
• Ticketime by Chen Wei Ping, Liu Yao Sheng & Wu Tung Chih, Taiwan
red dot: Best of The Best for Interior Accessories
• Elastine for the Blind People by Sung Junggi, Korea
• Roly-Poly Pot by ID+IM Design Lab, ID KAIST (Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, Korea
red dot: Best of The Best for Life Science
• Senso. a companion for life by Pelin Celik & Pilotfish Germany/Taiwan, Germany
red dot: Best of The Best for Mobility
• city[zen] by BEZ-A architecture & design studio, Russia
red dot: Best of The Best for Productivity & Work
• ABRACADABRA by Lee Jung-Hyun, Chae Won-Sik & Jeong Rhea, Korea
red dot: Best of The Best for Recreation
• WATER LEISURE FASHION BELT by Yoon Sang-Min, Oh Sung-Il, Ku Ja-Yun & Shin Kwan-Woo, Korea
red dot: Luminary
• Saab Aero X Concept Car by Saab Automobile AB & GM Europe Design, Sweden
Photos courtesy of red dot academy Singapore
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