Red Dot Award: Communication Design 2017 – the winners in the anniversary year are selected
The Red Dot Award: Communication Design is celebrating its 25-year anniversary in 2017. With its vast experience, the award once again selected this year’s excellent achievements: the winners of the international competition have been chosen, and receive the Red Dot seal in recognition of their convincing design quality and creativity.
Rising internationality: participants from 50 countries
Agencies, designers and companies from 50 countries entered their works in the Red Dot Award: Communication Design 2017. They submitted 8,051 projects across 18 categories, setting a new record in terms of entry numbers as well as raising the level of internationalisation on last year.
Professor Dr. Peter Zec, founder and CEO of the Red Dot Award had this to say: “The diversity of the projects submitted is huge – in terms of content, type, source and target market. This broad field of participants brings with it a large responsibility. The jury’s decision must take consideration of the technical and country-specific features, which makes an international panel of experts vital for the credibility and reliability of the Red Dot Award.”
International jury: 24 experts awarded Red Dots
Thus, the jury for the Red Dot Award: Communication Design 2017 was very multicultural. The 24 experts from 11 countries convened in Essen to inspect, scrutinise and definitively assess all of the entries live and on site. They evaluated the projects in a process spanning several days. The contributions were not compared directly against each other, but instead assessed individually in terms of their performance.
The assessment is based on various criteria including design quality, aesthetics, implementation, recognisability and chosen medium. These criteria provide a framework that is complemented by the individual jurors based on their expertise, experience and sociocultural backgrounds. For example, sound design specialist Rainer Hirt from Germany pays particular attention “to the idea, innovative power, implementation and quality of the works.”
Fellow jury member Gustavo Greco, designer from Brazil, explains that the “suitability and how the project changes the lives of those that come into contact with it (for the better)” are the most important things to him. Branding expert Johnason Lo from Taiwan also defines the aspects he considers especially important as follows: “To be out of the ordinary, original and authentic; so, the way they are able to express a certain feeling through design is what I pay special attention to.” But it is only as a team that the members of the expert panel can arrive at a balanced and fair decision: “The aim of a good jury should be to see and to assess the entire context”, explains design expert Jean Jacques Schaffner from Switzerland.
In line with the overarching motto, “In search of good design and creativity”, the experts awarded the Red Dot seal only to projects that won them over with their high design quality and creativity. The renowned label was awarded to 749 works. In addition, the jury bestowed the Red Dot: Best of the Best on 67 works. This award for very high design quality and creative achievement was thus only received by 0.8 percent of all entries.
Red Dot: Grand Prix winners to be announced during the award ceremony
The makers of the year’s best works of communication will be honoured at the Red Dot Gala on 27 October. The laureates of the Red Dot: Best of the Best will accept their well-deserved trophies in front of around 1,400 international guests in the Konzerthaus Berlin. They can also hope to win an additional award, namely the Red Dot: Grand Prix. This highest individual award goes to the best piece of work in a category. The five projects that will be honoured with the Red Dot: Grand Prix will first be announced during the award ceremony.
For the up-and-coming designers, too, the evening will remain tension-laden to the very end, with the winner of the Red Dot: Junior Prize, endowed with 10,000 Euros for the best piece of work from an up-and-coming designer to be announced at the Red Dot Gala. In addition, the titles of honour “Red Dot: Agency of the Year” and “Red Dot: Brand of the Year” are bestowed for consistently outstanding achievements in communication design.
At the subsequent Designers’ Night in the E-Werk Berlin, the Red Dot laureates will be given their well-deserved certificates and will celebrate their success. In addition, the exclusive winners’ exhibition “Design on Stage” will showcase the prize-winning works of the Red Dot Award: Communication Design 2017 at the legendary party.
