Award-winning design and its makers: “New Baraka – Building a Home with 30,000 People”
Once a year, the jury of the Red Dot Award: Communication Design honours projects of high design quality. Among the works which received a Red Dot: Best of the Best, the jury awards the Red Dot: Grand Prix. In 2016, the top individual award was granted to “New Baraka – Building a Home with 30,000 People”, designed by denkwerk from Cologne, Germany.
Donation for Transformation
The inhabitants of Baraka, a slum in Dakar, Senegal, want to work towards changing the future of the slum themselves. But they lack the necessary financial means. The “New Baraka” microsite is a donation portal initiated by the YOU Foundation. Its aim was to facilitate the collection of donations in an easy way, thus aiding the inhabitants of the slum to help themselves. Therefore, the vision of building a “New Baraka” consisted of virtually disassembling the vision into its smallest components, including seeds, school materials, wood, PCs and so forth, and then, in a second step, selling these items easily via an online shop. The microsite starts by telling the history of the slum in colourful charming illustrations to convey the idea in a direct and emotionally appealing manner. Placed below them, visitors find tiles representing the individual donated objects, complemented by sound effects and short explanations. Requiring only a few clicks, the microsite invites visitors to support the project through concrete measures or purchases.
Red Dot: Grand Prix for “New Baraka – Building a Home with 30,000 People”
The Red Dot jury summarised: “This microsite is an outstandingly forward-looking, positive donation site to help transform the Baraka slum in Dakar. The storytelling is apt and convincing, and the hope of a new beginning is beautifully demonstrated in the design of the site. The microsite directly invites visitors to donate and makes the donation process transparent and effortless.” The jury awarded this outstanding design achievement with the Red Dot: Grand Prix. Red Dot talked to the designers who realised it.
What makes somebody a good designer?
denkwerk: Talent and tireless commitment.
How do you attract attention?
Through consistent quality.
How do you cope with competition?
We let ourselves be inspired and spurred on.
What is your personal key to success?
First, develop a vision and then calmly plan the steps to achieve it.
Denkwerk is an independent digital agency working internationally with offices in Cologne and Berlin. It employs 180 specialists from 19 countries who design the digital transformation for leading brands and companies such as Condor, Lorenz, Media Markt, OBI, Storck, Ströer, TUI BLUE and ZWILLING.
Red Dot Award: Communication Design 2017
For 25 years the Red Dot Award: Communication Design has provided agencies, designers and companies from all over the world with a platform for the evaluation of their design and creative achievements. They are currently allowed to submit their works and projects into the international competition, which is being launched in 18 categories. A 24-member jury will evaluate every single entry individually and award the Red Dot seal exclusively to those who convince with good design quality and creativity. The “Latecomer” registration phase runs until 9 June 2017.
» Further information on the Red Dot Award: Communication Design 2017
