The jury has made its decisions - the laureates of the Red Dot Award: Product Design 2015 have been chosen
- 4,928 entries from 56 countries
- 81 winners of top award “Red Dot: Best of the Best”
- Jury comprising 38 international experts
The Red Dot Award is celebrating its 60th anniversary this year. To mark the occasion, a particularly star-studded jury was engaged to judge the Red Dot Award: Product Design 2015. In an evaluation process spanning several days, the team of experts awarded the sought-after seal of quality for good design, the “Red Dot”, to 1,240 products. Only 81 entries were bestowed the honour of the top award, the “Red Dot: Best of the Best”, while 122 won an Honourable Mention for a particularly well-executed aspect of design work.
The anniversary-year Red Dot jury with its international members entered the judging with 38 design professionals from 25 countries. These included new members such as Danish fashion designer David Andersen, German materials expert Dr Sascha Peters and Wen-long Chen, CEO of the Taiwan Design Center. Together they discussed the 4,928 entries in situ. Experienced Red Dot jury members also added their expertise, such as Malaysian-born star designer Datuk‘ Professor Jimmy Choo, German product design icon Professor Werner Aisslinger and tangerine founder Martin Darbyshire from the UK. The jury worked together to rate each individual product according to functionality, degree of innovation, formal quality, ecological compatibility and other criteria. After the strict but fair selection process, around 3,500 products went away empty handed.
The products participating in the competition originated from 56 countries in total, making them even more international than the jury. In order to respond to this year’s diversity in a professional manner, the number of product categories was increased to 31. New categories such as “Materials and surfaces” and the new independent categories for “Watches” and “Jewellery” allowed for a discerning evaluation process.
Professor Dr Peter Zec, Founder and CEO of the Red Dot Award: “Innovation is not always visible with the naked eye. Often it is hidden aspects, such as a refined technology inside the product or an improved combination of materials, that constitute a lucid and sometimes brilliant new development. We can therefore count ourselves lucky that year after year we are able to appoint an expert, experienced and high-profile jury that doesn’t miss a beat. All those who are successful before this jury have invested a lot of time and understanding into the product submitted. They are completely deserving of their reward, which permits them to use the globally recognised seal of good design.”
The winners of the Red Dot Award: Product Design can expect an extensive package of measures: They use the winner label as a marketing tool and are integrated in the international PR activities of Red Dot. The Red Dot Design Museum Essen exhibits the award-winning products for at least one year, and the Red Dot Design Yearbook presents the year’s best designs. All of the products and their makers are also featured in the online presentation and in the Red Dot 21 global design directory as well as in the Red Dot App.
The glamorous award ceremony for the Red Dot Award: Product Design 2015 will take place on Monday, 29 June 2015. The laureates of the Red Dot: Best of the Best, which is the highest award in the competition, will be honoured during the gala in Essen’s Aalto-Theater. Afterwards, the guests and the prize-winners will celebrate together in the Red Dot Design Museum in the midst of award-winning products at the legendary Designers’ Night after-show party.
The facts and figures of the Red Dot Award: Product Design 2015
Entries: 4,928
Red Dot: Best of the Best awards granted: 81
Red Dot awards granted: 1,240
Honourable Mention awards granted: 122
Red Dot Gala: 29 June 2015 at 6 p.m. in the Aalto-Theater in Essen
Special exhibition “Design on Stage – Winners Red Dot Award: Product Design 2015”: 30 June – 26 July 2015 in the Red Dot Design Museum Essen
The assessment criteria of the jury
• Degree of innovation
• Functionality
• Formal quality
• Ergonomics
• Durability
• Symbolic and emotional content
• Product periphery
• Self-explanatory quality
• Ecological compatibility
Further information
» Red Dot Award: Product Design
» Red Dot
On 29 June 2015, the day of the Red Dot Gala, the winners of the product design competition will be presented online. The laureates of 2014 and a selection of award-winning designs of previous years are available here.
