After the race for the best technical innovations in the last years, companies now increasingly focus on sophisticated designs meeting the demands of target groups in order to keep their position in the competition. The consumer's needs are coming more and more into the spotlight when it comes to finding the ideal form for a product. This was shown by observations during the selection process of the red dot award: product design 2005.
According to the jury the designers in the category "Living and Sleeping" have done their homework. They have observed the consumers and have realized that there is no "universal consumer". Now they intentionally cater to the demands of a variety of diverse target groups. This results in high-quality design statements to some of which the eye has to get accustomed.
But there are also great developments in less typical design disciplines such as life science design, i.e. medical products, appliances, and aids. The jurors above all praised the sensitive design with its focus on emotional aspects, which is highly important for this product category, as well as the innovative solutions to difficult technical challenges.
"Our decades of work as design promoters are now extensively coming to fruition", says Prof. Dr. Peter Zec, the initiator of the red dot design award. "Hardly anything is possible without a high-quality design today. The design standards have risen constantly - not only in the high price segment but finally also in the general market. This leads to increased competition and has the effect that companies have to become even more innovative in the future and have to achieve long-term customer loyalty through design."
This development makes it increasingly difficult to receive one of the awards in the international design competition. At the same time, the importance of such an award becomes even greater for companies, because it enables them to communicate their innovative achievements to business partners and consumers via an objective quality label for good design. In the face of clearly increased design quality, a total of 421 of the 1,857 submitted products received a "red dot" for high design quality and a further 33 products received the "red dot: best of the best" for pioneering design in their category.
download: list of winners.pdf (107k)
Award Ceremony and Special Exhibition
The festive award ceremony takes place on 4 July 2005 in the Essen Aalto Theatre. The award-winning works will be exhibited in the special exhibition "Design Innovations 2005 - red dot award: product design" from 5 July to 7 August 2005 in the Essen red dot design museum. The red dot design museum houses the largest permanent exhibition of contemporary design worldwide.