July 2008
The winners of the 2008 International Design Excellence Awards (IDEA) competition—a celebration of the most innovative and exciting product and product concept designs of the year and one of the world’s most prestigious design competitions—exhibit a focus on sustainability, great attention to detail and, in a slowing economy, many offer surprisingly affordable price points.
Designing existing products for a new market was also a trend in evidence when BusinessWeek and the Industrial Designers Society of America (IDSA) announced the winners.
Out of 1517 entries, 35 were awarded the coveted Gold award, while 77 received Silver awards and 93 won Bronze awards. For the first time this year, 389 finalists were named in addition to the winners.
For the first time in the history of the competition, the expert jury bestowed two “Best in Show” awards: one to SizeChina, a design research project that assembled data from a representative cross-section of people from mainland China to create the first-ever digital database of Chinese head and face shapes; and the other to Apple’s now-iconic iPhone.
Showing a continuing upward trend in international participation, 109 designs from 25 countries outside the US were given an IDEA Award: Australia, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, People's Republic of China, Colombia, Croatia, Denmark, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Iran, Italy, Japan, Republic of Korea, The Netherlands, New Zealand, Singapore, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan, Turkey and the United Kingdom. 2008 also marked the inaugural year of IDEA/Brasil, organized by Objeto Brasil and endorsed by IDSA, to spur interest in design from Brazilian corporations as well as to heighten global awareness of Brazil’s rich design heritage. Out of 53 pre-judged Brazilian Finalists, 12 were honored with IDEA Awards, a remarkable success for the program’s first year.
Outstanding design was the key factor behind the market success of winners such as the MC17 Mobile Computer, Roku Digital Music Transfer and the Milguard SmartTouch™ window lock. A new design vision enabled those products to meet the current challenges of the market and grow market share. The commitment to environmentally-responsible design shown by this year’s student winners may indicate that the future of our planet is in good hands.
The BusinessWeek IDEA report hit the stands July 18 with an in-depth analysis of the winners. IDSA’s quarterly magazine, Innovation, will publish information on the Gold, Bronze and Silver winners as well as the finalists in its Yearbook of Design Excellence this fall.
DECATHLON of France, EVA DENMARK A/S, Motorola, Apple and One Laptop Per Child were the top winners from the corporate world, with DECATHLON claiming six awards and the others each claiming four. The jurors were charmed by the Eva Solo waste bin (a bin that solves every common problem found in most current designs); impressed by the One Laptop Per Child XO Laptop, which juror Ryan Eder, IDSA cited as “brilliant design for an even better cause,” and wowed by DECATHLON’s innovative incorporation of a dual element structure and self-inflating mattress in a sleeping bag that will send people who never thought they’d camp out into the woods.
Among design firms, IDEO captured seven awards this year. fuseproject, Whipsaw and Ziba stood out with five, four and four awards, respectively. Art Center College of Design topped the list of college wins with a total of four awards.
The 2008 IDEA jury, comprised of 20 world-renowned designers and design thinkers, spent weeks previewing entries online and two-and-a-half days of intense, face-to-face evaluation and debate on IDEA. Judging criteria for each entry focused on eight areas of industrial design excellence: design innovation; benefit to the user; benefit to the client/business; benefit to society; ecological responsibility; appropriate aesthetics and appeal; usability testing; rigor and reliability (Design Research category); and internal factors and methods, implementation (Design Strategy category).
A “People’s Choice” award will also be presented when the winners are honored in a formal ceremony at the Arizona Biltmore in Phoenix, Saturday, September 13, the final day of the anticipated 2008 IDSA National Conference & Education Symposium, followed by a gala celebration. Winners will be displayed in the Conference Design Gallery. All 205 winners with descriptions, photos and contacts will be featured on the IDSA Web site.
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