Red Dot Award: Product Design 2018

This year, companies and designers from 59 countries entered more than 6,300 innovations in the Red Dot Award: Product Design, a higher number than ever before. After inspiring and intensive discussions by the 39 jury members, they did not award a distinction until they had agreed on the good design quality of the product. As a result, a total of 69 entries – just 1.1% of all entries – received the top award in the competition, the Red Dot: Best of the Best. The “Red Dot”, which stands for good design quality, was awarded 1,684 times, while 45 objects won an Honourable Mention, which is given to a particularly well-executed aspect of design work. All of the designs have one thing in common: They represent the current status of product design and give insights into its future.

From furniture and household appliances to fashion and consumer electronics – the excellent quality of this year’s products has made them award-winning products. Red Dot juror and design strategist Michael Thomson agrees on the increasing variety in the categories. Simultaneously, the success of products is becoming much more complex as buyers link them to their emotional and aspirational ambitions more and more. Gisbert Brunner, a passionate expert on watches, emphasised the rise in quality of submissions, setting apart the watch “TAG Heuer Connected Modular 45 Luxury Kit” from TAG Heuer, one of the 69 entries which won a Red Dot: Best of the Best this year. The product won over the jury with its modularity in particular, as parts of it, such as the case, the lugs, the strap and the clasp, can be interchanged, and the smartwatch module can be replaced with an automatic mechanical chronograph module.

Thomas Lockwood, jury member and influencer in the field of innovation, saw the improving quality as a sign that companies understand the market value of good design as a success factor. According to Martin Darbyshire, founder of the consultancy firm tangerine, every product has to combine high degrees of functionality with high aesthetic design quality; while its use becomes more intuitive, the technology recedes into the background, becoming more and more invisible. This trend is reflected in particular amongst the winning products in the Smart Home field, in the example of “Google Home” awarded with a Red Dot: Best of the Best. The smart speaker has integrated microphones and functions as a personal digital assistant to help with day-to-day tasks. Voice commands are used to play music, get a weather forecast, write a shopping list or use the Smart Home product, without any visible buttons or keys; instead it is controlled via an inconspicuous touchscreen. The use of fabric allows the technology to disappear into the background.

The award-winning products often feature innovative and sustainable materials. This was the principal reason why the “Kaffeeform Material” by Kaffeeform, which was submitted as a cup and is made from coffee grounds, prompted the jury to award it a Red Dot: Best of the Best. Because global coffee consumption is on the rise, and with it the resulting waste, more and more quantities of cold coffee grounds are readily available. Designer Julian Lechner used this wasted resource to create a sustainable and environmentally friendly alternative material to petroleum-based raw materials. Properties that are characteristic of the material include the marbled, wood-like surface, the smell of coffee, the light weight and the long shelf life as well as the fact that it is dishwasher safe. Materials and surfaces expert Katrin de Louw stressed how ground-breaking products such as this carbon-neutral and ecological coffee cup, are steps in the right direction.

All of the laureates will be celebrated at the award ceremony in Essen’s opera house, the Aalto-Theater, on 9 July. The winners of the Red Dot: Best of the Best, which include Apple, Bulgari, Canyon Bicycles, Ferrari, Lenovo, LG, Philips, Porsche, Sony and Veryday, will accept their trophies on stage in front of around 1,200 international guests. At the subsequent Designers’ Night, guests will party in the midst of the award-winning products in the Red Dot Design Museum, as the after-show party is also the opening of the exhibition: For four weeks, the “Design on Stage – Winners Red Dot Award: Product Design 2018” special exhibition will showcase the award-winning innovations as part of the world’s largest exhibition of contemporary design.

The day of the Red Dot Gala coincides with the publication of the Red Dot Design Yearbook 2018/2019, which presents all of the year’s winning products, which can be found in the Online Exhibition, the Red Dot App and on Red Dot 21 from that date.