Concentrated expertise and experience: the Red Dot Jury is prepared
The jury of the Red Dot Award: Product Design 2019 is ready for the assessment. After the registration phase of the competition has closed successfully and every entry has been delivered as an original, the international committee comes together soon to honour the best designs of the year. Thereby, the experts test each registration individually before they take a decision within the groups. Apart from design names such as Hideshi Hamaguchi, Ken Okuyama, Dr. Thomas Lockwood and Adriana Monk, the jury will be supported by Leon Sun, Jiang Qiong Er, Dr. Joseph Wong and Saskia Diez.
Four new jurors enrich the jury
A competition is only as good as its jury: The expert panel of the Red Dot Award is characterised by experience and expertise. It consists of independent designers, design professors and specialised journalists from different nations. The internationality allows the jurors to assess the entries, which are as multi-national as the jury, professionally with regard to country-specific differences.
Apart from the familiar faces and design consultants Gordon Bruce, Martin Darbyshire and Dr. Thomas Lockwood, the jury comprises among others four new jurors this year. Jewellery designer Saskia Diez will, together with Jiang Qiong Er, founder of the lifestyle brand SHANG XIA, bring in a new breeze and novel approaches into the assessment process. Alike, Dr. Joseph Wong, Vice Principal of the Hong Kong Design Institute, and Leon Sun, Chief Content Officer and Editorial Director of the living and lifestyle magazine ELLE DECORATION China, will look differently at the products than their jury colleagues.
Within the framework of an assessment process which lasts several days, the experts come together in the Ruhr area to evaluate the entries of the Red Dot Award: Product Design 2019. The procedure is decisively shaped by the fact that the jurors examine and test the products live and on site. Accordingly, no pre-selection is made with the help of photos or videos at Red Dot. This approach is based on the belief that the design quality of a product can only be experienced if it is tried out. Not only the aesthetics plays a role during the assessment. The jurors also attach importance to criteria such as degree of innovation, functionality, ergonomics, longevity, self-explanatory nature and product periphery.
The decision to award a prize is made together in the groups. “Despite the internationality and the different areas we work in, the essence of our evaluation was always clear. We complemented one another well, argued very clearly and agreed with each other after the discussion,” concludes interior architect Katrin de Louw her experiences during the jury session in 2018. Also in 2019, she will be part of the panel.
The design experts can choose between three different distinctions: The Red Dot is given for high design quality. The Red Dot: Best of the Best, the highest distinction of the competition, is awarded for ground-breaking design to the best objects in a category. Products, that impress with a well-thought-out detail solution receive an Honourable Mention.
International awareness for awarded products
Designs, which the jury awards a prize, are introduced to a large, international audience: The award ceremony, where the winners of the competition are duly celebrated, takes place in Essen on 8 July 2019. From this day on, the prize-winning products will be presented on Red Dot’s website, in the yearbook, in the app as well as in international exhibitions.