Press information

Hannover / Germany, December 2004

Enhanced international awareness of — 543 entries for newly structured “iF awards 2005” competition net iF seal of design excellence; 20 students receive award in “concepts” category

2,322 entries from 31 different countries were submitted for the iF product design awards competition. The international panel of judges was faced with a difficult task, given the impressive diversity as well as the sheer quantity of well-designed products. Product entries from Asia scored parti- cularly well in the category of Consumer Electronics and Computers. Eight products netted an iF seal in the “advanced studies” category. A total of 20 students were the recipients of an award in the “concepts” category, seven of which have been selected for a share in the total ‘concepts’ purse of EUR 10,000 donated by the Dyson company. The official awards ceremony at CeBIT 2005 on March 10, 2005 will be the venue for announcing the 50 win- ners of an iF Gold Award (who will automatically become part of the “iF gold selection 2005”) as well as the exact breakdown of prize money for the “concepts” category.

A growing international awareness of design was revealed by the receipt of entries from places like Brazil. There were fewer products submitted in the areas of furniture and medical technology. A new trend toward “accessory products,” accompanying but also criticizing the “host product”, could be observed. Those, at least, were the impressions of the top-flight jury members recruited for the iF pro- duct design award 2005. Another noteworthy feature was the fact that numerous entries came in from Taiwan, Korea, Japan and China — a sure sign of the influen- ce of the iF design award.CHINA, which is presented at CeBIT Asia, and already enjoys a fine reputation.

“There is an observable tendency for people to focus less on technology and more on style when selecting things like mobile phones and MP3 players, but also other electronic appliances as well. ‘Personal products’ are taking the market by storm, which is opening up new options for the way we design and use products..” (Bill Moggridge, IDEO, Palo Alto/USA)

For further informations: “It is definitely noteworthy that the trend in mobile phone design is headed in the direction of toys, and that aspects are moving into the sphere of product iF International Forum Design GmbH Dirk Bartelsmeier, Anne-Kathrin Aumann design. Gender-specific accessories like makeup mirrors would tend to support this Messegelände impression. Whether this is the right way to go remains to be seen, since these pro- D-30521 Hannover phone +49.511.89-32404 ducts shouldn’t really be turned into jewelry. Generally speaking, however, there is fax +49.511.89-32407 a positive tendency towards a new simplicity among electronics products, towards [email protected] clear design without any add-ons, so the pure product can be judged on the basis [email protected] www.ifdesign.de of its own product culture and own visible product appearance — making an isola- ted focus on surface design increasingly discredited as an approach..” Contact for editorial teams: iF press office (Fritz Frenkler, Chairman of the Jury, f/p design, Frankfurt/Main and Tokyo) Neumann + Luz Silke Becker, Claudia Neumann Roonstraße 108 D-50674 Köln phone +49.221.258 47 73 fax +49.221.258 47 74 [email protected] [email protected] page 2

No easy task: the jury, chaired by Fritz Frenkler, had a hard time of it for the iF product design award 2005. The jury members were: Sam Hecht (Industrial Facility, London/GB), Chul-ho Kim (KIDP Korea Institute of Design Promotion, Gyenggi- do/ROK), Bill Moggridge (IDEO, Palo Alto/USA), Fred Held (Held + Team, Hamburg/D), Uli Skrypalle (designafairs, Munich/D), Toyoyuki Uematsu (Matsushita Electric Industrial, Osaka/J), Prof. Werner Aisslinger (studio aisslinger, Berlin/D), Britta Pukall (Milani Design & Consult, Erlenbach/Zürich/CH), Peter Schreyer (Volkswagen AG/Volkswagen Design, Wolfsburg/D), Philipp Bree (BREE Collection, Isernhagen/D), Gioa Meller-Markovics (goia ltd, Venice/I), Peter Thonet (Gebrüder Thonet, Frankenberg/Eder/D), Wen-Iong Chen (Nova Design, Taipei/TW), Peter Krouwel (Streetlife, Leiden/NL), Christophe Marchand (Zürich/CH), Manfred Spengler (ADAC, Laatzen/D), Peter Gammack (Dyson, Wiltshire/GB), Renny Ramakers (Droog Design, Amsterdam/NL), Prof. Wolfgang Sattler (Schwäbisch Gmünd/D). The jury made its selections on the basis of the following criteria: design quality, workmanship, choi- ce of materials, degree of innovation, environmental compatibility, functionality, ergonomics, of use, safety and brand value/branding.

The categories iF product design awards were bestowed on 122 entries in the category of 01 Consumer Electronics/Tele-communications, making this the second biggest winner category. The 02 Computers category yielded a total of 46 awards. In 03 Office/Business, a category which the jury rated as only sparsely represented this year, 18 products won an iF seal of design excellence. 34 products were successful in the category of 04 Light, as were 141 in the category 05 Household/Residential. 35 products netted an award in 06 Leisure/Lifestyle, as did 81 products from 07 Industry/Buildings. The jury selected 22 prizewinners in 08 Medicine and 11 pro- ducts in 09 Packaging. 12 products won for the category 10 Public Design/ and a total of 13 prizes were awarded to products in the 11 Transportation category.

The category 12 advanced studies, providing for all innovative, experimen- tal, non-marketed studies from all areas of the iF product design award, was pre- sented a total of eight times in its debut year. “An important and, for , desirable category which is sure to attract many contestants next year — and must do so, if it is to succeed. This year we failed to witness enough visionary approa- ches,” reported jury member Peter Krouwel.

Highest number of entries ever: the jury for the students-only 13 concepts category had to field a total of 460 entries, finally deciding on 20 lucky recipi- ents of an iF seal of outstanding achievement. In the future, the iF communication For further informations: design award will also limit prizes in the “concepts” category to 20 contestants. The Dyson company sponsored the awards for the second time, donating total prize iF International Forum Design GmbH Dirk Bartelsmeier, Anne-Kathrin Aumann money in the amount of EUR 10,000, to be split among seven of the 20 students. Messegelände “Creative, well-thought out problem-solving processes were the main characteri- D-30521 Hannover phone +49.511.89-32404 stics of the entries in this year’s ‘concepts’ category,” reported Peter Gammack, fax +49.511.89-32407 Director at Dyson. “We observed a high of techni- [email protected] [email protected] cal understanding but at the same time, would hope to see more boldness in under- www.ifdesign.de taking practical experiments that go beyond the level of mere ideas,” he concluded. Prof. Wolfgang Sattler added that: “The 460 entries submitted incorporate an incre- Contact for editorial teams: iF press office dibly broad range of working styles and application fields and are therefore an ade- Neumann + Luz quate reflection of the different national education profiles. The projects were at a Silke Becker, Claudia Neumann Roonstraße 108 high level and, despite the huge quantity of entries to be judged, it was apparent D-50674 Köln that the jury enjoyed doing so. Not only young people and individual design whiz- phone +49.221.258 47 73 fax +49.221.258 47 74 zes from around the world are competing here, but also various curricula and ety- [email protected] mological identities, making comparisons an intensive, discursive process.” [email protected] page 3

The “Dyson Innovation Award” endowed with a purse of EUR 5,000, is further- more reserved for the entries in the “concepts” category.

Which of the 20 students will be among the lucky winners and the amount of prize money due to them will be announced on March 10, 2005 at the awards cere- mony within the framework of CeBIT. This is where the winners of the 50 iF Gold Awards, the so-called “design Oscars” for outstanding design achievements will also be announced. A new feature this year is that the winners of an iF gold award will be classified in an “iF gold selection” for the year, thus representing a “hall of fame” for the respective iF product design award annual competition.

Please contact us for a complete list of the prizewinners (for journalists only).

For further informations:

iF International Forum Design GmbH Dirk Bartelsmeier, Anne-Kathrin Aumann Messegelände D-30521 Hannover phone +49.511.89-32404 fax +49.511.89-32407 [email protected] [email protected] www.ifdesign.de

Contact for editorial teams: iF press office Neumann + Luz Silke Becker, Claudia Neumann Roonstraße 108 D-50674 Köln phone +49.221.258 47 73 fax +49.221.258 47 74 [email protected] [email protected]