Design Centrum Nordrhein Westfalen

The Red Dot Design Award is one of the most important design awards in the world. With over 4.000 entries from 40 countries from all over the world, it is placed among the biggest design competitions in the world and its recognition arises each year. The Red Dot Design Award competition has earned its reputation and recognition because of the specific organisation and impartial judging, assured with recognized names from the world of design. The competition is divided into three main judging categories: product, communication and conceptual design that are estimated independently from each other. Categories are inside of its fields additionally divided into individual categories that are individually judged from intentionally joined names in the jury. Winning trophy is internationally recognized red dot that communicates high quality in the field of design.

International jury assesses the category of product design under specific criteria: degree of innovation, functionality, formal quality, ergonomics, durability, symbolic and emotional content, self-explanatory quality and ecological soundness. For prestigious award, in category of product design the Red Dot Design Award: Product Design, are competing diverse products; from the car industry to industrial tools, from furniture to home electronics, from sports equipment to the world of fashion; that are ranked suitably into one of eleven product categories. Selection of the best is made from the jury, chosen elite of independent, top-level experts from the world of design, who usually judge for a number of running years, to assure the continuity of the selection. To receive the Red Dot Design Award, granted from the red dot jury, means being chosen from the best as the best of the best and being placed in the centre of the international design attention.

The Red Dot Design Award is organised by Design Centrum Nordrhein Westfalen from Essen in Germany and will be granted this year for the 50's time. In the very first beginning the competition started as a selection and exhibition of chosen, top-level design products, which were after the exhibition integrated into a museum collection of an institution Haus Industrieform. In the year 1992, under a management of dr. prof. Peter Zec, a leading manager of Design Centrum Nordrhein Westfalen, they upgraded the concept of the competition, made it international, named it with the Red Dot Design Award name and elaborate a new integrated image with a sign of the red dot.

The Red Dot Award is more than a competition. Beside a Yearbook, published at occasion, the final event attends the exhibition of the winners and a ceremonial granting performance of awards. This year's ceremonial granting performance will happened on the 4th of July, 2005, in the ambient of Alto-Theatre in Essen. Every year the final event visits over 1.200 people; many of them are famous personalities from the whole Europe, from different professions of design, marketing, industry, culture and politics.

The Design Centrum Nordrhein Westfalen is one of the oldest and most highly reputed design institutions in Europe in the field of graphical design, multimedia and product design. Today's Design Centrum has been established in the year 1990 as a follower of Essen institute Haus Industrieform that was established in the year 1954. The Design Centrum headquarter is placed into breathtaking architecture, listed on UNESCO's world cultural heritage, Zollverein Colliery, which is also acting as a museum. In the museum there is, on over 4.000m², exhibited over 1.000 awarded products from all over the world. Over 120.000 visitors a year attend the museum. Each year, after ceremonial performance, they exhibit the winning products in a special show room, Stocker's Hall, and after exhibition integrate it into a permanent, 50 years old collection of museum. Because of the high attraction of the museum, there is organised over 70 events, congresses and exhibitions every year.

The main purpose of the centre is a promotion of knowledge, research and education concerning design, the promotion of education in the handling of design and the promotion of the art and culture of design. Design Centrum Nordrhein Westfalen from Essen is internationally known centre for communication and design, that on the daily basis cooperates with many companies with a high awareness of design culture, graphical and design studios, and communication and multimedia agencies.