The Red Dot Design Award is an international design prize awarded by Red Dot GmbH & Co. KG. There are prize categories for product design, brand and communication design as well as design concepts. Since 1955, designers and producers can apply for the prizes with the winners being presented in an annual ceremony. Winning products are presented amongst others in the Red Dot Design Museum on the premises of the historical Zollverein Coal Mine Industrial Complex in Essen. The Red Dot Design Museum Essen was built in 1997, it is also the first Red Dot Design Museum. The second Red Dot Design Museum was built in Singapore in 2005. The Red Dot Design Award had more than 15,500 submissions from 70 countries in 2014. In 2016 alone, 1,559 Red Dots were awarded, 102 of them in the "Best of the Best" category.
Cost
As of April 2020, the registration fee for consideration of a Red Dot awards ranges from €99 to €510, excl. VAT. Those who win a Red Dot award are required to purchase an additional “Winner Package”, the price of which ranges up to €5,999.
Categories
The Red Dot is awarded in three different disciplines:
The oldest of the three awards, the Red Dot Award: Product Design had been known as Design Innovationen until 2000. The competition is open to several fields of manufacturing, including furniture, home appliances, machines, cars and tools. The prize-winners include Berendsohn in 2003, Inga Sempé in 2007, De Vorm in 2012 and Lunar Design in 2015. TROIKE were the 2016 winners with the bottle opener called “Circus” The "Red Dot: Design Team of the Year" is a non-submission honorary title that has been awarded annually since 1988 to design teams that have affected worldwide markets due to their design achievements. The prize-winners include companies such as Siemens in 1995, Applein 2001, BMW in 2007, the Bose Design Center in 2008, Porsche in 2012, Lenovo in 2013, Veryday, Bosch Home Appliances in 2015 and Ferrari in 2016.
Since 1993, the Red Dot Award: Brands & Communication Design award has existed to honour achievements in the fields of brand and communication design. Since 2008, the Red Dot: Agency of the Year honorary title has been given to the design agency that most influenced their entire sector through their design achievements.
Red Dot Award: Design Concept
In 2005, Red Dot established the Red Dot Design Museum Singapore and also an award for design innovations and design concepts. The Red Dot Award: Design Concept centres on design concepts, ideas and visions. The competition focuses on young, up-and-coming creative talents, designers and design companies around the world. Flint is a winner of the Red Dot Award: Design Concept 2015.
