The Red Dot Design Award (styled "red dot design award") is an international product design

Design

Design as a noun informally refers to a plan or convention for the construction of an object or a system while “to design” refers to making this plan...

 prize

Award

An award is something given to a person or a group of people to recognize excellence in a certain field; a certificate of excellence. Awards are often signifiedby trophies, titles, certificates, commemorative plaques, medals, badges, pins, or ribbons...

 awarded by the Design

Design

Design as a noun informally refers to a plan or convention for the construction of an object or a system while “to design” refers to making this plan...

 Zentrum Nordrhein Westfalen

North Rhine-Westphalia

North Rhine-Westphalia is the most populous state of Germany, with four of the country's ten largest cities. The state was formed in 1946 as a merger of the northern Rhineland and Westphalia, both formerly part of Prussia. Its capital is Düsseldorf. The state is currently run by a coalition of the...

in Essen

Essen

- Origin of the name :In German-speaking countries, the name of the city Essen often causes confusion as to its origins, because it is commonly known as the German infinitive of the verb for the act of eating, and/or the German noun for food. Although scholars still dispute the interpretation of...

, Germany

Germany

Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

. There are prize categories for product design, design agencies, and design concepts. Since 1955, designers and producers

Manufacturing

Manufacturing is the use of machines, tools and labor to produce goods for use or sale. The term may refer to a range of human activity, from handicraft to high tech, but is most commonly applied to industrial production, in which raw materials are transformed into finished goods on a large scale...

 can apply for the prizes with the winners being presented in an annual ceremony

Ceremony

A ceremony is an event of ritual significance, performed on a special occasion. The word may be of Etruscan origin.-Ceremonial occasions:A ceremony may mark a rite of passage in a human life, marking the significance of, for example:* birth...

. Winning products are presented in the Red Dot Design Museum on the premises of the historical Zollverein Coal Mine Industrial Complex

Zollverein Coal Mine Industrial Complex

The Zollverein Coal Mine Industrial Complex is a large former industrial site in the city of Essen, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany...

 in Essen. The Red Dot Design Award has more than 11,000 submissions from 61 countries.

Product design / design team

The oldest of the three awards, the Red Dot Award: Product Design had been known as Design Innovationen until 2000. The competition

Competition

Competition is a contest between individuals, groups, animals, etc. for territory, a niche, or a location of resources. It arises whenever two and only two strive for a goal which cannot be shared. Competition occurs naturally between living organisms which co-exist in the same environment. For...

 is open to several fields of manufacturing, including, but not limited to furniture

Furniture

Furniture is the mass noun for the movable objects intended to support various human activities such as seating and sleeping in beds, to hold objects at a convenient height for work using horizontal surfaces above the ground, or to store things...

, home appliances, machines, cars

CARS

Cars, or automobiles, motor cars, are wheeled motor vehicles used for transporting passengers.Cars or CARS may also refer to:-Entertainment:* Cars , a Disney/Pixar film series...

 and tools.

Red Dot: Design Team of the Year
The Red Dot: Design Team of the Year is a non-submission award that has been awarded annually since 1991 to design teams that have had an impact on worldwide markets due to their design achievements. The prize-winners include companies such as Siemens

Siemens

Siemens may refer toSiemens, a German family name carried by generations of telecommunications industrialists, including:* Werner von Siemens , inventor, founder of Siemens AG...

 in 1995, Apple in 2001, BMW

BMW

Bayerische Motoren Werke AG is a German automobile, motorcycle and engine manufacturing company founded in 1916. It also owns and produces the Mini marque, and is the parent company of Rolls-Royce Motor Cars. BMW produces motorcycles under BMW Motorrad and Husqvarna brands...

 in 2007, the Bose Design Center

Bose

Bose may refer to:* Amar Gopal Bose, the chairman and founder of Bose Corporation* Baise City, or Bose, a prefecture-level city in Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, China* Bose Corporation, an audio company* Bose , a lunar crater...

 in 2008, and Opel

Opel

Adam Opel AG, generally shortened to Opel, is a German automobile company founded by Adam Opel in 1862. Opel has been building automobiles since 1899, and became an Aktiengesellschaft in 1929...

 in 2008 and 2010.

Communication design

Since 1993, the Red Dot award: Communication Design is awarded for achievements in the fields of corporate design

Corporate design

A corporate design is the official graphical design of the logo and name of a company or institution used on letterheads, envelopes, forms, folders, brochures, etc...

, advertising

Advertising

Advertising is a form of communication used to persuade an audience to take some action with respect to products, ideas, or services. Most commonly, the desired result is to drive consumer behavior with respect to a commercial offering, although political and ideological advertising is also common...

, interactive media

Interactive media

Interactive media normally refers to products and services on digital computer-based systems which respond to the user’s actions by presenting content such as text, graphics, animation, video, audio, etc.-Terminology:...

 or sound

Sound

Sound is a mechanical wave that is an oscillation of pressure transmitted through a solid, liquid, or gas, composed of frequencies within the range of hearing and of a level sufficiently strong to be heard, or the sensation stimulated in organs of hearing by such vibrations.-Propagation of...

 design.

Since 2008, the Red Dot: Design Agency of the Year award has been given to a design agency that has had an impact on the whole branch due to their design achievements. The first Red Dot: Design Agency of the Year, Strichpunkt, received this special award, the "Stylus".

Design concept

In 2005, Red Dot established the Red Dot Design Museum Singapore

Singapore

Singapore , officially the Republic of Singapore, is a Southeast Asian city-state off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, north of the equator. An island country made up of 63 islands, it is separated from Malaysia by the Straits of Johor to its north and from Indonesia's Riau Islands by the...

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.

Number of applicants

The number of applicants has been rising steadily. In total, the 2008 competition received more than 11,000 entries from 61 nations. In 2008, there were over 3.200 submissions from 51 countries for the product design prize (with 676 winning), over 5,800 submissions for the communication design prize (with 343 winning) and 1,900 entries from 46 countries (with 223 winning).