"The Oscars" of Design Industry - Red Dot Design Award

The Red Dot Design Award is known as the “The Oscars” of the Design Industry”, and world-renowned brands such as Apple, Sony, Huawei, and Midea have all won the award.

The Red Dot Design Award History

With a history of more than 60 years, the Red Dot Design Award was established earlier than other international design awards. The award can be traced back to the Verein Industrieform established on July 30, 1954. The association was initiated by Professor Carl Hundhausen, head of Krupp’s public relations and advertising department, to promote the export and modernization of German consumer goods. In 1955, the association hosted the first annual design competition and exhibition.

In 1990, the association evolved into the company “Design Zentrum Nordrhein Westfalen” (DZNRW), which also had a company logo: a black and orange dot with letters. In 1991, Peter Zec, former President of the International Council of Industrial Design Societies (Icsid) and President of the Association of German Industrial Designers (VDID), took over the DZNRW company and redeveloped the Red Dot Design Award logo, which was first introduced as an award logo in 1992.

Later, with the increasing internationalization of the Red Dot Design Award, its name was changed from the German “Roter Punkt” to the English “Red Dot”. evolved into today’s style.

Compared with other international awards held by authoritative official organizations (such as the Academy Awards, which is hosted by the American Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences), the Red Dot Design Award is more popular and for profit.

According to the official website of the Red Dot Design Award, the jury of the 2022 Red Dot Design Award is composed of 48 professors, consultants, industrial designers, and journalists from different fields. In order to avoid bribery or favoritism, the judges cannot select products that they participated in the production process.

According to the available information, in 2020, the Red Dot Design Award officially received about 17,670 works from 70 countries and regions around the world to participate in the selection. Searching for the Red Dot Design Award on Google, the world’s largest search engine, yields 3.4 billion results. It should be said that it is a well-known award in the world.

The Red Dot Design Award Category

The Red Dot Design Award actually has a complex award system. Collectively referred to as the “Red Dot Design Award”, it is divided into three main tracks: Product Design, Brands & Communication Design, and Design Concept. There are also different sub-tracks under the main tracks.

Main Tracks	Sub-tracks
Product Design	Red Dot Red Dot: Best of the Best
Brands & Communication Design	Red Dot Red Dot: Best of the Best Red Dot: Grand Prix Red Dot: Brand of the Year Red Dot: Junior Prize
Design Concept	Red Dot Red Dot: Best of the Best Red Dot: Honourable Mention Red Dot: Luminary

Among them, the most accessible award is the Red Dot, which is available in all three main tracks. According to the data on the official website of Red Dot Design Award, in 2020, the number of Red Dots that won the Red Dot Design Award accounted for 16% of the total number of entries (only 1% that won the Best of the Best Red Dot Award); as far as the product design track is concerned, the number of Red Dot awards accounted for 25% of the total number of entries in the track (and the number of Red Dot Best of the Best awards only accounted for 1.2%).

To win the Grand Prix and Luminary, the difficulty is even higher. In 2020, the Grand Prix award ratio is 7/7000, which is only 0.1%, and the number of Luminary awards is 1/4170, which is 0.02%.

How To Apply For Red Dot Design Award

The selection process for the Red Dot Design Award is as follows: select a race track, submit information on the registration website, pay fees, review by experts, and awards. Entries in the product design track also need to mail the products to the designated address.

Taking the product design track as an example, the registration fee for a single product ranges from 300-650 euros. The later the registration time, the more expensive the registration fee. If the submitted product display space exceeds 3 square meters, or other description materials such as images, videos, documents, etc. need to be uploaded, an additional fee of 150-500 euros will be charged. In 2022, entrants can also use the same work to sign up for the two categories of “smart products” and “innovative products”, but need to pay two registration fees.

If the winner is awarded in the product design category, the entrant also needs to pay the “prize acceptance fee”. A Red Dot Design Award (Red Dot) requires a redemption fee of 3,950 euros and a Red Dot: Best of the Best award requires 5,995 euros. The award-winning works participating in the offline exhibition organized by Red Dot Design Award require 0 – 2050 euros and getting extra pages in the “Red Dot Design Yearbook” require 570 – 1750 euros.

In sum, the product design track costs around 4,500 euros to 10,000 euros; the brands & communication track costs around 1,800 euros to 7200 euros; and the design concept track costs around 800 euros to 1000 euros.

The Red Dot Design Award does not limit the number of registrations, that is to say, a company can submit multiple products.