Jury

An independent jury of experts selects the winners of the German Design Award. The jury is made up of representatives from industry, the universities, the design world and the media. The jury is appointed by the German Design Council.

A brilliant start for the German Design Award 2012

Over 1,500 entries were presented to the jury of international experts on August 11 to 12, 2011 in Frankfurt. The German Design Council has launched the German Design Award, which is taking place for the first time, to close the gap in design promotion left by the discontinuation of the Design Award of the Federal Republic of Germany on the part of the Federal Ministry of Economics and Technology. The range covered by the new German Design Award is appropriate to the task as Andrej Kupetz, General Manger of the German Design Council, explains. “We are very pleased with the result. It shows that the market duly appreciates the initiative we have taken. Industry quite simply needs an exclusive premium prize.”

German Design Award 2012: The Winners are announced

After two days of concentrated effort, the jury had decided on the winners of the 2012 German Design Award on the evening of August 12, 2011. The ten jurors selected 25 winners in the category Product Design and 24 in Communication Design. As Andrej Kupetz, General Manager of the German Design Council said: “The jury had no easy task. Not only the number of entries, but primarily their high quality, mean the jury faced a difficult assignment.”

In addition to the Design Personality, the jury also selected five finalists for the Newcomer Award. The young designers really do have something to look forward to: Ultimately four of them will each receive EUR 2,500, while the overall winner, who will not be announced until the official German Design Award prize ceremony during the 2012 Ambiente trade fair, is awarded EUR 15,000

German Design Council will be releasing all the details on the winners and the finalists in the fall of 2011.

Jury members

From left to right:

Prof. Chris Rehberger, Creative Director and Owner DOUBLE STANDARDS

Johannes Erler, Managing Director Bureau Johannes Erler

Wilhelm Oehl, Managing Director, Eight Inc.

Robert Klanten, Creative Manager of Die Gestalten Verlag GmbH + Co. KG

Dr. Annemarie Jaeggi, Director of the Bauhaus-Archiv, Museum für Gestaltung

Lutz Dietzold, Managing Director German Design Council

Jörg Boner, Managing Director Jörg Boner productdesign

Roland Heiler, Managing Director Porsche Design GmbH

Caroline Seifert, Director of the Product Design Department, Deutsche Telekom

Prof. Frank Zebner, Designer, Dean of Product Design Faculty, Hochschule für Gestaltung Offenbach am Main

Michael Lanz, Managing Director of designaffairs GmbH

Andrej Kupetz, General Manager German Design Council

Judging criteria

The products and other achievements/services should distinguish themselves as a result of their particularly outstanding features in respect of the following:

Ergonomics

Functionality and user friendliness

utility value

Overall concept

Design quality

innovativeness

Longevity

Brand value and branding

Ecological compatibility and quality

Product aesthetics

Product graphics and semantics

Safety and accessibility

Symbolic and emotional content

Technical quality, technical function, production techniques and quality

The above order does not imply any ranking in importance for the jury’s judging criteria. The jury is free to choose the weighting of the individual criteria. All entries that have been submitted in due form and time will be presented to the jury for adjudication. Participating companies will receive a written notice of the results of the adjudication. The judges’ decision is final.

The “German Design Award 2012“ is not to be confused with the award that went by the name of Design Award of the Federal Republic of Germany and was bestowed from 2004 to 2011 by the German Federal Ministry of Economics and Technology.