Trend: Consistent design and ideas borrowed from sports

Good design always implies the necessity to see further than one's nose in order to acknowledge the interrelatedness of various worlds. This becomes apparent in this year’s award category “Industry and Crafts.” In their design, ergonomically sophisticated tools take on the kind of image usually found in the sector of fashionable sports. This impression results particularly from a mix of materials: Plastics in blue and orange mix with similarly-coloured rubberised surfaces. Besides a new visual look, this combination also induce completely new tactile impressions for the user, as the jury members Werner Aisslinger, Kenneth Grange and Bruno Sacco described. Work with these tools is re-interpreted: It is less strict.

Mechanical engineering is signalling that in its field design is playing an ever more important role and that, at the same time, a new aesthetic is establishing itself. The design of the machines was extremely systematic, according to the jury. Machine parts were "modular and clean in structure." Furthermore, machinery and components often displayed "stringent solutions and elaborate Corporate Design." For the jury it became clear in many respects that the companies in the category “Industry and Crafts" are consistently and confidently investing in innovation.

Jurors: Werner Aisslinger, Kenneth Grange, Bruno Sacco

You can find the winners of "red dot: best of the best" 2004 here.