UK misses top spots in Red Dot awards

British designers took only ten of the 523 gongs given at this year’s Red Dot product design awards, announced in Germany last week. None of the 43 Best of Best awards went to British designers.

However, Softroom and Virgin Atlantic, Best of Show winners in the Design Week Awards, also picked up a Red Dot for the airline’s business class lounge. Other British design groups honoured include Studio SDA for its paint brush cleaning device for Brushdoctor, and Ergonomidesign for the Bosieboo Bath Thermometer.

The in-house team at Kenwood took four awards for products including its Semi Pro toaster and JE 900 Eon series juicer. In-house teams at Samsonite, Kohler and Studio William Welsh also won Red Dots for the Tartaruga carbon fibre backpack, Purist Hatbox toilet (pictured) and Olive cutlery respectively.

In total, there were 2548 entries from 43 countries across 13 competition categories. Judges were drawn from across the world, with British representatives including Conran & Partners director Sebastian Conran and Pentagram co-founder Kenneth Grange.

Winners were selected on nine criteria, including innovation, functionality, ergonomics, durability and ecological compatibility. An awards ceremony takes place on 25 June in Essen, Germany, and an exhibition of the winning designs runs from 26 June to 23 July in the city’s Red Dot Design Museum.