Winning Designs

Design makes all the difference. For a teenager choosing a T-shirt, it makes the difference between cool or un-cool; for a website-user seeking information, the difference between clarity and confusion; for a wood-worker using a screwdriver, the difference between a firm grip and a palm full of blisters. Design is where function meets form. And in good design, the two work in harmony: the practical with the beautiful, the consumer's needs with the consumer's desires. In this article we sample some award-winning product designs and reflect on emerging trends.

Design as science

Companies which previously relied on their technological innovation to stay ahead of the competition are re-thinking their product development strategies and are now investing heavily in design as central to success. This is evident in the technologically sophisticated consumer electronics sector, where market leaders vie with each other to lure customers to choose their latest mobile phone or television set.

The Dutch electronics group Philips, which garnered 12 awards at the 2005 International Forum Design (iF) awards in Germany, has no doubt of the importance of design to the company's success. Philips Design employs not only top creative designers, but also anthropologists and psychologists to research human needs, desires and behavior. Research showing that adapted ambient lighting makes for a more relaxing television-watching experience led to Philips' development of Ambilight, in which light with adjustable colors is diffused behind the television set. Two Ambilight televisions were among the iF design winners in May.

"There was a time in the 1970s and 1980s when products were trying to impress with their technological complexity. ...Now there is a rejection of whatever is adding complexity." - Stefano Marzano, Philips Design.¹

Among current trends in industrial design, Chief Executive Officer and Creative Director of Philips Design Stefano Marzano highlights above all simplicity, both in form and function. He also notes a trend towards "humanization," in which products are endowed with greater emotional appeal, including more human attributes; and a "feminization," in which softer shapes and colors increase a product's appeal. These trends are reflected in the designs of other iF award winners, such as Korean company LG...