Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About... Design Awards [video]
What's the point of design awards? Which ones do we enter? What happens if you win? Jarred Evans, our MD, explains all...
Fresh from our latest awards win (Snoozeal® Wins at the 2020 IDEA Awards), we asked Jarred to talk through our 14 year history with global design awards in this latest video.
In a rush? Skip to the highlights...
Not all design awards are made equal
There are only 4 awards we enter globally, based on some strict criteria we feel is important. First, they have to be double blind judged, meaning it's the content of the project that wins.
Also, they must be global, and represent the very best of innovative design talent.
iF Design Awards
Since 1953, the iF Design Awards has been recognised as a symbol of design excellence around the world, and receives over 6,000 submissions from 70 countries every year.
With awards ranging from general 'Design' through to 'Design Gold' and 'Design Talent', the iF Association is a truly all-encompassing institution celebrating global talent.
Our most recent iF award wins include:
• Brace, 2020 [Gold award]
Red Dot Design Award
The Red Dot Design Award is another German-born design institution, founded in 1954.
It gets over 18,000 entries each year from over 70 countries, and is one of the world’s largest and the most renowned design competitions.
Our most recent Red Dot award wins include:
Good Design Awards
Founded in 1950 from the collaboration between two institutions in Chicago and New York, the GOOD DESIGN® exhibition program has since awarded around 40,000 awards for design and innovation, sustainability, creativity, branding, ecologically responsible design, human factors, materials, technology, graphic arts, packaging, and universal design.
Our most recent Good Design award wins include:
IDSA / IDEA Design Awards
The International Design Excellence Awards (IDEA) from IDSA mark their 41st anniversary in 2021, having celebrated exceptional achievement in design since 1980.
Originally formed to recognise industrial design, it's since grown to highlight design in design strategy, branding, digital interaction and much more.
Our most recent IDEA award wins include:
• Flo, 2020 [finalist]
PDR ranks at #2 for 'design agencies' in the UK
The iF World Design Guide (below) is a global ranking of agencies and design companies in the world - so a pretty competitive list, to say the least!
At the time of writing, PDR comes in at #2 in the UK, just behind Kenwood - a fantastic company and client of ours - and above other names like Samsung, Herman Miller and more.
We're also in the top #50 for health & medical design in the world, and in the top #50 for design studios in the world.
We've been entering awards since 2006
It all started when Jarred walked into the studio, holding a book of Red Dot winners, and suggested we were good enough to 'give it a go' - and 12 months later, we had our first Red Dot!
Since that time, we've been awarded 42 design awards from various institutions - but numbers don't matter, according to Jarred.
Design awards have helped elevate PDR to the next level, no doubt about it; going for awards helps us to calibrate and benchmark what we do, and why we do it.
Consistency is key for the future
So, what next? The past 8-10 months has been a time of upheaval for many industries, but it's also provided a great opportunity for reflection and 'stoking the fire', so to speak.
We've continued working hard on our client projects, and we'll continue our efforts to produce award-winning work.
But, as Jarred says himself, "it isn't all about winning". Sometimes there are projects you feel are better pieces of work that don't win - but as long as it's the best work we can possibly put out there, with pride from our team and our client - that's what matters most.
Interested in more from PDR? Find out more about us.