2014/2015 Design Management Europe Award ─ Winners Announced
Winners of 2014/2015 Design Management Europe Award Announced
The Winners in this year's DME Awards were announced on the 20th November at a multi-national ceremony at Cite du Design in Saint Etienne, France.
The DME is the only international award that recognises how organisations manage design (rather than their actual product or service) and representatives from the fourteen shortlisted entries gathered along with 200 other delegates from across Europe to find out who would receive a winner's trophy or Honourable Mention in each of the five categories.
Originally only open to European organisations, for the last two years entries have been encouraged from those outside of Europe with one of this year's joint winners in the Large Company category, Newell-Rubbermaid, not only coming from the USA but raising the bar for Europe by being awarded the highest ever scores since the launch of the DME in 2007 (full finalist listing below). Philip Thompson, Vice-President of Design at Newell Rubbermaid traveled from Michigan to St Etienne to receive their trophy in person.
Alongside multi-national corporations a range of award categories allow entries from all size of organisation and the public/non-profit sectors. UK-based winners in the small company category were Specialist Precast Products who produce precast concrete for architects and engineers. Upon receiving his trophy company Director Martyn Fear outlined how their journey in understanding and managing design has taken them from being a local supplier to being able to produce of high value products for clients across the UK and exploring opportunities abroad.
Entering the DME requires the submission of a poster that summarises each organisations approach to managing design that is then assessed by independent experts. This year's judges were Carole Bilson, President of the Design Management Institute (USA); Les Wynn, Head of the European Experience Design Team at HCL (UK) and Roel Stavorinus, an experienced design management consultant who's clients have included several previous DME Award and a Red Dot winners (Netherlands).
The posters from all of the shortlisted entries are available on the DME website, further adding to the largest collection of design management insight anywhere in the world and a resource that is available free to anyone in both industry and education. Past winners have included Heineken, Glaxo-Smith-Kline, Procter & Gamble, LEGO, Schneider Electric and many more
In the Spring of each year the DME invite proposals from potential cities where the award ceremony can be held the following Winter. This year the Cite Du Design in St Etienne; a previous winner of the award in 2013, included the DME Award ceremony as part of the 3rd edition of their 'Design Map' programme. With the theme the "Economic impact of Design" and over 30 exhibitions and workshops, design Map provided the perfect setting for the 8th edition of the DME Award.
The winners of each of the five categories were presented with a trophy that was designed and produced by the design research centre PDR in the UK. As well as highlighting the initials "DME" the precision and finish of the 3-D printed trophy was intended to reflect the attention to detail required in managing design to the level achieved by the finalists.
DME Award 2014/15 Winners and Honourable Mentions:
Large companies
Newell Rubbermaid (USA) - Winner.
AutoScout24 (Germany) - Winner.
Carrefore (France) - Honourable Mention.
SAP SE (Germany) - Honourable Mention.
Medium sized companies
Imperia AG (Germany) - Winner.
Intra Lighting (Slovenia) - Honourable Mention.
Small company
Specialist Precast Products (UK) - Winner
Marset Iluminacion S.A. (Spain) - Winner
PRO Produkcja Sp.z.o.o. (Poland) - Honourable Mention.
Micro company
Quut (Belgium) - Winner).
Octagon Design S.L. (Spain) - Honourable Mention.
BiomeDesign (Canada) - Honourable Mention.
Non-profit organisation.
Myddfai Trading Company (UK) - Winner.
vzw Web (Belgium) - Honourable Mention.
The annual Design Management Europe (DME) Award is the only international award dedicated to the management of design in private or public sector organisations. It recognises the ongoing processes, business decisions and strategies that enable innovation and create effectively designed products, services, communications, environments and brands providing organizational success.
From preparing a design brief for an external design consultancy to the complete integration of design in the business model; all such practices are different for every organisation but require appropriate design management to be successful.
Since 2007, the DME Award has been organised by a network of European Design Organisation. The primary objective of the DME Award is the promotion of the strategic use of design in order to increase the competitiveness of industry and the effectiveness of our public services.
The DME Award is open to both the private and public sectors and is divided into five categories of size and type of organisation.
From the completion of a questionnaire to the design of a poster, the entrants present their design management processes, strategies and procedures to a jury of internationally recognised Design Management experts who short-list candidates and choose the final category winners.
DME Contact details:
Sebastian Hesselmann
Tel: +44 (0)29 2041 7001
Email: sehesselmann [169] cardiffmet [961] ac [961] uk
http://www.designmanagementexcellence.com/
About the judges:
Carole Bilson, (USA)
Carole is President, Design Management Institute (DMI) having served on their Advisory Council for 11 years. Prior to this, Carole was president of Strategic Change & Innovation, an organization whose mission is to provide strategic and operational guidance to managers and executives wishing to create organizational change, utilizing design thinking and innovation. Her clients included Fortune 500 corporate companies as well as small and mid-size organizations, educational institutions and non-profits.
Prior to this she was the Vice President, Global Design & Usability & Technology Support Operations at Pitney Bowes. Carole oversaw this award-winning department, at Pitney Bowes for 11 years, delivering leading edge, global design solutions that were appealing and easy to use, for mail and document management solutions. Her team consisted of visual and industrial designers, information architects/ Human Factors engineers, front-end software developers, engineers. Under Carole's leadership, the department received 12 international Design Awards and was awarded 49 patents. She spearheaded an innovation project for the division that resulted in product launch for Apple App Store.
Les Wynn,(UK).
Having graduated with a first class bachelors degree in industrial design engineering, and a Masters degree in product design, he went on to hold senior positions in consultancies, as well as in-house design groups, working on both consumer and industrial products, from mobile telephones, pushchairs and professional sound equipment to award winning office equipment. During his career he has worked extensively in the Far East, Middle East and the USA as well as across Eastern and Western Europe
His current role is as manager of the European Experience Design team within HCL Technologies (a $16bn global consultancy). Having been responsible for user experience within Xerox Europe he brought this role with him into HCL to create and grow a truly unique design organisational operating across client and consultancy environments and multiple geographies. The Experience Design team is responsible for every aspect of the point of interaction between the user and the finished product or service.
Roel Stavorinus (Netherlands).
Roel works as a design management and communications consultant, specialising in corporate identity. After studying design and communications and subsequently communication management he worked as a marketing and communications specialist for several large organisations.
In 2003, he started his own consultancy, commissioned by organizations to consult them on complex design and communication projects, working for organisations such as Dutch National Opera & Ballet, The Ballet Orchestra, Motion10 and Royal BAM Group.
He spends part of his professional time teaching as a guest lecturer on Design Management for Avans University of Applied Sciences, Fontys University of Applied Sciences, St. Joost Art Academy and the European Institute of Brand Management (EURIB).
