Design Award of the Federal Republic of Germany
The Design Award is sponsored by the Federal Ministry of Economics and Technology and was given for exceptional international achievements in the field of product design as the "Federal Prize for Good Form" for the first time in 1969. Since 2006, it has been presented annually under the name "Design Award of the Federal Republic of Germany" and is given for outstanding achievements in the fields of product and communication design, as well as to a celebrity from the world of design. What distinguishes the Design Award of the Federal Republic of Germany from other competitions is that it offers the business community a platform for communicating the long-term success of designs and brands. Its unique feature is that participation in this competition is possible only for design items that have already won an award elsewhere. This ensures that only those industrial products and such achievements in the field of communication design will be honoured as have already proved their design excellence in the market place. For the Design Award the two creative disciplines of communication design and product design are judged at the same time – and in a single process. The independent jury, which is formally convened by the German Federal Minister of Economics, is composed of established experts in both disciplines.
No other Design Award sets its entrants such a strict criterion. Because of this the Design Award of the Federal Republic of Germany is known as the "Prize of Prizes".
