Kirkland-based company Nytec won the Red Dot Award: Design Concept 2016, for its innovative Audiowear product concept. The Red Dot Award is one of the largest and most prestigious product design awards in the world. Nytec is a full service design, engineering, and manufacturing management consulting firm providing end-to-end solutions and resources to make on-demand consumer lifestyle products a reality, according to the company.
Audiowear is a unique flexible audio device that allows users to wear it as an on-ears headphones, or use it as portable stereo speakers. It was created as an answer for a mobile lifestyle that is gaining more and more popularity. Digital nomads influenced the trend to limit objects we possess and focus on their utility and good fit to their particular way of life. The product concept called into question the need of giving audio devices a hi-tech look while taking a huge step towards fashion-forward technology.
“Winning the Red Dot Award: Design Concept is a true honor and complete validation of the talent on our design team,” said Nytec CEO Richard Lerz. “Vince Ball, our VP of Product Innovation, and his team James Tsai, Malgorzata Blachnicka, Ryan Smalley and Kevin Doan did an amazing job and we are honored to win this award.”
Participants from across the world submitted 4,698 products concepts for the Red Dot: Design Concept 2016 Awards. Winning concepts were selected based on innovation, functionality, quality, ergonomics, and durability.
“Each of the winning concepts represent a significant achievement on the part of the designer. The adjudication process is a particularly demanding one, with each concept subjected to intense scrutiny led by a critical set of jury members,” articulated Ken Koo as he spoke of the adjudication process. “Only 6 percent of all entries were awarded a Red Dot this year, making each awarded concept an outstanding feat of accomplishment.”
In order to appraise the wide scope of design in a professional manner, the Red Dot Design Award is broken down into the three distinct disciplines: the Red Dot Award: Product Design, Red Dot Award: Communication Design and Red Dot Award: Design Concept. The Red Dot Award is organized by the Design Zentrum Nordrhein Westfalen in Essen, Germany. With more than 17,000 entries in 2015 alone, it is one of the largest competitions in the world. It was in 1955 that a jury convened for the first time to assess the best designs of the day.
The name and brand of the award were developed in the 1990s by Red Dot CEO, Professor Dr. Peter Zec. Since then the sought-after “Red Dot” is the revered international seal of outstanding design quality. For more information, visit www.red-dot.org.
