In the brand and communication design category of the Red Dot Design Award 2022, considered one of the world’s three major design awards, Spread won the Red Dot: Grand Prix for Tsubame-Sanjo Factory Museum and the Red Dot for Color Jungle.
Last year Spread was awarded the Red Dot: Grand Prix for their project Mesh Virus-Control Flag Partition, making this the second consecutive year they have won the Grand Prix.

On the 28th of October 2022, Spread attended the Red Dot Design Award 2022 ceremony in Berlin, Germany, and received the trophy. The best entry in the category ‘Best of the Best’ is awarded the Grand Prix – making it the highest award. This year six projects were selected for the Grand Prix from over 9,000 entries from around 50 countries.

Videos

Tsubame-Sanjo Factory Museum

Color Jungle

Mesh Virus-Control Flag Partition

 

About the Red Dot Design Award
The Red Dot Design Award, organized by the Design Zentrum Nordrhein Westfalen in Germany, was founded in 1955. It is known as one of the world’s three major design awards, along with the iF Design Award also in Germany and the International Design Excellence Awards (IDEA) in the USA. Divided into three categories – product design, brand and communication design and design concept – a jury of international design experts annually judge the entries on nine criteria, including innovation, functionality, ergonomics, ecology and durability.

On receiving the award
Twelve years ago, we won our first Red Dot Design Award for the packaging design of a textile brand set up with a small family-run workshop. The brand’s products were extremely well made, the result of craftsmen’s skills in producing new textiles on 100-year-old looms, but it was a time when the ability to communicate their value was desperately lacking. I still remember entering the Red Dot Design Award as I struggled to find ways in which I could help to raise the awareness and value of the product.

The Red Dot Design Award is a trusted design award that values recognition for designs that lead to solutions to social issues. It is also an award that promotes awareness of design as a natural and necessary force in society. The award is given to the person or organization that commissioned the design and the designer who responded. Although often misunderstood, the awards are not just for designers. It is also a high evaluation from a global perspective for those who commissioned and implemented the design to propel modern society forward. This overarching appreciation of the project creates trust, and trust turns into value and drives society – design is also directly related to the economy, which is one of the main drivers of society. Receiving a Red Dot Design Award is not a goal but a process, a means to connect and build on the next phase of activities, including economic activities.

Since winning our first award 12 years ago, we have received recognition for our logo, product and installation designs, and including the two we have received this year, this is the eighth time we have won a Red Dot Design Award. The awards ceremony we attended was of the highest quality, carefully prepared with a purpose in every detail. While it was a glamorous ceremony, there was a consensus towards addressing the pressing issues on the earth through design, such as climate change, war, and the coronavirus pandemic.

This year’s Grand Prix was awarded to Tsubame-Sanjo Factory Museum – an exhibition that tells the story of the activities of a metalworking production area and presents it to the world on the site of a former factory of over 2,000 m2. Last year, the Grand Prix was awarded to Mesh Virus-Control Flag Partition – a new partition proposed for the coronavirus pandemic using a mesh material combined with new virus control technology. In a situation where it’s no exaggeration to say that the times are changing, winning the Grand Prix for the second consecutive year in a row is both a joyous and sobering event and proof that we have faced social challenges.

Participating in the world’s largest design event Milano Salone for ten years, exhibitions in London and Paris, and cultural education activities in Switzerland and Singapore, all successes and failures, together with clients, have resulted in experiences that have shaped our thinking.
By facing and designing for society and its people, we have created circumstances for the future to unfold. We are honored to receive this award and are committed to promoting more socially responsible designs.

Spread
 Haruna Yamada & Hirokazu Kobayashi

Please see the press release for more information about the award-winning projects.