Wacom Receives International Award for Product Design

The Cintiq 21UX Interactive Pen Display from Wacom was awarded the coveted "red dot" for high design quality in the product design category by the Design Zentrum Nordrhein Westfalen. The internationally recognised commendation is awarded annually for superior design quality and innovation.

Deciding factors for the independent jury's decision are for example, the degree of innovation, functionality, form quality, ergonomics, symbolic and emotional content, and self-explanatory quality.

The Cintiq 21UX Interactive Pen Display is the perfect instrument for product and fashion designers, graphic designers, illustrators, and digital photographers. It enables intuitive working and optimal hand-eye co-ordination, via use of the pen directly on the 21.3" TFT display. The smoothly-swivelling and detachable display fits to an individual working style as easily as a sketchbook.



The design of the Cintiq 21UX reflects Wacom's philosophy to develop intuitive interface solutions that allow a natural and harmonious interaction with the computer. Developed as a tool to express creativity the Cintiq 21UX had to meet highest design standards and at the same time fulfil professional requirements of working effectively in digital applications. The in-house design process was supported by the industrial designers of RiskyBrand and involved a global team from Wacom's offices in Japan, Europe and the USA.

Key to the Cintiq 21UX is the integration of Intuos3 functionality, including the ExpressKeys and Touch Strips. These features can be individually programmed and configured for every application and are beneficial for Cintiq users as the keyboard is not normally in direct range. The ExpressKeys are two freely programmable, four-button keypads that are pre-configured with frequently used modifier keys, such as CTRL, ALT, SHIFT and SPACE. The Touch Strip acts like a scroll bar with presets to allow zooming and scrolling in various applications. With the pen in one hand, the user's other hand can rest over the ExpressKeys and Touch Strip - not having to constantly move the hand to the keyboard significantly improves workflow and productivity.



The Cintiq 21UX's product design and aesthetics combine an impressive 21.3" drawing area with a flat bezel. This is ideal for graphic artists and industrial designers because their strokes are not limited while sketching across the surface. The graphic capabilities of the screen offer a resolution of 1,600 x 1,200 pixels with 24-bit colour depth.

With an accurate ICC profile for colour management, the Cintiq 21UX's screen with its wide viewing angle provides a true colour environment, crucial to digital photographers. The specially coated, glare-free LCD reduces reflection and the new technology of the flat front bezel reduces parallax. This allows the tip of the pen to be closer to the surface of the screen, enabling illustrators, industrial designers and graphic artists to be much more precise in detailed work.



The Interactive Pen Display has a high-end, stylish and slimline industrial design in anthracite grey. Its display stand is removable and adjustable, allowing the tablet to be rotated easily through +/- 180 degrees. It can also be tilted into multiple positions from 10 to 60 degrees (horizontal to vertical) which exactly replicates the traditional way of working when moving a piece of paper on a drawing board. This flexibility makes the Cintiq 21UX a natural tool, which is comfortable to use and helps to increase productivity.

About Wacom
Founded in 1983, Wacom is the world's leading manufacturer of pen tablets and interactive pen displays with customers worldwide using its cordless, battery-free, pressure-sensitive pen technology for digital content creation. Wacom's patented electromagnetic resonance technology, called Penabled, is also offered as an OEM solution to manufacturers of PC and Macintosh computers. Many of today's tablet PCs count on the advanced features and reliability of Penabled technology for pen input. In the future, Penabled technology will play a leading role in the development of such mobile devices as smart phones and PDAs.

Cintiq 21UX : http://www.dexigner.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=948

About the Red Dot Design Award
With over 4,000 entries from 40 countries, the red dot design award ranks among the largest design competitions worldwide. The competition is divided into three sections - product design, communication design and concept design - which are staged and adjudicated separately. The coveted trophy is the red dot, the international seal of quality for outstanding design.

Red Dot Design Award : http://www.dexigner.com/directory/detail/3454.html

Award Ceremony and Special Exhibition
The festive award ceremony takes place on 26 June 2006 in the Essen Aalto Theatre. The award-winning works will be exhibited in the special exhibition "Design on stage - winners red dot award: product design 2006" from 27 June to 23 July 2006 in the red dot design museum in Essen. The red dot design museum houses the largest permanent exhibition of contemporary design world-wide.

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