On December 1, The Industrial Designers Society of America (IDSA) will open its International Design Excellence Awards (IDEA) 2012 program to designers, students and companies worldwide. For 32 years, IDEA has recognized design excellence in products, sustainability, interaction design, packaging, strategy, research and concepts.
This year, IDSA introduces five new industry segments to IDEA: social impact design, bathroom, spas and wellness, gardens and outdoors, kitchens, and living room and bedroom. The awards program honors products that have been in distribution and available for sale between February 2010 and February 2011. For the third year, The Henry Ford in Dearborn, MI, will house the winners in its permanent collection.
"The IDEA program is referred as the 'Oscars' of industrial design. Why? Because IDEA is not influenced by the organization that hosts them, IDSA. Leading designers in the profession judge the awards in a peer review process. It is the task of the jury to determine what the conditions for excellence are. Over the past two years that definition has been radically changing in line with design's changing position in corporations," said Clive Roux, CEO of IDSA. "In 2010, the jury decided that the concept of the designer's responsibility towards the world, its people and their cultures must be a more important part of the criteria for excellence. Now for 2012 there will be a new category added to reflect the professions deepening interest and commitment to help solve some of the world's larger systemic issues that have not been given as much attention as the incremental solutions for more mainstream mass-market products. This shift mirrors design's shift from the position of styling in the middle of the last century to a core problem solving and value added methodology for businesses today."