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Recent Design Awards Winners and the Process Inspired Trophies They Received 

The four prestigious design awards programs mentioned below—including a shameless plug to our own Core77 Design Awards—bring together the best designs across many categories, ranging from transportation to footwear design. 

But what’s better than winning an award? Receiving an awesome trophy to either start or add to your collection. The awards themselves are coveted, but the trophies that come with them are as well designed as the projects that won in the first place. All of these trophies highlight a different process related to design, which is exactly why we’ve decided to dedicate a post to them.

IDSA’s International Design Excellence Awards (IDEA)

IDSA’s IDEA Awards program has been curating a tight list of winners across the many fields of industrial design for years, and this year is no different. Our favorites from this year include a dial that has designers all riled up, a scooter/storage hybrid for the elderly and bouncy flatpack furniture. 

Also worth noting is the 2018 IDEA Awards' rebranding by Yves Béhar’s fuseproject. The rebranding includes a swanky new trophy, where the letters in IDSA join together like a puzzle to form a freaking cube. Entries for the 2018 awards open January 2, 2018.

Our Favorite Winners

Microsoft Surface Dial won Gold in Digital Interaction.

Scooter for Life won Gold in Automotive & Transportation.

Sai Flatpack Furniture won Gold in Student Designs.

Fast Company Innovation by Design Awards

The most recently announced award winners were those that took home one of Fast Company’s Innovation by Design Awards. The innovation by Design awards select a single winner for each of the 13 categories. From this year’s awards, a pair of digitally fabricated sneakers, a hairdryer designed by a vacuum company and a modular airplane concept caught our eye. 

More images here.

The Innovation by Design Awards trophy is simple, but its extruded shape is a nod to a popular process well-known across many industries, from food processing to industrial design. 

Our Favorite Winners

adidas Futurecraft 4D won the Products category. Read our thoughts here.

Dyson’s Supersonic Hairdryer won the Fashion and Beauty category. Read our reader discussion on the hairdryer here.

Transpose modular airplane by Airbus won the Experimental category.

Core77 Design Awards

It’s difficult to choose favorites from our very own awards program because, of course, we are excited about all of them. However, the three projects below we’re deeming out “favorites” stand out because they are one of the many projects that directly help people—whether it’s to find their way or remind themselves of home. 

A recent shipment of Core77 Design Awards trophies, manufactured by Firsthand Fab. Read about their process here.

Furthering our support of hard-working industrial designers and our obsession with process, each Core77 Design Awards trophy is a personalized, solid metal mold. Each mold comes stocked with wax in our signature orange hue—giant crayon, anyone?—but we’re convinced the brilliant designers receiving these trophies can think of plenty more creative uses. Stay tuned for more information on how to register your work for next year’s Core77 Design Awards cycle.

Our Favorite Winners

Google Wayfinding won our Visual Communication award

The IF Platform won our Commercial Equipment award

A Taste of Home won our Design Concept Award

A’ Design Awards

The A’ Design Accolades are organized in a wide range of creative fields to highlight the best designers in all disciplines. Our favorite three winners from the 2016-2017 cycle are a wearable tool for woodworkers and sculptors, an umbrella dryer for city bus stops and an experimental automotive steering interface.

The trophy is a 3D printed, diamond-shaped metal structure that reminds us where most of our industries are headed—digital fabrication. The trophies are chromed/electroplated depending on which level of honor you receive. If you’re interested in submitting your work to the A’ Design Awards, you can already do so here.

Our Favorite Winners

Happaratus sculpture tool was a Prosumer Products, Tools, and Machinery Design winner

UltraDry bus stop umbrella dryer was a Social Design winner

Stewart II Human Machine Interface was an Engineering and Technical Design winner

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