Red Dot Award: Product Design 2018Guide to Success

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Contents

1. Entry rules .......................................................................................................................................................................... 3

2. Registration........................................................................................................................................................................ 3

3. Dispatch and delivery ...................................................................................................................................................... 5

4. Adjudication ...................................................................................................................................................................... 6

5. Collection of the products after adjudication ......................................................................................................... 6

6. Costs and payment .......................................................................................................................................................... 7

7. What happens after adjudication?.............................................................................................................................. 7

8. Contacts .............................................................................................................................................................................. 8

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1. Entry rules

Prerequisites

The Red Dot Award: Product Design 2018 is open to manufacturers and designers from all over the

world whose products are manufactured using an industrial production process. One-off hand-

crafted pieces cannot take part in the competition.

The prerequisite for taking part in the competition is that the market launch of the product must

have taken place by 1 July 2018. Also, the market launch cannot be more than two years ago as of

the date of registration.

You must also agree to the General Terms and Conditions:

>> Download GTCs

Form of entry

To allow the jury to assess your product live and on site, you must ensure in advance that you can

provide it to us in its original form. This rule does not apply to entries in the “Interior Design”

category. More details on delivery can be found on page 5.

Multiple entries

You can enter a product in several categories at the same time, but not in several sub-categories

within one category. You must complete a separate registration for each entry and provide one

product specimen for each entry.

Product series

In exceptional cases, for example in the case of tableware or cutlery, product series can be grouped

together as one entry. This means that you do not have to register each element of the series

separately. In the event of winning an award, however, the Red Dot logo can only be used for those

specimens presented to the jury. So if you plan to advertise a whole series with the award, you

should present the jury with all of the elements in the series. The costs for each additional specimen

amount to EUR 60.

2. Registration

My Red Dot

You can only register your product online, in the My Red Dot portal. If you do not have an account

yet, you can register there. If you already have an account, you can log in using your e-mail address

and your password and can then click on “Add new product”.

Most of our communication takes place via e-mail. As a result, please make sure to provide your

personal e-mail address. Also make sure that our e-mails do not land in your spam folder or get

blocked by your mail server. If you do not receive our e-mails, please add the @red-dot.de domain

as a “safe sender” in the configuration of your mailbox.

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General

To complete registration, you must enter the following data:

• Details of the registering party

• Details of the manufacturer

• Details of the designer

• Category/sub-category

• Invoice details

Categories

From fashion and accessories to consumer electronics and vehicles, household helpers and furniture

– you can choose from 48 categories when taking part in the Red Dot Award: Product Design 2018.

During the registration process in the My Red Dot portal, you must allocate your product to a

suitable category and sub-category. If it emerges during the course of adjudication that your

project should be transferred to a different category for a better assessment, we reserve the right to

do so.

Helpful hint: Take a look at our Online Presentation. You will find the winners from past years

sorted by category there.

Additional materials

It is possible to submit additional physical or digital presentation materials for the adjudication

process in return for a fee. It should be noted that the images must be high resolution and the file

names must use Latin letters. The jury will only look at this material on request.

Materials for the jury presentation and for the yearbook

We also require printable images (300 dpi for DIN A4 size) as well as a product description in

German and in English (500 – 1,200 characters including spaces) for each product submitted. These

materials are used as a basis for adjudication and, if an award is won, for the yearbook entry.

Consequently, you do not have to upload these materials until after registration by 9 February

2018.

Helpful hint: The product description should help the jury and the yearbook readers to understand

your product completely. You should therefore provide clear information that is worded in an easy-

to-understand manner with your entry. Please do not use figurative or flowery language.

Please note that if you win an award, the details and photos you provide may be published by our

communication department without prior agreement with you.

You will find a detailed checklist with all of the necessary details here.

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3. Dispatch and delivery

After you have registered your product for the competition in the My Red Dot portal, you need to

send it to us in its original form for the adjudication process. This allows the jury to get a

comprehensive impression of your product, as aspects like the look and feel, materials, finish and

ergonomics play a decisive role. There is an exception for the “Interior Design” category, where

entries are judged based on digital images.

The postage costs must be borne by you, and the package must be insured. The service provided by

our logistics team is to receive deliveries and prepare them for adjudication in the best possible

way.

Please note that we will neither put together nor assemble the products. If it is not possible to

deliver entries in a put-together or preassembled state, you must provide this service yourself. In

this case you can already select the “Self-assembly” option during registration in the My Red Dot

portal and dispatch your own team to put the entry together.

Special aspects

• Technical products must be delivered in a functional state so that the jury can test them.

Please include accessories like remote controls, chargers, adaptors or the like so that we can

for example connect the products to our power supply.

• Entries to the Lighting and lamps category must be fitted with installation devices.

• Vehicles and commercial vehicles must be registered, insured and fuelled up so that the jury

can drive them.

• If you need a presentation space of more than 4 m³ for your product, please send a plan for

your product presentation to our logistics department at logistics@red-dot.de.

PI code

Your PI code will be generated during the registration process. This is the ID number for your

registration and product. Please provide this code in every e-mail request and keep it to hand for

any telephone queries. After registration is complete, you will receive a confirmation e-mail with an

attachment including the PI code label and the address label.

You must attach these to the back of a physical product and to the delivery packaging before

dispatching the product. Make sure that the PI code can be removed without trace so that we can

present the product in its best possible light in the winners’ exhibition if it wins an award.

Delivery from non-EU countries

If your product is being delivered from a country outside the EU, it must be delivered in line with

the DDP customs regulations for free movement of goods (Delivered Duty Paid). If you wish to have

the goods temporarily imported, you must commission a freight forwarder rather than a courier

service. Please declare your goods stating the correct customs tariff number and use a proforma

invoice stating the value of your delivery. Our EORI number is DE5870836. You can get further

information on this topic online from the customs office.

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Delivery address

Please use the following address for preassembled products and those that have to be self-

assembled:

Design Zentrum Nordrhein Westfalen e.V.

Red Dot Judging Hall

Witzlebenstr. 14

45472 Mülheim an der Ruhr

Germany

Please deliver vehicles to the airport in Mülheim an der Ruhr.

Your contact person for logistics matters is Martin Mecklenbeck. You can reach him by phone at

+49 208 37 77 787 or by e-mail at logistics@red-dot.de.

Delivery dates

• Self-assembly: 29 January – 2 February 2018

• Preassembled products: 29 January – 16 February 2018

• Vehicles: 1 March 2018, up until 8 am

4. Adjudication

The products entered will be judged at the beginning of March. In an evaluation process that spans

several days, the jury members test, discuss and assess each individual entry without any

preselection. It is not possible for you to present your product on site.

Three weeks after adjudication, we will inform you of the result via e-mail. Please note that a

communications embargo is still in place until this date. You are only free to communicate news of

your success after 9 April 2018. If you would also like to enforce a communications embargo up

until a certain date, please send us notification to presse@red-dot.de.

5. Collection of the products after adjudication

You must already decide during registration whether you wish to get your product back after

adjudication. Please bear in mind that your product can only be handed back upon providing the PI

code. If you do not collect your product in time, it will be disposed of or donated.

We will store products that receive an award until the beginning of the special exhibition. This does

not apply to the products that participants assemble themselves for adjudication. They will be

requested again in advance of the special exhibition.

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Collection address

Please collect the products from the following address:

Design Zentrum Nordrhein Westfalen e.V.

Red Dot Judging Hall

Witzlebenstr. 14

45472 Mülheim an der Ruhr

Germany

Collection dates

• Self-disassembly: 12 – 16 March 2018

• Preassembled products: 19 – 28 March 2018

• Vehicles: 1 March 2018, from 5 pm

6. Costs and payment

Costs

A list of all costs of participating as well as the costs in the event of winning an award can be

found on our homepage.

A charge of EUR 60 (plus VAT) per exhibit is charged for additional exhibits. Additional digital and

physical materials that supplement your product presentation, e.g. photos or videos, will also be

subject to a non-recurring lump-sum fee of EUR 60 (plus VAT). If you submit both physical and

digital additional materials, you will be charged a fee of EUR 120. Additional costs will also be

incurred if your product requires more than 1 m³ of space for adjudication.

Payment

You can pay your registration fees by credit card (Visa, Mastercard, American Express). If you would

prefer to pay by invoice, please get in touch with us.

7. What happens after adjudication?

If your entry wins an award, we will contact you soon after the results are announced in order to

agree on your yearbook presentation and the presentation of your product in the Red Dot Design

Museum Essen.

The Red Dot Gala takes place on 9 July 2018, when the winners of the Red Dot: Best of the Best

receive their trophies on stage at Essen’s Aalto Theater. At the subsequent Designers’ Night in the

Red Dot Design Museum Essen, the Red Dot laureates receive their certificates and can all celebrate

their outstanding success in the Red Dot Award: Product Design 2018 together. The winners’

exhibition “Design on Stage” is officially opened at this event. The Red Dot Design Yearbook also

goes on sale from 9 July 2018, and all of the winning products can be found in the Online

Presentation from that date.

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8. Contacts

Please do not hesitate to get in touch with us at any time. Our team will be happy to assist you

before, during and after registering for the competition:

Red Dot Headquarters

+49 201 30104-37

pd@red-dot.de

Red Dot Taiwan

+886 2 2748 0430-10

taipei@red-dot.de

We wish you every success in taking part in the Red Dot Award: Product Design 2018!