Our trip to Berlin for the iF Design Awards 2024
On Sunday three members of our commercial design team travelled from Wales to Germany for the 2024 iF Design Awards in Berlin. The iF Design Awards have been recognising excellence across various design disciplines since 1953 and in their 70th year received over 10,000 entries from over 70 different countries.
We were honoured to receive two iF Design Awards this year and thrilled to retain our title as iF’s top ranked Design Studio in the UK. We were selected to win awards in the Product and Professional Concept categories respectively for Hydrobean, a water quality monitor we developed for the Cardiff University, and for ReGen, a circular baby stroller that we conceptualised for leading British pushchair manufacturer, iCandy.
Our attendees at this year’s awards were director Jarred Evans, CMF Designer Katie Forrest Smith, and User Centred Designer Catriona Mackenzie. After a day of exploring the vibrant German capital, the team arrived at the Friedrichstadt-Palast for an evening surrounded by global design talents to celebrate the inspiring award-winning projects.
The winning projects are decided following a rigorous judging process involving panels of design experts in their respective categories. Our Director Jarred Evans has been a juror for iF in the Medical Device category for three years running. You can read more about his time on this year’s panel here.
Following some great conversations at the evening reception, the team took their seats in front of the world's largest theatre stage for the award ceremony. Things kicked off in an incredible and unexpected way with the presentation of iF’s first ever ‘Lifetime Achievement Award’ to world-renowned German Industrial designer, Dieter Rams. The audience were stunned at the opportunity to see a designer so instrumental in the shaping the way design is viewed today who is no doubt an inspiration to the majority of the design talent attending the ceremony that evening. With the excitement and momentum of this first award, the ceremony continued with Gold award winners from each category collecting their prizes as the evening’s hosts, presenter Yasmine Blair and Uwe Cremering, CEO of iF, shared the stories behind each winning project
The evening saw project teams take the stage to collect awards for sleek and thoughtful interfaces; clever, simple use of materials; inclusive and engaging products; packing and communication and exciting, immersive environments.
As our team reflected on the event the following day and discussed the Gold winners’ projects, they felt encouraged to look to the future and how we continue to push boundaries in design to create new products and experiences that centre users, excite and innovate. Dieter Rams left the team thinking, how can we do ‘less but better’, while other winning projects further inspired us to build on trends or break away from them to create new and novel designs that make a difference so that we can continue to go for gold.
