The “Who’s Who” of the international design scene met at the Friedrichstadt-Palast in Berlin on 29 April to celebrate the iF DESIGN AWARD 2024 winners. The world’s largest theatre stage provided the glamorous setting for honouring the best international design achievements – this is where the 75 most outstanding products and projects were honoured with the highest iF award, the iF DESIGN AWARD 2024 Gold.
iF Design CEO Uwe Cremering presented the coveted iF Gold trophy with co-presenter Yasmine Blair – and the almost 2,000 guests from the design scene, business, politics and media from 42 nations celebrated the award winners.
With 10,800 entries from 72 countries, the iF DESIGN AWARD 2024 is one of the world’s largest and most prestigious design competitions. A group of 132 independent, international and diverse design experts awarded the coveted design label in a two-stage jury process. A total of 2,294 participants from 52 nations were honoured with the iF DESIGN AWARD 2024.
Uwe Cremering, CEO of iF International Forum Design GmbH, is more than satisfied with this award year: “The internationality and the record number of entries for the iF DESIGN AWARD 2024 speak for themselves. We have incredibly great Gold Award winners from all disciplines this year. The fact that the iF DESIGN AWARD Gala and the Trend Conference held the following day are fully booked clearly shows us that our events are regarded and recognized as global networking events. The presentation of the iF Special Award to design icon Dieter Rams was a particularly emotional moment on stage.”
The iF DESIGN AWARD 2024 has been presented in these nine disciplines:
• Product design • Communication design • Packaging design • Service design • Architecture • Interior architecture • User experience (UX) • User interface (UI) • Professional concept
>> To the overview of the iF DESIGN AWARD 2024 winners
The iF Design Trend Conference 2024
The premiere of the iF Design Trend Conference with over 500 guests the day after the iF DESIGN AWARD NIGHT was also a complete success. The AXICA, located directly at the Brandenburg Gate and designed by star architect Frank O. Gehry, provided the perfect setting. Designers and industry experts learnt about global and interdisciplinary design trends and their significance for the future during specialist presentations and discussion panels. The four international expert speakers Giulia Frittoli from the Bjarke Ingels Group in Copenhagen spoke on the topic of “Social nature – designing cities for people and the planet”, Nadine Clarke and Richard Trigg from Tangent in London provided information on “The green interface: Digital design with sustainability in mind”, Ziyuan ‘Zoey’ Zhu from IDEO in San Francisco presented the topic “Humanising AI in design” and Anne-Liese Prem from tomorrow stories in Salzburg/Austria gave a talk on “The future of brand management in the metaverse”.
Brand new: The iF DESIGN AWARD Metaverse Experience 2024
During the iF DESIGN AWARD NIGHT, Uwe Cremering pressed the start button for the brand new iF DESIGN AWARD Metaverse Experience “The Landmark of Design Excellence”: Design enthusiasts around the world are now invited to explore the new virtual world at ifdesign-metaverse.com and discover the best design achievements that have won the iF DESIGN AWARD 2024. “We want to offer our international iF DESIGN AWARD winners a modern stage. With the Metaverse platform, we want to initiate discussions around the topic of design and create a new level for the design community to network and discover outstanding examples of good design. The aim is to create a virtual place full of inspiration,” says Uwe.
Premiere: iF Design Lifetime Achievement Award
A special highlight this year was the presentation of the first iF Design Lifetime Achievement Award. This was presented by iF Design CEO Uwe Cremering to the German design icon Dieter Rams. Vice chairman of the Board of the iF Design Foundation, Professor Fritz Frenkler, gave the laudatory speech. Rams’ work has influenced the most famous industrial designs we know. He inspired Apple’s former design guru, pioneer and influencer of today’s smartphone design – British designer Jonathan Ive. Rams’ ten principles of good design are still the guiding principles for designers today when it comes to organizing their thinking about what makes good design. Dieter Rams first entered the world of design as a carpenter, then started as an architect and has held the copyright on minimalism as a product designer for decades. Over the years, numerous Braun products designed by him have been honoured with the iF DESIGN AWARD.
