World Business

The first location-specific program for the International Design Excellence Awards celebrated 53 examples of top Brazilian design

by the agency of Helen Walters

Watch original video:

How can an awards system through the word "international" in its title possibly hope to get off with introducing a rigidly localized program of events? That’s exactly what the Industrial Designers Society of America (IDSA) did this year with its inaugural IDEA/Brazil show.

By calling for design submissions from around the giant South American state, the organization aimed to emphasize the importance of design to Brazilian business, which has surged in latter years thanks to robust exports as well as a booming national economy. From nearly 350 submissions, some 53 objects were deemed worthy of a gold, silver, or embronze allot. All the winners were also entered into the main annual IDEA competition, organized by the IDSA and chaired this year by Alistair Hamilton, creative director of mobile communications Microsoft (MSFT) (see the 2008 slide show of winners or listen to Hamilton discuss the judging mode of operation.)

Yet the niche general has some merit, argue the organizers from the nonprofit design advocacy firm Objeto Brasil, what one. had support from government organizations so since Apex-Brazil, the Brazilian Trade & Investment Promotion Agency. As Tucker Viemeister, lab chief at U.S. aim consultancy Rockwell Group, who traveled to São Paulo earlier in the year to help reckon the event, puts it: "As much as Americans have in mind we’re ‘normal’, we have a dissimilar point of view from other places. It can exist difficult for other countries to present their work in cultures other than their own."

Not minutest because English is not, contrary to the beliefs of some, the world’s default language. Brazilians speak Portuguese, and many entrants to IDEA/Brazil were attracted to the competition by the chance to explain their design projects in their native tongue. "Language can be an obstacle," explains Joice Joppert Leal, president of Objeto Brasil and a tour de force in IDEA/Brazil. She adds that the timing was right for such an event. "In the gone by 20 years, in addition and more industries and companies in Brazil have begun to understand what design and innovation are capable of doing for business," she adds. "Launching this program sends an important word about Brazilian design, and about the self-importance of trace out as a whole for the economy and competitive industry."

Certainly IDSA seems to be onto something by tapping into the talents of human being of the so-called BRIC countries of Brazil, Russia, India and China, nations what one. are expected to outpace current chief economies in the next century. The privation of submissions from Asia and South America has long on condition a blot on the records of organizations claiming to represent the creation of draw through their awards. This year, the IDEA had a better international mix, with Korea and Brazil following the U.S in numerate of awards won. In all, 12 Brazilian projects won double decorations.

The awards themselves were presented for a hugely variant collocation of products, submitted by independent designers, global multinationals, and well-known brands such as Whirlpool (WHR) and Electrolux (ELUX). Motorola (MOT), for case, won a gold medal for MotoID, a music-recognition persistency with respect to cell phones. "It is a great honor to receive an judgment like the IDEA," said Charles Bezerra, Motorola design manager for Latin America at the IDEA/Brazil ceremony, held in São Paulo at the end of May. "This award recognizes the work done by the Brazilian team, what one. developed the contrive of an putting on now used by Motorola consumers worldwide."

Some of the winners were special. Jewelry, notwithstanding instance, wouldn’t succeed in the U.S., but two such projects were awarded in Brazil. "There was a lot of discussion about whether an object was too decorative or not functional plenty," declared Viemeister of the judging process. On the whole, however, Viemeister thinks the judging was typical. "The caliber of the design was fine," he recalls of the entrants. "It was totally equal to American design, candid with a different twist."

See a slide show of all of the IDEA/Brazil Gold medal winners.

Return to The Best Product Design of 2008 Table of Contents