About the Red Dot Design Award

Red Dot looks back at a tradition spanning more than 60 years. On 30 July 1954, “Verein Industrieform” association was founded at the initiative of the head of Krupp’s Public Relations and Advertising department, Professor Dr. Carl Hundhausen. 

The aim of the association was to help make a more attractive environment, to modernise German consumer goods and make them fit for export and to be part of transforming the image of Krupp in the wake of the Second World War. 1955 saw the first annual design competition come into being, and on 5 October the exhibition “Ständige Schau formschöner Industrieerzeugnisse” (‘permanent exhibition of attractively designed industrial products’) opened in Essen’s Villa Hügel. The innovative consumer goods exhibition was considered a standard-setting presentation that served as a model for industry and consumers alike and met with global attention.