Red Dot Celebration

Winners of the top distinctions

The Red Dot: Best of the Best is awarded to works and brands that win over the jury with their very good design quality and creative performance. From these projects, the jury selects some that are put forward for the highest distinctions. While the Red Dot: Grand Prix goes to communication works that show exceptional creativity and design quality, the jury awards the distinction of “Red Dot: Brand of the Year” to the best brand in an industry with brand communication that portrays a consistent image across different channels. Take a look at the winners of the top distinctions in categories as varied as Interface, Packaging or Corporate Design!

In the past, the handing over of the Stylus trophy – accompanied by applause from the roughly 1,200 international guests – was a highlight at the award ceremony in the Konzerthaus in Berlin. This year, Professor Dr. Peter Zec met Interbrand’s Creative Director Andy Payne in a new, personalised setting: The Red Dot CEO welcomed the Global Chief Creative Officer in the Red Dot Design Museum in Essen and congratulated him and the entire team on their outstanding success in the Red Dot Award: Brands & Communication Design 2020.

With the presentation of the Stylus, Andy Payne and the Interbrand team were officially named Red Dot: Agency of the Year 2020. Traditionally, the challenge trophy, which is made of pewter and weighs around 17 kg, is engraved by the jewelry manufacturer “Niessing”.

The Red Dot: Agency of the Year 2020, Interbrand, has displayed outstanding design qualities. As one of the world’s leading brand consultancies, the agency has been winning over the jury for the Red Dot Award: Brands & Communication Design consistently for many years thanks to its exceptional design qualities. The creatives’ core skill lies in guiding successful brands through fundamental processes of transformation, referred to as ‘iconic moves’, changing perspectives across the entire company and promoting corporate growth.

Each year, the Red Dot: Junior Prize is awarded to the best piece of work by an up-and-coming designer along with prize money of 10,000 euros. This year, the jury bestowed the distinction on a very special project by Ai Ling Ng and Zi Fong Yong, two students at the National University of Singapore. Their campaign “The Dyslexperience” succeeds in making invisible suffering visible. It uses projection mapping to visualise the challenges that people with dyslexia have to overcome. The projection technique is used expertly to show readers blurred, three-dimensional or jumpy letters, for example, and to thus allow them to experience first-hand how it feels to suffer from this disorder.

The winners celebrate

Award-winning works and brands in the Red Dot Design Museum Essen

Until 3 January 2021, the Red Dot Design Museum in Essen will show a selection of the communication works and brands that were successful in the Red Dot Award: Brands & Communication Design 2020. Visitors to the special exhibition “Winners Red Dot Award: Brands & Communication Design 2020” can use analogue or digital means to see for themselves the outstanding quality of the projects. The special feature of this exhibition is that it is spread decentrally throughout the entire Red Dot Design Museum, in the midst of award-winning product design and industrial architecture. This allows visitors to experience good design in all of its nuances over an area of roughly 4,000 square metres.

International Yearbook Brands & Communication Design 2020/2021

This year’s award-winning works as well as the achievements of the Red Dot: Agency of the Year 2020 will be presented on paper in the International Yearbook Brands & Communication Design 2020/2021. Featuring interviews with the people behind the award-winning works and the Global Chief Creative Officer Andy Payne as well as informative descriptions and high-quality images, the two volumes in the publication show the status quo in communication and brand design.

Cover design of the yearbook

The cover design for the International Yearbook Brands & Communication Design 2020/2021 is inspired by two projects that won awards in this year’s competition: the “Human Rights Tattoo” campaign, whose website – designed by the Dutch agency “Freshheads” – was this year awarded a Red Dot: Grand Prix, and the Söhne Collection font family for which Klim Type Foundry in New Zealand received a Red Dot: Best of the Best from the jury. The resulting design is a fusion of both award-winning projects. While the shape of the letters is based on the Söhne Mono typeface, its colours reflect the different skin colours of the people who, as part of the Human Rights Tattoo project, had themselves tattooed with one of the 6,773 letters contained in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The text reproduced on the cover is part of this declaration, published by the United Nations General Assembly in 1948.

Online Exhibition

Discover this year’s award-winning works and brands! The online exhibition offers detailed descriptions and high-quality images as well as in-depth information on the award-winning projects.

The Red Dot Jury

novum, one of the world’s leading design magazines, published an article about the jury session for the Red Dot Award: Brands & Communication Design 2020. For the first time in the history of the award, it took place online. “Given an experienced jury, however, judging can remain equitable. What is clear is that the Grand Prix and Best of the Best projects depicted here in no way fall below the standards of earlier years,” says novum about the exceptional evaluation process and the winners. Although the jurors didn’t have the option to discuss each entry with their colleagues, their choices were all in agreement. novum says: "That suggests that there really are common values understood by people all around the world. It's a very satisfying further confirmation that design quality is not a matter of individual taste.” A valuable insight that confirms that the work of the jurors is based on experience and expertise!

These are the jury members of the Red Dot Award: Brands & Communication Design, who selected the year’s best communication works and brands. Red Dot spoke to the experts, who come from very different areas, and introduces them here.

Red Dot Award: Brands & Communication Design 2021

Are you interested in taking part in the Red Dot Award: Brands & Communication Design 2021? In the spring of 2021, you will once again have the opportunity to register your best communication design works and brands in the international competition.

Registration phases:
Early Bird: 22 March – 20 April 2021
Regular: 21 April – 8 June 2021
Latecomer: 9 – 25 June 2021