IDEA

2012 INTERNATIONAL DESIGN EXCELLENCE AWARD (IDEA) COMPETITION

“Supporting IDEA® allows us the unique opportunity to actively engage at all levels of design. Dow Corning shares the vision to foster widespread understanding of the importance of industrial design excellence as a critical element to quality of life, economy and sustainable development.”
— Kevin Shinn, IDSA, Dow Corning

IDEA
The International Design Excellence Awards (IDEA) is IDSA’s flagship program. Now in its 32st year of honoring the best in design, IDEA has been called “the Oscars of Design” and for good reason. The extraordinary group of judges, stringent judging criteria, international entrant pool, and winners’ circle made up of design and business elite all serve to underpin IDEA’s position as the preeminent design competition in the US. Each year IDEA winners are honored in the media, IDSA’s online gallery, showcased in the fall issue of Innovation and their designs displayed at IDSA’s annual International Design Conference.

ABOUT IDEA

Started in 1980 by The Industrial Designers Society of America (IDSA), the International Design Excellence Awards (IDEA) fosters business and public understanding about the impact of design excellence on the quality of life and the economy. The IDEA program is considered the preeminent design competition with entries from 39 countries: Australia, Austria, Brazil, Botswana, Canada, China, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, India, Italy, Japan, Netherlands, New Zealand, Romania, Slovenia, South Africa, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan, Thailand, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Singapore and United Kingdom. New this year: Philippines, Israel, Croatia, Mexico, Argentina, Iran, Belgium, Chile, Ireland and Malaysia.

IDEA winners are considered outstanding examples of design excellence and innovation that The Henry Ford deems them an integral part in telling the story of American innovation and has chosen to include IDEA award winners in its permanent collection.

THE CATEGORIES

Each year, IDSA assembles an international jury of esteemed industry professionals choosing the best innovations and brightest talents from the following 17 categories:

INDUSTRY SEGMENTS

• Commercial and Industrial Products
• Communication Tools
• Computer Equipment
• Entertainment
• Environments
• Bathrooms, Spas and Wellness (New)
• Garden and Outdoor (New)
• Kitchen (New)
• Livingroom and bedroom (New)
• Leisure and Recreation
• Social Impact Design (New)
• Medical and Scientific Products
• Office and Productivity
• Personal Accessories
• Service Design
• Transportation

DESIGN SEGMENTS

• Design Strategy
• Digital Design (New)
• Interactive Product Experiences
• Packaging and Graphics
• Research
• Student Designs

THE JUDGING

The IDEA jury is made up of international design experts from design consultancies,
corporations and universities. They adhere to a rigorous judging criteria that includes:

• Innovation (design, experience, manufacturing)
• Benefit to the user (performance, comfort, safety, ease of use, usability, user interface, ergonomics, universal function and access, quality of life, affordability)
• Responsibility benefit to society, environment, culture and economy
• Benefit to the client (profitability, increased sales, brand reputation, employee morale)
• Visual appeal and appropriate aesthetics
• Design Research Category Insights (usability, emotional factors, unmet needs) testing rigor and reliability
• Design Strategy Category (internal factors and methods, strategic value and implementation)

WHY SPONSOR IDEA?

No matter what your focus or industry, IDEA sponsorship provides your company with an exceptional opportunity to align your brand with excellence, reach an international community of designers shaping tomorrow’s future and showcase your corporate commitment to social responsibility, cultural diversity and improved quality of life for your target market.

IT'S WHAT YOU STAND FOR

IDEA sponsorship highlights your dedication to good design, commitment to the profession, and provides broad avenues to grow relationships and open doors to businesses, design leaders, innovators and superstars of the future who influence trends, represent buying power and influence most industries.
IDEA’s excellent reputation and high standards draw the top design professionals, consultancies and corporations from across the globe to present their designs as candidates for the coveted Best in Show, Gold, Silver and Bronze awards. IDEA awards are considered to be the highest award a designer can receive.

STAND OUT FROM THE COMPETITION

Reaching your target market and maintaining consumer loyalty is critical in today’s economy. Today’s consumers have more choices than ever before. They are more adept at making informed decisions and more closely attuned to corporate brand identity.
How do you stand out from your competition and engage consumers on a whole new level?
Quality and value are key, but affinity, brand identity and subtle brand impressions and associations exert a strong influence over much of consumer spending.
How do you as a company dedicated to excellence and sustainable, responsible, innovative products convey that message to your consumer base most effectively and for the least investment of resources?
As an IDEA sponsor, you underscore your company’s commitment to design excellence and the entire design profession to align your corporate identity with all that the IDEA program represents!
• Excellence
• Social Responsibility
• Cultural Diversity
• Consumer Usability

MAKE AN IMPRESSION ON THE WEB

IDSA.org is the largest website in the US dedicated exclusively to industrial design. The website receives 1.2 million visits and 4.5 million unique page views per year. The largest single group of those visits is to the IDEA gallery.

For years to come, your permanent presence on these highly trafficked pages serve to:
• Expand your reach
• Maximize your brand recognition
• Expand your market share in the design community
As an IDEA Sponsor your permanent visibility on
IDSA.org in the IDEA Gallery provides a unique
opportunity to engender good will and engage key
demographics in the design community for pennies per impression!

REACH THE MEDIA

Consider the cost for just one paid advertisement in a publication or other medium with top-tier reach versus the value of widespread positive editorial media coverage and the association of your brand with the IDEA awards.
IDEA sponsorship offers you the best kind of visibility. Engage the media with interesting and culturally relevant stories that emphasize your company’s link to excellence and innovation. Highlight your commitment to a cooperative relationship between business and design that: encourages and integrates cultural diversity, supports social responsibility and sustainability and offers consumers extraordinary products.
A sample of past coverage for IDEA highlights the unparalleled international media coverage received in magazines, newspapers, websites, blogs, through design associations and countless publications like:

The New York Times
The Washington Post
Core77
Fast Company
BusinessWeek
Yanko Design
Designophy
Faces Of Design
San Francisco Chronicle
Plastics News
FUSE
The Los Angeles Times
The Denver Post
The Dallas Morning News
Form Magazine (Switzerland)
CNBC
CNN
NBC
NPR
China’s Product Design Magazine
Abitare (Italy)
The Wall Street Journal
The Chicago Tribune
MODE Weekly
The Atlanta Journal Constitution
Concept Magazine (Korea)
Design Net
The Montreal Gazette
Gazeta Mercantil (Brazil)
Madrid’s Experimenta
The Baltimore Business Journal
Report + Plus (Austria)
Design News (Japan)
Curve magazine (Australia)
Design Korea
Metropolis magazine

“Winning the most IDEAs in 2010 meant that we got to celebrate our hard work with the entire team,” said Yves Béhar, IDSA, fuseproject.  “It also provided a great story about the power of design to discuss with potential clients.”

By partnering with IDEA, you are supporting innovative design.

In 2011 we created the Premium Gallery Listings for winners and finalists. View the sample gallery listing here. For additional information on the Premium Gallery Listing as well as on other opportunities for winners and finalists please visit Opportunities for 2012 Winners & Finalists or contact Katie Fleger, Director of Business Development, at katief@idsa.org with questions.

IDEA 2012 SPONSORSHIP OPPORTUNITIES
Contact Katie Fleger, katief@idsa.org or 703-707-6000 ex 104