Of all the awards that are presented to business enterprises, one stands out in particular: the German Design Award presented by the Design Council each year is the best known award when it comes to design. EDAG, the Wiesbaden-based development experts, have received the 2016 German Design Award in the category "Transportation + Public Design" for their concept car "EDAG Light Cocoon".
"The award is a resounding acknowledgement of our commitment to developing sustainable impulses and technologies for the future of the automobile," explains Johannes Barckmann. "We are pleased to note that, apart from the creative qualities of the Cocoon, our concept for a bionically inspired, additively manufactured vehicle structure has met with such a positive response. As a general rule, these awards help to enhance the visibility of the innovative strength of the EDAG brand."
The "EDAG Light Cocoon" is not just a dynamic, compact sports car, but also a statement for the ultimate in lightweight design of the future. Instead of closed surfaces, it features the kind of skeleton-like structure that can be found in nature. The chief attraction of this bionically inspired design is that material is only actually used in areas where it is absolutely necessary for reasons of stability. This opens up interesting potential for reducing the vehicle's weight. Not until the advent of additive manufacturing did it become possible for such complex structures to be produced.
"The new degree of freedom opened up by additive manufacturing methods is enormous. Particularly in design, it gives us the opportunity to overcome existing restrictions and go new ways, both creatively and technically," points out Johannes Barckmann.
EDAG will be presented with the 2016 German Design Awards at an official ceremony in Frankfurt early in 2016.
German Design Award
The German Design Award sets the highest possible standards when selecting its pri-ze winners: during the nomination process, the design experts on the council's panel do not allow products and communication design services to go through into the con-test until they have convinced themselves that the quality of their design puts them in a class of their own. Before granting any awards, the jury first goes into session for two days.
Since its premiere in 2012, the German Design Award has grown enormously: whereas some 1,500 entries were submitted to the jury in the first year, this year there were 3,400. 57% of these were in the Excellent Product Design category, and 43% in the Excellent Communications Design category. 33% of all entries come from abroad. All in all, 42 products/projects from the two categories received the gold award.