In November 2015, iF will launch a new innovative platform that will represent an excellent source of inspiration for the entire design world: the iF WORLD DESIGN GUIDE (www.ifworlddesignguide.com). The new portal will be aimed at all design-relevant target groups – from companies to organisations to individuals (such as freelancers and students).

With a unique nature and concept, the new iF platform will provide a selected and quality-tested insight into the design classics of tomorrow and will combine design history with extensive services and news: the largest online design exhibition in the world, an extensive archive of all iF prize winners from more than 60 years, more than 50,000 design visions made by students, as well as a large pool of information concerning the international design world – all this will be available on the new platform.

In this way, iF will open an information channel that will thrive on mutual networking and provide numerous points of contact for customers and partners.

More than 14,000 companies have won iF Awards, and the iF website already has 500,000 visitors every year: these numbers speak for themselves and were the reasons for developing the iF WORLD DESIGN GUIDE, according to Ralph Wiegmann, CEO of iF International Forum Design GmbH. “The fact that the worldwide design community visits us when it wants to find information about design in its most diverse forms made us realise that we could provide an even more extensive range of information concerning our main business of the design competitions – the collections – in which partners could be able to actively participate,” Wiegmann says, explaining the main idea. He goes on: “Everything is held together by the subject of design – this is the ‘lens’ through which we look. We are already a global authority in our core business, namely organising design competitions. The implementation of the competitions and their documentation will naturally continue to be the centrepiece, ensuring the quality of the new guide.”

More than 10 collections provide space for products, businesses, and people who have not yet won an iF Award:

• Lifestyle
• Life in Motion
• Healthy Living
• Architecture and Design Cities, Museums
• Design Weeks and Events
• Design Shops
• Services
• Young Talents
• Designers, Studios, Associations, Organizations
• Architecture and Public Spaces
• Public and Social Value
• Material Innovation

“All the preliminary studies for the new iF WORLD DESIGN GUIDE demonstrate the great potential in terms of markets and demand, since our online exhibition already attracts an unusually large number of people. Visitors that go to the iF website today register for the competitions, visit the online exhibition and get information about current trends and themes, as well as about products and their makers. This interest forms the potential and thus the perfect mix of user and customer target groups throughout the world with a high design impact combined with a wide range of quality content involving design. The exclusive content and formats of the new iF WORLD DESIGN GUIDE – from design trends to products to comprehensive value-added services related to design – can be provided solely by iF because it is one of the world’s market leaders for design competitions,” explains Wiegmann. “We do not want to reinvent design; instead, we take it seriously as a communication task and a tool that makes networking easier. Our platform will give design brand-new possibilities for development. And we will thus provide our new user groups with the tailor-made content that they want – a service that we view as a real mission for our business,” Wiegmann continues.

The launch of the iF WORLD DESIGN GUIDE is scheduled for November 2015.