The jury panel for this year’s red dot award: design concept has just been announced.

The 19 carefully chosen names all have leadership roles and extensive experience in the fields of industrial design, design publishing and as design consultants. They also hail from diverse countries – Germany, South Korea, Taiwan, Denmark, China, Singapore, USA, Mexico, Australia, Japan, United Kingdom, Sweden, Austria and Finland – mirroring the award’s international reach.

Each will be judging and challenging the submissions from their own unique perspective.

Last year, the top prize (red dot: luminary) went to Microbial Home by Philips Design (the Netherlands)

The jury list:

– Axel Thallemer (Germany)
– Chae Yisik (South Korea)
– Gerald Kiska (Austria)
– Gordon Bruce (USA)
– Ken Nah (South Korea)
– Kim Chul-Ho (South Korea)
– Kuan Cheng-Neng (Taiwan)
– Lu Xiaobo (China)
– Lutz Fügener (Germany)
– Manuel Alvarez Fuentes (Mexico)
– Mårten Claesson (Sweden)
– Martin Darbyshire (United Kingdom)
– Nils Toft (Denmark)
– Raj Nandan (Australia)
– Robin Edman (Sweden)
– Song Kee Hong (Singapore)
– Stefan Diez (Germany)
– Takashi Yamada (Japan)
– Tapani Hyvönen (Finland)

red dot best of the best 2011 – Wildfire Truck by Morita Holdings Corporation (Japan)

The jury speak…

Song Kee Hong, co-founder of Design Exchange

“I see the red dot award: design concept gaining increasing importance and relevance as changes in technological landscape and social norm accelerate.

“Innovative conceptual design is about creating paradigm-shifting products or services that can leapfrog the competition. It is crucial to the future of companies and even entire industries – by inspiring breakthroughs in product development or creating new business opportunities.”

Raj Nandan, CEO/Managing Director and Publisher of Indesign Group

“Design is a passion. Being on the jury gives me the opportunity to help bring new design to the market. It is exciting to see just how many good ideas are out there and be a part of making the best concepts a reality.”

Prof. Lutz Fügener, senior partner and co-owner of studioFT

“For Young designers the timespan between leaving the university and being established in the design world can be quite long and it needs a great motivation to stay the course. So a lot of good ideas and – what is even worse – the motivation of young designers are in danger of being left behind. red dot design award for design concepts can shorten this and spot some of these talents. This will be the most important challenge for the jury of this award.”

The red dot award: design concept is open to all designers, companies, design studios and institutions. Closing date for standard submission is 27 April 2012. The awards show will be held on 19 October 2012 at the red dot design museum in Singapore.

For more information, visit red-dot.sg/concept