The World Design Rankings by A’Design Award was created to serve as an avenue to showcase the best and most creative designs from all over the world. The rankings can serve as relevant information to anyone looking into good designs, from businessmen, economists, and even journalists specializing in the design industry. The rankings come in a wide range of variations, showing how some countries and individual designers excel in certain categories over others.
As of December 29, 2015, the United States of America ranked first out of 83 countries in the World Design Rankings for the year 2015. The list of top 10 countries is as follows:
Some of the notable changes in this list compared to the previous year’s rankings include China, Great Britain, Japan, and Greece. China made the 5th rank this year from 7th rank last year, which meant that the rankings of Great Britain and Japan had to go down by one step. Greece just got into the top ten this year at 10th place, pushing Korea out of the list and into the 11th spot.
In the overall statistics, the United States received a total of 252 awards, followed by Turkey, which had 220. The 10th ranking Greece had 54 awards.
United States of America’s Top Rank Statistics
While it has received awards from across the categories, the 2015 top ranking country has proven to excel at Furniture, Decorative, Items, and Homeware Design after receiving a total of 47 awards. The United States of America also got 27 awards for Jewelry, Eyewear, and Watch designs, and 20 awards for Packaging Design.
Furniture, Decorative Items, and Homeware Design.
This is the second most competitive design among 76 categories listed. Of the 100 designers under this category, the US’ top designer was the Design Office Takebayashi Scroggin or D.O.T.S., which received awards in the past for its research installations (2011). It won one award and ranked 6th in the category.
Other US designers include Stoel Burrowes who got an award for his Back Windsor Chair in 2011, Omo Modern (Mr. Jae-Min Kim and Mr. Youn Jae Lee), Marcus Freisl, Chung Ah Kim, among 16 others.
The top designer under this category is Mula Preta Design Studio, a multi-awarded company from Brazil.
Jewelry, Eyewear, and Watch Design.
Ranked as the 6th most competitive category in the list, this category focuses on the world’s best watches, rings, bracelets, and other jeweled accessories. Leon Mege of the United States was the third top designer, following Connectedevice Ltd from Hong Kong (1st) and Brazil & Murgel Contemporary Jewelry from Brazil (2nd).
Mege’s had received awards for his Maestro Ring design in 2012, and his La Petite Necklace and Charm collection in 2011. Mege has had a passion for jewelry since his college years, despite having both parents in the sciences.
Other US designers that also got into the top ten of this category were Samira Mazloom (6th), Takayas Mizuno (7th), and Jimin Jung (8th). There are a total of 9 US designers awarded under this category.
Packaging Design.
Next to Furniture, Decorative, Items, and Homeware Design, Packaging Design was the third most competitive category listed, and it’s bested by Guilherme Jardim from Portugal out of 72 awarded designers. The category showcases the world’s best food packaging, casing, boxing, canning, and other storage designs.
Ranking 21st on this list is Joy Lin from the US, who contributed two awards. Her previous achievements include awards for the X-Acto Precision Cutting Tool (2012) and Hustler Redesign Sex Product Line (2011). She’s also authored three well-published books back in 2011.
Joining the list of nine US designers who got awards under this category are Jeff Klok (24th), who was awarded for the Lipton Pandora Packaging in 2014, Eric Steigelman (27th), who was known for his Bonfire Wines Wine in 2012, and Marc Atlan (33rd), who was awarded for his Kjaer Weis Make-Up Collection back in 2010.
WDR Business Design Insights: Design Weaknesses and
Opportunities
The WDR also noted that the US only received one award from each of the Car and Land Based Motor Vehicles, Young, and Energy Products and Devices design categories. In comparison, Japan had a higher score than the US in the Young Designs category, although both had only one award. Turkey, on the other hand, received three awards for Energy Products and Device designs.
As far as design opportunities are concerned, America has been found to have much potential in the Digital and Electronic Devices Design, Interior Space and Exhibition Design, and Arts, Crafts, and Ready-made design categories. As of now, the US’ 13 awards are only second to Turkey’s 29 awards from Digital and Electronic Devices Design.
Although it got 10 awards for Interior Space and Exhibition Design, the US is only 11th out of 41 countries, the top spot belonging to Hong Kong with 95 awards. This is the most competitive design category, which focuses on recognizing those who have crafted the best interior designs for bars, restaurants, hotels, shops, and other commercial establishments.
The top spot of the Arts, Crafts, and Ready-made design category, however, belongs to the US out of 35 countries, having 9 awards.
About the Competition
These rankings of the countries are determined by the number of their designers that got an A’Design Award, which is won from a competition that aims to highlight the best designs and concepts of all kinds and categories from all over the world.
The competition takes place every year and is conducted internationally, looking into projects within the fields of technology, innovation, design, as well as creativity. While winners are given the opportunity to have their products reach out to a wider market, the competition itself is an avenue for startups looking to materialize their concepts.
Designers and companies who receive the A’Design awards are able to use the A’Design logo as an added credibility to their products.
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