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Statement from the Industrial Designers Society of America
Regarding the HomeHero™ and the
2007 International Design Excellence Awards (IDEA℠) Program

Since its inception in 1980, the International Design Excellence Awards (IDEA℠) program has generated worldwide attention from designers, business leaders and consumers as a powerful endorsement of the aesthetics, engineering and usability of winning designs.  Following the July 20 announcement of the 2007 IDEA winners by BusinessWeek magazine and the Industrial Designers Society of America (IDSA), we learned first-hand about the program’s influence within the design community and the general public, and the immense benefits IDEA winners can reap.

The winner of a Gold IDEA Award in the Consumer Products category, the HomeHero™ Fire Extinguisher, designed by Arnell Group, LLC for The Home Depot® - Orange Works™, received immense publicity following last week’s announcement.  Yet shortly after the award announcement, IDSA became aware that the HomeHero™ was not yet available for purchase by the general public, despite competition rules specifying that, in order to qualify for an award, a product must have been placed in distribution (available for sale in its final form through normal retail channels) between February 9, 2005 and February 9, 2007.

IDSA takes the governing of the IDEA program very seriously.  We interviewed staff from the Arnell Group and reviewed the entry form jurors utilized in making their decision to award the HomeHero™ with a Gold IDEA.  We found that in preparing the entry, an honest misunderstanding occurred regarding when the product was placed in distribution, as the Arnell Group’s client, The Home Depot® - Orange Works™, placed an order for the HomeHero™ within the dates of eligibility.

Because ambiguity in the competition rules led to the misunderstanding, we will not rescind this award.  In order to guarantee that this problem does not recur, we have implemented major changes to the IDEA competition rules.  Beginning in 2008, entrants in consumer products and other categories will be required to submit actual physical products for juror review, not models or renderings.  Jurors also will verify that all products (except for those in the Concepts category) are actually available for purchase by the intended end user as part of the eligibility determination process.

We apologize for any confusion this error may have caused.  For more information on the IDEA program, contact Chelsea Sutula, director of awards and special projects, at 703.707.6000 x111 or chelseas@idsa.org.