The IDSA Special Achievement Award may recognize individuals, organizations, or specific projects notable for their creativity, innovation, passion or achievement in advancing the industrial design profession. Recipients of this distinction, through their recent work, have garnered special attention that spans industry lines and made significant contributions to their area of expertise.
Individuals may be nominated by a peer or may be identified by IDSA’s Board of Directors or IDSA’s Awards Committee as a candidate for this distinction. All candidates who qualify are rigorously evaluated by IDSA’s Awards Committee and subsequently approved by IDSA’s Board of Directors before being bestowed with this great honor.
This award may be presented to IDSA members and non-members. More than one Special Achievement Award may be given each year.
Past recipients of this award include:
2023 Lindsay Malatesta, IDSA, Unif-ID
2022 Brett Lovelady, IDSA & Astro Studios
2020 Yves Béhar, IDSA, fuseproject
2020 D’Wayne Edwards, Pensole Academy
2019 Advanced Design
2016 Henry Ford Museum of American Innovation
2015 Congressman Gerry Connolly
2011 Core77
2007 Samsung Design Membership Program / Mr. Kook-Hyun Chung
2001 Business Week magazine
2000 RISD’s Universal Kitchen Project
1998 National Housewares Manufacturers Association
1997 Pratt Institute
1995 Tom Bidwell* of Crown Equipment
1994 NCR Corp.
1993 Motorola
1992 Henry Dreyfuss Associates
1992 Congressman Carlos Moorhead*
1992 Congressman Richard Gephardt
1990 Design Management Institute
1985 Department of Architecture and Design, MOMA
1981 Dr. Paul MacCready
1980 National Center for a Barrier Free Environment
1979 National Endowment for the Arts
1978 Bang and Olufsen
1978 IBM Corporation
1977 Armco Steel
1974 J. C. Penney & Co., Inc.
1969 Pedro Ramirez-Vasquez
1968 Frederick J. Close*
1966 R. Buckminster Fuller, IDSA*
1965 Constantinos Doxiadis*
1965 Edgar Kaufmann Jr.*
* indicates deceased