The International Design Excellence Awards (IDEA)®, presented by the Industrial Designers Society of America (IDSA), is open for entry through March 15, 2021 at IDSA.org/IDEA. Established in 1980 and known worldwide as a top design awards program for its unparalleled rigor, influence, and prestige, IDEA recognizes innovative products and services that push the design industry forward. Celebrated IDEA winners over the past four decades include the Good Grips tools in the 1990s, the original Apple iPod and iPhone in the early 2000s, the Tesla Model S in the 2010s, and hundreds more.
For IDEA 2021, entries that have been developed and deployed specifically for use during the COVID-19 pandemic will receive a 20% discount when submitted between January 4 and February 1, 2021. Entries can be made into any of the IDEA 2021 categories and can include, but are not limited to: face masks or other personal protection equipment (PPE), ventilators or other COVID-19 related patient treatment medical devices, and products, services, or experiential innovations related to COVID-19 testing, social distancing, or personal safety.
The IDEA 2021 program also introduces a new category: Concepts & Speculative Design. This category includes any product, service, or experience that does not yet exist in production—speculative work that envisions future products, services, or experiences with new technologies or features.
The other professional IDEA 2021 categories are: Automotive & Transportation, Branding, Children’s Products, Commercial & Industrial Products, Consumer Technology (including Entertainment), Design Strategy, Digital Interaction, Environments, Home (including Kitchen & Bath), Furniture & Lighting (including Outdoor Furniture), Lifestyle & Accessories, Medical & Health, Office & Accessories, Outdoor & Gardens, Packaging, Service Design, Social Impact Design, and Sports, Leisure & Recreation. Finally, the Student category includes any physical or digital product, service, or experience created during collegiate student coursework.
The IDEA 2021 Jury Chair is Mary Beth Privitera, PhD, FIDSA, Principal at HS Design (HSD). The IDEA 2021 jury, which is responsible for maintaining the high level of quality and rigor that has become a hallmark of the IDEA program, includes top design leaders from Adobe, IDEO, Fjord, McKinsey Design, and many more global innovation hubs and top educational institutions.
Each year, IDEA winners receive significant international publicity and exposure. This includes glowing recognition in media and in IDSA’s annual Yearbook of Design Excellence, which includes in-depth coverage of all winners and is distributed to an international audience of design and business executives. Winning IDEA products also are entered into the permanent collection of The Henry Ford Museum, where they remain ever-present symbols of ingenuity and mastery of craft.
Thousands of entries are submitted to IDEA each year by design teams across the globe, making IDEA one of the largest and most widely anticipated annual design awards programs. IDEA set the benchmark for what a design award represents and has endured to become a career-defining catalyst for those talented enough to win.