Red Dot Winners Announced, Sort Of

This morning’s announcement of the 2009 Red Dot award winners felt like a bit of tease. The list of  products is now available for anyone to peruse—but only if you download an unwieldy Excel file. And while there are a handful of press images, the Red Dot folks have yet to update the easy-to-browse online exhibition that makes their site such a valuable resource for industrial design fanatics.

While you’re waiting for the fully functional site, here are a few gleanings from the 2009 list:

• There are 683 winners this year, with 49 products receiving the coveted “best of the best” award.
• The biggest winner by far is Germany—a whopping 329 of the selections hail from German companies. (Note: Red Dot is based in Germany. Bias?)
• American companies pick up 38 awards, mostly for electronics. Surprisingly, Dell has as many winners as Apple (eight). But Apple gets two “best of the best” nods for the iPod Nano and the MacBook Air. It’s the only American company to make the cut.
• The winningest companies overall are Sony Corporation and Robert Bosch Hausgeräte, each with 15 selections. The most-honored studio is Stuttgart’s Phoenix Design, which can take credit for 12 winners.
• Finally, a highly subjective list of the best product names: The Webble, Kitten Scanner, Kissing Octopus Couple Flash Drive, SecretSlide, and the Passion One sleeping bag (pictured).