July 28, 2014

The Industrial Designers Society of America (IDSA) has announced the winners of the 2014 International Design Excellence Awards (IDEA) competition – a recognition of design excellence in products, interactive design, service design, strategy, research, concepts and student designs in categories ranging from automotive and commercial products to medical equipment and home furnishings. Herman Miller’s Locale was recognised within “Office & Productivity”, receiving one of only 27 Gold awards granted across all 23 competition categories.

Locale, designed by Sam Hecht and Kim Colin, enables the creation of dynamic, high-performance work neighbourhoods within open-plan environments. In combination and proximity, a composition of Locale elements encourages the free and intuitive shift from individual work to collaborative and social activities and serendipitous interaction. The subtle curvature of Locale’s surfaces signals openness, invites interaction and is designed to generously accommodate multiple collaborators, work styles and tools. People move and change positions naturally because of the centralised structure and cantilevered surfaces. With Locale’s height adjustability, a push of a button allows an individual to sit down for focused work or stand up to collaborate with colleagues. Adjustability is not limited to surface height: mobile tables, screens and easels can be utilised as the need arises. Locale enhances the total experience of work, for both the individual and the high-performance team.

Award winners were selected by a panel of 24 international design experts from design consultancies, corporations and universities. They judged nearly 2,000 entries this year, evaluating entries on multiple aspects of industrial design excellence, including innovation, user and client benefit, sustainability and visual appeal. Some 176 designs were ultimately recognised and received Gold (27), Silver (58) or Bronze (91) awards.

“The range of diversity of entries submitted for this year’s IDEA competition confirmed definitely that design has ‘arrived’ as an activity with undisputed relevance for broad range of problem types,” said IDEA 2014 jury Chair, Tad Toulis, Vice President of design at SONOS, Inc. “In many ways the extent of that range, now grown so vast, seemed to herald a tipping point; a moment in time where design is openly embraced as a universal activity.”

IDSA will formally award the honours at the 2014 International Conference at the Austin Hilton in Austin, TX on Wednesday, 13 August 2014.

For more information visit http://www.idsa.org/idea-2014-gallery

About Herman Miller, Inc.
Herman Miller’s inspiring designs, inventive technologies and strategic services help people do great things and organisations to perform at their best. The company’s award-winning products and services generated approximately $1.9 billion in revenue in fiscal 2014. A past recipient of the Smithsonian Institution’s Cooper-Hewitt National Design Award, Herman Miller designs can be found in the permanent collections of museums worldwide. Innovative business practices and a commitment to social responsibility have also helped establish Herman Miller as a recognised global leader. In 2013, Herman Miller again received the Human Rights Campaign Foundation’s top rating in its annual Corporate Equality Index, and was named among the 50 Best US Manufacturers by Industry Week. Herman Miller is included in the Dow Jones Sustainability World Index and trades on the NASDAQ Global Select Market under the symbol MLHR.

About IDEA
Now in its 34th year, the International Design Excellence Awards programme fosters business and public understanding about the impact of design excellence on the quality of life and the economy. The IDEA programme is regarded as one of the most pre-eminent design competitions in the United States, with its scope and influence reaching far beyond the US.

About IDSA
Founded in 1965, the Industrial Designers Society of America (IDSA) is one of the world’s oldest and largest member-driven societies for industrial design. IDSA represents current and aspiring professionals in product design, interaction design, human factors, ergonomics, design research, design management, universal design and other related design fields. The society organises and conducts the renowned International Design Excellence Award (IDEA) competition annually; hosts the International Design Conference and five district conferences each year and publishes INNOVATION, a quarterly design journal that includes the Yearbook of Design Excellence highlighting the IDEA winners. IDSA’s charitable arm, the Design Foundation, supports the dissemination of undergraduate and graduate scholarships annually to further industrial design education. The organisation has more than 3,000 members in 28 professional chapters in the United States, plus additional members internationally. For more information, visit idsa.org.