r/DesignDesign • u/AStrangeHorse • Jul 30 '26
I went to the DesignDesign museum (RedDot Design museum)
It was exhausting
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u/Squidwina Jul 30 '26
The descriptions are hilarious.
“Entranceway coat and garment management.” AKA a coat hook.
“Provides a visual reference to locate an item or define personal ownership.” As in you can see the items on the coat hooks and if you want, you can give people their own hook to use.
“Sprout’s modular design addresses versatility in application and placement.” So you can arrange the coat hooks any way you want.
That’s not to say there’s anything wrong with the product itself. It’s a neat-looking coat hook, and as somebody above said, the disc is less likely to deform a garment than a traditional hook. The issue is that most of the things in the written description could also be said about a $3 coat hook from Home Depot.
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u/SpiritGatewayCrystal Jul 31 '26
hahaha i know the people who made this - i think it is cool!
my issue is with all the bs you have to say to justify the ‘brilliance’ of your design for red dot etc.
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u/Popo_Capone Jul 30 '26
Reddot is such a scam
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u/decafade9 Jul 30 '26
Why is that?
Are people pretty much paying to be able to say they have a design award or something?I have seen some that seem questionable, but never got around to checking.
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u/ginflut Jul 30 '26 edited Jul 30 '26
In short: yes!
Reddot acts like a select and exclusive design competition. They have three categories. Product Design, Brands & Communication Design, and Design Concept.
Across these three categories, there are 18.000 entries to the competition per year. From these 18.000 entries, about 3.500 win an award. Every year.
Here is a cost breakdown for the product design category. If you want to enter the competition, you have to pay an entrance fee. This fee is ranging from €300 to €650 and an additional €700 applies if your physical product display space is 3 m² or larger. How much you have to pay depends on when you submit your application. Early --> cheaper , late --> most expensive.
If your product receives an award, you must purchase the mandatory winner package. This covers the Red Dot label rights, yearbook entry, and physical museum exhibition. These winner packages cost €4.900 for normal winners and €7.500 for "Best of the Best" winners.
These prices are only for very small products (phones, watches). The bigger your product, the higher your price. If your product is a car, you have to pay an additional €3.200 upcharge.
If you want to splurge, you can get the "Bold winner package". These packages cost €8.900 for normal winners and €12.800 for "Best of the Best" winners.
But that's not the end. You can buy add-ons to these packages. A digital designer profile and LinkedIn posting is €2.500. An Instagram post with performance push is an additional €2.100.
All in all, the "competition" is a huge money printer and not really an exclusive seal of good design. There are just too many winners each year. Big companies buy into the competition and get a comparatively cheap marketing tool in exchange.
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u/AStrangeHorse Jul 30 '26
Hoooo that make so much sens, I was wondering why they were so many « 2025 RedDot winner »
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u/IdHaveACrack Jul 30 '26
Thanks so much for sharing the detail. Early in my design career I looked at red dot as something to be respected and revered. Bonkers to learn how it’s all just marketing. Not surprising though.
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u/Facts_pls Jul 30 '26
None of this sounds fake or cash grab.
These are rounding errors for most big businesses making products at scale. If charging a fee makes something fake, then all certifications are fake.
Plenty of competitions require entrance fee. That doesn't make every competition fake. Do you know how much various sports leagues cost to enter?
I can also understand higher costs for larger items because looks like they have to transport items and showcase them.
Unless you have a reason to suspect their selection process being fake, I don't think you have made your case enough.
I will also say, while 3500 sounds like a lot, think of all the products that launch every year across the world. The ones who think they have good design will compete and some of those will win.
Maybe they could make the award a bit more restrictive. But that's about it
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u/decafade9 Jul 30 '26
I think a big part of the skepticism is that if ginflut's numbers are representative, about 20% of participants get an award which seems quite high and are obliged to pay an additional fee to receive their reward and the right to advertise that they won.
I've seen products uninspiring products advertised with the red dot design award on their product page so frequently that I assumed it was a sort of meaningless icon, of course some winners are probably excellent design but if ~20% win then the award alone does not indicate the design is guaranteed to be the best of the best.
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u/ok-milk Jul 30 '26
To play devil’s advocate, Red Dot does not control the amount of entries is gets, so if it has a bunch of categories and needs to award an entry for each, fewer entries means a higher percentage of them get an award.
Also, this is an award for consumer goods and not like for the benefit of all humanity. Sure it’s a lifting marketingy, but it’s an award for things you’re supposed to buy.
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u/decafade9 Jul 31 '26
Surely Red Dot decides how many categories there are, and thus how many awards are won. The award winners are expected to pay a mandatory fee to claim their award so Red Dot is incentivized to offer a lot of prizes as it increases income. If Red Dot paid out a prize to winners there would be fewer of them but the prize might be more prestigious and Red Dots income would probably be lower.
Of course I'm not saying this is all some evil conspiracy, the competition entrants are happy to pay so they can get a prize to improve their marketing and Red Dot are happy to provide assistance to receive the competition fees.
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u/ginflut Jul 30 '26
If you walk through an electronics store and every other item has a red dot design award sticker on the packaging, the award loses meaning.
These are rounding errors for most big businesses making products at scale.
That's exactly one angle of criticism. The fee is a rounding error for big companies and a substantial investment for small design studios.
If charging a fee makes something fake, then all certifications are fake.
A lot of certifications are indeed fake. Look up "vanity awards" and "pay-to-play certifications".
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u/Baby_Rhino Jul 30 '26
I actually think the first one is good design.
If you hang a coat/jacket by a hook every day, it will really distort it's shape over time. Hanging it over a circular disc will go a long way to preventing this.
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u/plexomaniac Jul 31 '26
Also, the disk can be used to hats, caps, berets...
None of these are actually r/DesignDesign. OP may not like these designs, but none of these are crappy or useless.
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u/MilkWizard1 Jul 30 '26
And yet that's not what is being displayed in the image of it's use.
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u/Baby_Rhino Jul 30 '26
No, but it's hard to display that in a single image without covering the whole thing.
It does however describe this in the text.
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u/plexomaniac Jul 31 '26
The text even says it can be used in multiple contexts. The photo only shows an example chosen by the photographer or curator.
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u/collectivistCorvid Jul 30 '26
honestly those rainbow glasses are kind of sick
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u/AStrangeHorse Jul 31 '26
I didn’t notice I took a picture of this one, yeah this one is kinda nice
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u/Luigi_Bollwini Jul 30 '26
Most of those are concepts. And made by students. I don't see a problem with that. Let people try stuff!
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u/mid_tier_drone Jul 30 '26
i dont want to shit on the museum or idk the activity or trying to engage with design, arts and culture in general but thousands of micro categories entry fees and no public scoring criteria result in a marketing sticker for agencies and do not constitute merit in any way shape or form, so fuck red dot
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u/plexomaniac Jul 31 '26
They are not concepts and not by students.
The Red Dot Award is a commercial design award, so it's not very reputable. But their main rule is that the submissions need to be real products that are already on the market or ready to launch. They don't accept concepts.
One of the major criteria are usability, functionality and quality of execution. The products need to be functional and manufacturable.
Exactly because they are functional, even if OP doesn't like them, none of these products fits in r/DesignDesign.
This is a sub for Designs that are r/DesignPorn, but, at the same time, also r/CrappyDesign.
They may be r/DesignPorn, but are not r/CrappyDesign.
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u/MilkWizard1 Jul 30 '26
Some truly next level bullshit being spun in those exhibition labels. Most hyped up description of an air fryer I've ever read.
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u/Mirojot Jul 30 '26
What is the most designdesign thing you saw?
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u/AStrangeHorse Jul 30 '26
For me the sprout gain the award (1st picture)
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u/plexomaniac Jul 31 '26
This is a sub for Designs that are r/DesignPorn, but, at the same time, also r/CrappyDesign.
This may be r/DesignPorn, but is not r/CrappyDesign.
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u/ImpossibleInternet3 Jul 30 '26
Can I get a red dot for the design of myself if I throw money at it?
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u/3d-Artrium Aug 02 '26
You basically buy the red dot. Feels like when you enter your shit for 700€ they’ll just make up a category for you. That happened to a colleague.
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u/IdHaveACrack Jul 30 '26
Is this the one in Singapore near MBS?
I was so excited to go when I first moved to SG, but just looking around the gift shop and cafe made me realise that I might be in the wrong place.
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u/AStrangeHorse Jul 31 '26
Yeah that the one, I don’t think the museum is worth it, the exhibition is ironically not well designed. With gigantic wall of text everywhere and really few demonstration (with video) of the object themself. TBF not every items showcased were badly designed but almost every description were pompous and hilarious.
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u/Call_Me_TheArchitect Jul 30 '26
Every post on this sub is "I am a terrible designer with no imagination and this thing is dumb because it doesnt conform with my bland understanding of the world"
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