Design agency wins triple success at Innovation & Design Excellence Awards (iDEA)

London design agency PDD has scored triple success at this year’s Innovation & Design Excellence Awards (iDEA), held at London’s Hilton Hotel on Park Lane.

The Hammersmith-based company scooped the top prize, as well as winning the Consumer Product Innovation Award outright, and shared the B2B Product Innovation Award.

Now in their third year, the Innovation & Design Excellence Awards recognise and reward the key role played by mechanical and electronic design engineers to the creation of new and successful products. The awards are organised by the magazines Eureka and New Electronics, in conjunction with Cranfield School of Management.

“We look for factors that set companies apart, such as expertise in a particular branch of technology, a willingness to take calculate risks and proof of products that are successful in the market ” said Lou Reade, editor of Eureka and an Awards judge.

The judges recognised PDD’s all-round abilities in mechanical engineering, electronics and industrial design, as well as its unique offering in market research. PDD has recently created an incubation arm and spun off a medical device company.

In all, seven shortlisted companies were honoured in six categories. Other winners and nominees were:

• prosthetics manufacturer Chas A Blatchford (shared winner, B2B Product Innovation Award)
• thermal imaging specialist Thermoteknix (Innovative Small Company Award)
• design agency Cambridge Design Partnership (Design Collaboration Award)
• safety flooring expert Altro (Design Cycle Time Reduction Award) – with gas sensor developer Crowcon Detection Instruments highly commended in the category; and
• design agency Industrial Design Consultancy, which was highly commended in the Consumer Product Innovation Award.

All seven shortlisted companies were honoured at an awards luncheon, held at the Hilton Hotel Park Lane in London in conjunction with the Best Factory Awards (BFA). The event was hosted by writer and broadcaster Frances Edmonds, with Jonathan Kestenbaum, chief executive of the National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts (Nesta), as the iDEA keynote speaker.

Category sponsors included Sagentia, Cambridge Consultants and the Electronics Leadership Council.

For pictures of all nominees and winners, click here.