[Session1] Designing Trust: How the iF Design Award Shapes Global Design Culture
Session1
“Designing Trust: How the iF Design Award Shapes Global Design Culture”
Uwe CREMERING / CEO, iF International Forum Design GmbH
Introduction
Hello everybody, distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen.
Thank you for the invitation again, and for having me here today. Many thanks to the previous speaker — Helle Søholt’s talk was truly inspiring, and I learned a lot about architecture and urban design.
My name is Uwe Cremering, and I’m the CEO of iF Design, based in Hanover, Germany. It was mentioned earlier: this is my 7th or 8th time in Seoul. Of course, I don’t know every street name, but I’m very happy to share my view of this beautiful city with you today.
Since the title of my presentation is “Designing Trust,” allow me to guide you through this topic, giving you insights into the iF Design business, our definition of the word “trust,” a general understanding of design awards, and how I see Seoul in this context.
About iF Design
iF Design has been around since 1953 and was created during the post-war wave of industrial design that swept across Europe. It is fair to say we are one of the oldest and most prestigious design organizations in the world. Over the past seven decades, we’ve worked with some of the finest designers in the world-starting with German pioneers like Dieter Rams and Wilhelm Wagenfeld.
The range of experts then spread to the rest of Europe, Asia, and the Americas, with designers like Herbert Lindinger, Kenji Ekuan, and Michele De Lucchi. Some of them you can see in the images at the top.
What may be specific to iF Design is that our shareholder is a non-profit foundation-and that’s something that sets us apart from other design organizations. We are not government owned; we are not privately owned. We are owned by a foundation that gives us a lot of freedom in what we do, no one takes money out, and no one steers us in a certain way. That is, I imagine, part of our success story. As I just mentioned, we are a German company, but we have expanded across the world, with branch offices in the United States, China, Japan, Brazil, Italy, Spain, Turkey, and, including one in Korea for, I would say, 13 years now. Having such a broad reach helps us stay in close contact with our customers, the manufacturers and design studios that we serve worldwide.
iF Design Company Family
A quick introduction to the iF Design Company family:
Some of you might know this, the ‘iF Design Foundation’, as the shareholder, works on the future of design education worldwide, more on the academic side.
‘The iF Design Trend Report’ focuses on matching insights from iF Design entries, we get tens of thousands of entries every year, with the big megatrends we see globally. The outcome is a set of design trends across different industries that designers worldwide can adapt. Every year we publish this trend report of roughly 300 pages.
For the past two years, we’ve also been running the iF Design Conference, because we believe it’s beneficial for the design community and the broader design ecosystem.
Year after year the ‘iF Design Student Award’ receives over 7,000 entries from top talents around the world, making it one of the largest student awards worldwide. Entry is free of charge, something we do from the heart, and winners share €50,000 in prize money. We see it as a chance to give back to the next generation, which is why we strongly support this student award. Another area is the ‘Social Impact Prize’. Similar principle, no entry fee, and we award €100,000 each year to the most promising design-related social projects.
I’m happy to say that one of our most recent additions to the iF Design family is the ‘iF Design Academy’, aimed at training the next generation of design leaders. The Academy offers custom-tailored courses to help leaders unlock their potential and equip themselves to drive positive change in the world. Starting in September, these expert-led courses are flexible for business leaders’ schedules and adaptable to changing needs. We are excited to see how the design community responds to this new offering.
Being relevant for 7 decades
This is actually my main question: what about “trust”? For us at iF Design, the most important word is ‘relevance’ — not revenue or profit. We have to be relevant, and we’ve been working on that for seven decades. In our understanding, trust is the basis for being relevant.
Here are the four key drivers of trust, as defined by iF Design.
First driver is ‘Listening’. We must listen to our customers and partners, their needs and expectations change constantly. If we don’t listen in a systematic and open way, we would be lost. The next one, very important for us, is ‘Orientation’. Design awards offer orientation for designers, manufacturers, and consumers. ‘Transparency’, For us, over the last seven decades, no hidden costs, always telling the truth, sharing jury results in a very transparent way with participants. Last one is ‘Reliability’. You have to be reliable every year. Partners and participants must believe and trust in the quality of your work and in your promises. For instance, we promised last year to be here and, although it was a hectic time for us, we are here. That is important. That is our philosophy and part of this trust formula. At the heart of the iF Design Award, and a reason for our success for over 70 years, is this definition of trust.
Allow me to go deeper into the iF Design Award to provide some proof points for this theory. The iF Design Award receives 10,000–11,000 submissions each year. Last year we received 10,651 submissions from around 5,000 participants coming from 66 countries. All in all, we have 9 disciplines with 93 categories, and we invest a huge amount of money and effort into building our jury. Last year we had 132 jury members.
The iF Jury
The jury is our keystone in earning people’s trust in the award: around 130 business experts from 23 countries meet to evaluate the submissions. We keep the jury internationally diverse to reflect the world in the best possible way. Ideally, each product is judged by jurors from different continents, for example, Europe, the USA, and Asia. Of course, it costs money to fly all these jury members to the physical jury, but we think it is the right way because the world is international.
Our jury process is a two-stage evaluation. The first round is an online pre-selection, where we select about 50% of the entries as finalists. These finalists then move on to the final jury. All products must be presented physically; in architecture or communication, digital presentation is used. Both steps assess entries using five criteria, our system to judge in a transparent and reliable way: Idea, Form, Function, Differentiation, and Sustainability. Two years ago, we changed the “Impact” category to “Sustainability” to focus more broadly on both social sustainability and environmental responsibility.
The judging system you see here was created with a team of international experts a few years ago and provides deeper insights into how jurors rate each entry. By keeping the process transparent, criteria-based, and reliable, we strive to make it as objective and as fair as possible, whether an entry comes from a major manufacturer or a small design studio. Creating this feedback chart for every entry is a huge task for us, of course, but essential for building trust.
In recent years we have believed in sharing the jury results with all participants; if you are an iF Design winner, you know why, based on this chart, and if not, you get insights to do better next year. This is very much appreciated by our participants.
What can Design Awards do?
The question is: what is the role of design? How can it be measured? And what is the role of design award organizations in general? It’s not an easy question, and the answer today may not be the same as decades ago. But by creating a platform to celebrate design, awards help manufacturers, designers, architects, and academia orient themselves in an often chaotic economy overflowing with messages and products. At iF Design, we see three main drivers for this word “orientation.”
The first driver and the first reason why award organization should exist is ‘Orientation for consumers’. Design awards help consumers orientate themselves at the point of sale or on social media. Because if you face 100 different mobile phones, how do you choose?
Awards, in general, not only the iF Design Award, provide a kind of orientation because this product has been reviewed by experts. TThe second is 'Orientation for companies'. Design is hard to quantify. At a glance, it can be hard to tell two mobile phones apart, and even harder to say what makes one better designed. By making design quality measurable and somewhat objective, awards create standards that can be examined and used by policymakers, consumers, the press, and business owners alike.
They also point to the value of design for business and the public good. The last one is ‘Orientation for designers.’ Winning an iF Design Award, where we print the name of the designer who did the work on the certificate, is good for your CV and gives orientation: “Where am I in the world of designers?”
These principles are important for us when we talk with our participants and business partners worldwide. We have a network of partners, design organizations, award organizations, and if you ask them, they would say “The people from iF Design are trustworthy”.
Design Power from Seoul the last 3 years
What does that mean for Korea? As mentioned earlier: these are the entries we received from Korea and from Seoul-based companies over the last three years, and you can see high numbers year by year. But it’s not the quantity that is most interesting; it’s the quality. Our global average win rate is roughly 30%, while entries from Seoul over the last three years averaged 44%. That is very high in the iF Design Award. If one city achieves 44%, it means other countries, cities, or companies must be significantly below 30%. Again, that is important to us. We feel power from Korea, power from Seoul when it comes to design.
What you see here is the ‘Seoul City Branding Project’ by Seoul City Hall, which won an iF Design Award last year. Below is the ‘Form & Foam Chair series’ from the Seoul Metropolitan Government, which won an iF Design Award this year.
Another good example is the ‘Seoul Design X Governance Initiative’ — a program that brings together citizens, students, and designers in a five-step co-design process to develop solutions to social challenges. This innovative concept was honored internationally with the iF Design Award 2025 in the Service Design category. The initiative promotes close cooperation between administration, authorities, and companies, achieving sustainable, effective results. Congratulations again.
Another very good example is the ‘Seoul Hanok Project,’ which was also honored with an iF Design Award this year. It is significant proof of the excellence and international appeal of this initiative as a public brand of the City of Seoul. This project sets new standards in combining tradition and modernity. The unique revitalization and innovative development of Hanok architecture have been implemented in an exemplary manner, not only architecturally, but also socially.
Nevertheless, through internationally recognized events such as Seoul Design Week, the city has begun to organically connect these assets, gradually evolving into a symbolic platform. Building on this foundation, Seoul holds immense potential for future growth and is well positioned to emerge as a global leader in the design industry.
Recommendations to Seoul
Please allow me to offer a suggestion.
Seoul can now transform into a comprehensive hub where the public sector, private industry, academia, and businesses collaborate and network seamlessly, by fostering strategic investments from both public and private domains and cultivating the next generation of creative talent. Seoul is poised to move beyond the image of a design-oriented city and establish itself as a global leader in the design industry.
Seoul already possesses outstanding assets, such as world-class design award achievements, a pool of talented designers, and iconic infrastructure like the DDP. However, these assets have often operated individually, and there is still a lack of an integrated platform and governance to fully generate synergy.
From K-pop to K-drama, from the DDP to Korean companies’ stunning success in world markets, it is clear that Seoul is on an upward path. I am certain that with all the work of the 2030 Seoul Plan under Mayor Oh, we will continue to see great things coming out of Korea. My recommendation: keep your course.
Thank you very much for your attention.
