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 automobiles and commercial products to medical equipment and home furnishings. Herman Miller’s Locale was recognized 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 neighborhoods 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 centralized 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 utilized 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. Ultimately, 176 designs were recognized 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 honors at the 2014 International Conference at the Austin Hilton in Austin, TX on Wednesday, August 13, 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 organizations 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 recognized 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 U.S. 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 34^th year, the International Design Excellence Awards program, fosters business and public understanding about the impact of design excellence on the quality of life and the economy. The IDEA program is regarded as one of the most preeminent design competitions in the nation 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, 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 organizes 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 journal on design, including 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 organization has more than 3,000 members in 28 professional chapters, in the US and members internationally. For more information, visit idsa.org.