I was in istanbul again in December 2010 as a jury for Design Turkey Design Awards. I was jury for three categories Lighting, Building Components and conceptual Design. Lighting had the usual LED tech and innovative lamps, shades and moods, Building Components had door handles, bathroom tiles, shower systems,electrical switches, toilet furniture  and many other products, Conceptual was mostly student entries with new ideas not yet detailed. Every category had five jurors, one from Turkey and others from other countries. Products sparked active debates on relevance of awards, what it does to countries, processes of judging, the products themselves, education in design etc. Discussions continued over the 5 days from breakfast, to judging areas to fabulous dinner treats that hosts had organised. As manufacturing infrastructure is getting ever stronger in Turkey, and the potential for offering new products to both local and foreign markets is increasing.  On the other hand qualified manufacturing and technological innovation, can only be reflected on the end-product with the added value that industrial design can provide. Every other day it is getting clear that, to use industrial design as an effective tool grants the companies one of the biggest powers in competition. Design Turkey Industrial Design Awards, is a design evaluation system organized with the collaboration of Undersecretariate for Foreign Trade (DTM), Turkish Exporters Assembly (TIM) and Industrial Designers Society of Turkey (ETMK), within the framework of TURQUALITY® programme in order to make visible the benefits that good design brings to the society and industry in Turkey, by rewarding good design which respects user needs, and provides added value and competitive advantage to the product. Design Turkey Industrial Design Awards has two main categories:

  1. Product Design Awards
  2. Conceptual Design Awards

Design Turkey Product Design Awards evaluates products on sectoral basis, which are manufactured by industrial methods and launched in the market targeting end users, and having certain functions, of which the designer, manufacturer or trade mark owner should be of Turkish citizenship. Products fulfilling, “good design” criteria receive Good Design Award, “superior design” criteria receive Superior Design Award. Award winning designs get the permission to use the award mark on the product and in its advertisements. Award winning designs are presented and promoted through exhibitions and publications. In order to encourage innovative ideas that will guide the industry for future, within the framework of a specific theme determined biannually, Design Turkey Conceptual Design Awards evaluate design projects which have not been scheduled for manufacture.

Sudhir Sharma with other jurors at Istanbul Design Turkey December 2010