RCA Ranked Top British University in Prestigious Global Design Awards

The Red Dot Design Ranking: Design Concept consists of four distinct honorary lists for Companies, Design Studios, Universities – Americas & Europe, and Universities – Asia Pacific. The inclusion of the RCA in these rankings is both a sign of its global influence and recognition of its continued design excellence. According to Ken Koo, president of Red Dot Design Award, Asia, the Red Dot rankings reflect the ‘real sustainable design innovation capability of an organisation and the continued investment in design by enterprises and institutions'.

The Red Dot ranking is based on the results of the Red Dot Award: Design Concept as published in the annual Red Dot yearbooks. It takes into account all awards for design concepts over the past five years. The College’s latest ranking reflects its role in continuously and progressively producing cutting-edge and forward-thinking product concepts.

The six MA programmes within the School of Design will be joined this autumn with a new MRes in Healthcare & Design. This programme fosters an interdisciplinary approach to innovation in healthcare systems, services and environments. Across the College, world-leading design research and creative innovation takes places both within Schools and research centres such as the Helen Hamlyn Centre for Design, and through involvement in projects such as GATEway, a research project into driverless cars.

Beyond being a design competition, Red Dot acts internationally to promote design, highlighting the importance of design for business and society – an ethos shared with the RCA, which fosters links between design, business and industry. The College’s Knowledge Exchange programme enables businesses and organisations to benefit from College’s design thinking, processes and expertise, and InnovationRCA – the College’s centre for enterprise, entrepreneurship, incubation and business support – assists students and alumni in developing design concepts into successful businesses.

Earlier this year, Automist Smartscan, a fire protection product developed by Plumis – a business launched with the support of InnovationRCA – was awarded the Best of the Best, in the Red Dot Award for Product Design.

The Red Dot Award is an international design competition that awards the prestigious ‘Red Dot’ in the areas of product design, communication design, and design concepts. Alongside the Red Dot, awards include Best of the Best and Honourable Mentions. Awarded designs are exhibited in the Red Dot Design Museums in Essen, Singapore and Taipei, touring exhibitions around the world.