Appliance companies among the winners at Australian International Design Awards

By Paul Hayes

SYDNEY, NSW: De’Longhi, Kenwood, Neff, Dyson and Electrolux were among the winners at last Friday night’s 2010 Australian International Design Awards held in Sydney.

The awards are considered Australia’s premier product design assessment program and recognise design and innovation excellence.

“To be named the Australian International Design Award of the Year a product needs to demonstrate outstanding performance across the six criteria of innovation, functionality, visual appeal, quality and manufacturing, human factors and environmental sustainability,” said program director, Stephanie Pemberton.

Among the winners was Kenwood’s kMix stand mixer, which the company said represents a benchmark for design excellence in the food preparation category in combining simplicity with form and function.

“The unique design captures the sophistication and elegance to make an impact in the kitchen space and bring food preparation design to become the way of life and the art of living” said chief executive officer of Kenwood Australia, Paolo Albertoni.

The De’Longhi Nespresso CitiZ range was also honoured at the awards, nominated for its ‘visual identity’ in combining retro styling with high tech functionality, said the company.

The CitiZ range features the Nespresso extraction and brewing system and includes an automatic standby mode to reduce energy consumption and is designed in a slim-format to easily fit into smaller urban spaces.

Breville’s Smart Grill also received an award in recognition of design excellence.

According to Breville, the Smart Grill’s Element IQ senses a drop in temperature on each individual cooking surface and rapidly responds by injecting heat into either one or both plates for a faster recovery time.

Also in cooking, Neff was awarded for its Single Oven, while Electrolux’s En-V outdoor barbecue also scored with the judges.

Finally, Dyson’s Air Multiplier was awarded for its patented technology which, according to the company, multiplies air 15 times and expels 450 litres of cool air every second.