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The convertible Acer Aspire R13 was one of the winning products.

Taiwanese computer brand Acer has been awarded five Red Dot Design Awards in the 2015 program, with the 2-in-1 Aspire Switch 12, the professional TravelMate P645, the convertible Aspire R 13, the Aspire V Nitro Series notebook and the Revo One RL85 desktop all picking up gongs.

The Red Dot product design awards have been handed out since 1954 and are a staple of the annual gong season, along with the iF Design Award, the EISA Awards, the Good Design Awards and Product of the Year. There is always bubbling criticism that these awards are too easy to come by — everyone gets a prize, so to speak — but I tend to think these programs are generally very astute at separating the good products from the poor.

“For 60 years, the most-respected design experts have been convening every year in Essen to seek out the best designs,” said Red Dot founder and CEO Professor Doctor Peter Zec. “The laureates of the Red Dot Award: Product Design 2015 have demonstrated exceptionally high achievements and have thus been deservedly successful in the world’s largest design competition.”

The good thing about this particular acclaim is that all but one of the awarded Acer products are locally available — it is not uncommon for Red Dot winners to come to Australia much later than overseas markets, or not at all. Naturally, Acer ANZ head of marketing Katherine Nguyen was thrilled.

“Acer is extremely proud to be recognised by the world’s most outstanding design awards,” she told me. “These five Red Dot Awards confirm that we have been able to combine innovation and value for our customers across our range of notebooks and desktops and best of all, with the exception of the Switch 12, all these products are available now in Australia.”

On a global level, Acer is clearly happy with its five wins, with VP of Acer global marketing and branding Maarten Schellekens paying tribute to the company’s research and development.

“Winning this design award is a welcoming result of our relentless pursuit for design excellence that spans across our hardware, software and the overall user experience,” he said Maarten Schellekens. “We will continue to explore and engage our customers to be closer to their evolving needs. Some of the highlights this year are represented by the unique Ezel Aero Hinge of our convertible notebooks, the use of premium materials such as carbon fibre and Gorilla Glass, and IPS technology.”

Acer's five Red Dot Design winners.
Acer’s five Red Dot Design winners.