When the BraunPrize was established in 1968, it was Germany’s first international competition with the aim to promote the importance of industrial design and the work of young designers. Braun’s continuous commitment to this cause has been highly regarded by the design world and the design-aware public ever since. The objective of the BraunPrize today is to promote the work of young and established designers from all over the world, to value the work of design schools, design teams and individuals, and to help develop a greater appreciation of those factors and criteria which enable good product design. Furthermore, it serves to make the ingenuity and creativity of designers accessible to the public and to provide a link between designers and industry or potential clients. In sponsoring the BraunPrize, Braun seeks to highlight the important role of industrial design in improving people´s quality of life and finding solutions for the problems we are facing around the world – design for the what matters.

“When Erwin Braun, son of Braun founder Max Braun, established Germany´s first international design prize in 1968 – the BraunPrize – it was originally introduced to stimulate public debate about design. This was at a time when understanding and awareness of design and its positive benefits were largely unknown.

Five decades later, the focus on promoting design itself is no longer the highest priority. Today industrial design has become an integral part of the product development process, and design strongly influences many people´s lives.

Despite the fact that the level of design has improved since the 1960’s, the world has become a more complicated and demanding place. Good design today has to meet much higher standards than ever before, and must integrate sustainability and complex technology successfully into people´s lives and social behavior. The quality of our future depends on how well we can leverage knowledge and creativity to find solutions to the challenges of tomorrow.

With this in mind, the intention of the BraunPrize today is to encourage people to act responsibly, to innovate in the field of product development and design, to generate ideas that have not yet been conceived, and to create product concepts that no one has yet imagined. Ideally this is a kick-start for design talent and new ideas on their way to change the world. The BraunPrize has evolved while staying true to its original intention: Promoting Excellence in Design and Thinking.” - Oliver Grabes, Head of Design at Braun and Chairman of the BraunPrize Jury since 2012