Cannes Lions Ad Fest creates new awards category: Product Design

The Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity has announced a new category to honour,  Product Design.

That brings the number of categories at Cannes to a whopping 17 – which also means more entries, and more money, for the festival. Cannes last year saw a record 35,765 entries, a 4 percent jump from the year prior that may partly be attributed to the addition of a new category, “Innovation Lions,” honouring tech that enables commercial creative excellence.

The new Product Design Lions will “recognise the applied use of physical products in aiding the communication of a brand ethos,” as well as the product’s ability to improve people’s lives, festival organisers said in a statement.

The category itself will be split into four sections: consumer goods; well-being and environmental impact, where entries will be judged on “making people’s lives better,” not marketing results; “solution,” which will focus on ergonomics and “day to day solutions provided through design”; and interface, which will focus on the product’s ease of navigation and ability to convey information.

“Brand communication has become such a part of product design that it’s important as a global festival celebrating creative communications that we now recognise this,” said Terry Savage, chairman of the Lions Festivals, in the statement. Adding the category also “helps to set a global benchmark and precedent for creativity within it,” Savage said. – Adage