Gallus ECS 340 wins two international design awards

For its efforts to combine functionality with customer-focused design, Gallus has received two international design awards for its innovative Gallus ECS 340 – “Focus Open 2010 in Silver” and the “iF product design award 2011”.

Design creates added value for customers

The main selling point for Gallus customers the world over is the press's overall cost-effectiveness throughout its life cycle. A designer's main task in this respect is to optimise ease of use across all machine operations.

However, Gallus customers are also very particular when it comes to an integrated press design. A good design appeals to customers on an emotive level, too, which really helps to create a good customer relationship. Combined with functions that simplify press operation and improve the production process, this creates significant added value for Gallus customers.

For more than 20 years now, Gallus has worked with its design partner the Meyer-Hayoz Design Engineering Group (http://www.meyer-hayoz.com/) to ensure this remains the case. The Group's key skills lie in design strategy, industrial design, user interface design, temporary architecture and communication design.

This cooperation has been bearing fruit for some time, most recently when Gallus won the two prestigious international design awards already referred to above.

“Focus Open 2010 in Silver”

The Gallus ECS 340 won Baden-Württemberg's international design award “Focus Open 2010 in Silver” at the end of 2010. This award is presented by Design Center Stuttgart, the longest-standing institution of its kind and Germany's only state-run design centre.

The centre’s origins date back to a “model collection” of the Royal Centre for Trade and Industry, as the state trade office was known in the previous century. The centre is actively committed to promoting trade and industry in the state of Baden-Württemberg. It is completely neutral, has the relevant expertise and does not have any vested business interests.

Submissions in 16 product categories were received from the United States, China, Japan, the United Kingdom, Belgium, Sweden, Finland, Denmark, Spain, Switzerland, Austria and Germany.

The panel of expert judges based their decision on criteria such as design quality, functionality, innovation, ergonomics, interface design, product graphics/typography, ecology, sustainability, perceived value, look and feel, emotional appeal and brand conformity.

The award-winning products were displayed at a well-attended exhibition and appear in a book entitled “Focus Open 2010”, which has been released around the world. According to this book, the panel of judges had the following specific praise for the Gallus ECS 340:

“The arrangement of the individual print elements on the granite produces a beautifully sculptured overall effect. The minimalist design combines with the proportions, colour and form of these high-tech elements to give the press a truly aesthetic quality.”

“iF product design award 2011”

At the beginning of December 2010, the Gallus ECS 340 won another important design accolade – this time from the iF International Forum Design in Hanover, one of the largest and most famous design centres in the world. Ever since if was first presented in 1953, the iF Award has been a prestigious hallmark of design excellence. All the award-winning products, in our case the innovative Gallus ECS 340, were on show at the iF product design award exhibition 2011 during CeBIT, which took place at the beginning of March at Hanover Exhibition Centre.

This year, 2,756 products from 43 countries applied for the award. There is also an iF yearbook, which is available worldwide. The expert judges' selection criteria were similar to those for the “Focus Open 2010” award.

Motivation to keep on improving

Gallus is delighted to have received these prestigious awards and feels its efforts to combine customer-focused design and functionality have been recognised. It also sees these awards as motivation and feels a commitment towards its customers to continue developing and optimising all aspects of its press design to create tangible customer benefits.