Red Dot Award is one of the four international design competitions, known as the “Oscars of Design". This award was established by the Europe's most prestigious unit, Design Zentrum Nordrhein Westfalen of the German Design Association, and presently is 50 years old (since 1954). It holds the design competitions every year for the three areas respectively: Communication Design, Product Design, and Design Concept. 2013 Red Dot Award: Communication Design had attracted more than 6,800 works entries from 43 countries worldwide, and only 1% of them can get “Best of the best”, and 9% get “Reddot”. The importance of this award has obviously shown on the winning rate and the number of entries from all over the world. This competition may be no stranger to many designers, but for students, they often have difficulties to know how to prepare. Since 2011, I led the students to participate in this competition I was fortunate to get the Ministry of Education grants, attending the awards ceremony twice, therefore, I hereby write this article to share my experience as well as what I saw and heard to those interested in this design competition.

_{Konzerthaus-Red Dot Awarding Ceremony Place}

_{Konzerthaus-Red Dot Awarding Ceremony Place}

Budget and Winner Services

Before participating in the international competitions, in addition to the factors relevant to the quality of the work such as mastering work issues, design expression, the degree of integrity and delicacy, and conveying the innovative ideas, etc., the competition category and related schedules, and more importantly, the budget of participating in it, should also be concerned. I roughly divide the design competitions into three types, including spot competition, themed competition, and exhibition-style competition. 1. Spot Competition: like sports competitions, competing on the spot and deciding good or bad. For example: Skills Competition. 2. Themed Competition: the organizer sets a theme according to the needs and all participants do not need to pay the application fee; if the work wins the prize, the winner can get bonuses, but the right to use the work is usually owned by the organizer. For example: The Information Month Poster Design Competition. 3. Exhibition-Style Competition: themes, registration fees, bonuses, and other settings are different depending on different competitions, usually the lineup of judges is strong and has high visibility and credibility in the international arena, and public exhibitions after the selection may be held usually. For example: Red Dot Award, and the International Biennale of Graphic Design Brno, Czech. And Red Dot Award is the third type, and belongs to the exhibition-style competition with set themes but without application fee.

Prices in Europe are generally much higher than in Asia, so the entry fee of the Red Dot Award for us is relatively high. It must be recommended to grasp the Early Bird Discount period of registration. After nearly two months of the grand selection activities, if your work luckily gets the favor and wins the award, you also need to pay the cost of "Winner Package", which is relatively rare in the general exhibition-style competitions. Anyone who is interested in participating in this the design competition must not it (table 1) . What is the "Winner Package"? Including Red Dot label which allows the winners in the future can label the Red Dot Award in their works or related publicities, two award certificates, on-spot exhibitions, internet exhibitions (at least 5 years) , presentation on the international Red Dot Design Yearbook , an international yearbook, traveling exhibitions and related media services. The winner packages of “Red Dot” or “Best of the best” are not the same. The “Best of the best” winner has more pages of presentation on the international Yearbook, and the two tickets of the Red Dot Gala(awards ceremony) and the Designers’ Night are included; besides, if attending the ceremony, you can additionally participate in Winners Reception of  the “Best of the best” winners, and receive the award on the stage by yourself.

The Awarding Ceremony and Designers’ Night

The glory of Red Dot Award can be divided into two stages, the first stage is Red Dot Gala Awarding Ceremony, and the second stage is the Designers' Night (Table 2). As to the international design competitions like the Red Dot Award with such a long history and a large-scale, the process of competition and selection should be rigorous and cautious, if you luckily win the awards, you must be present at the Awarding Ceremony and the Designers Night; it is an international grand event worth to feel by yourself.

Red Dot Gala awarding ceremony had been held at the Konzerthaus Berlin (concert hall) in recent years. “Best of the Best Winner Reception" will be held before the formal awarding ceremony, the Best of the Best winners will be invited to enter and check in first for makeup, photo taken, receiving awards, and the simple rehearsal to explain the flow of the awarding ceremony. At this point, all the Best of the Best winners are gathered and enjoy the endless champagne and delicious snacks; under this atmosphere, everyone can exchange views or talk about design with each other. It is important to note that the Best of the Best winners must check in within this time limit, otherwise you will be unable to receive the award on the stage by yourself. In 2013, a Taiwanese winning team almost could not receive the award, but fortunately, I had known beforehand that the team would travel to Germany to accept the award, after hearing the last broadcast voice from the organizer, I immediate helped to find them; otherwise, it is really regrettable that our fellow citizens went all the way to Germany but not to receive the award on the stage by themselves. Red Dot winners and all guests are allowed to enter at one hour before the awarding ceremony. It opens so early because of a special consideration. Heaters are commonly in European building, so the large crowds need to check in, undress or change clothes, and deposit baggage, which really need to spend a lot of time. Although the Red Dot winners cannot receive the award on the stage by themselves, you also have the time of interaction and drinking champagne, thus you can take a close exchange with the design experts around the world.

The awarding ceremony is opening in the film produced by the organizer, and the whole event is in German. The participants can borrow the headset to listen to the simultaneous Interpreting in English before the event’s beginning. In 2013, Taiwanese performance was very rosy in Red Dot Award, no matter young designers or professional designers. Therefore, at the beginning of the ceremony, the chairman Dr. Peter Zec mentioned Taiwan several times in his speech. Hearing from the microphone, we felt glory and joy particularly in the field. In recent years, the first prize in the award process is usually the Junior Award for young designs. When we were just immersed in the speech, it had entered into the junior prize, and was followed by the award of Best of the Best for young designers in accordance with the order of items. The organizer will be attentive to take the uploaded picture of the work as an element, and edit and produce a multimedia video for playing when each award is being announced and when the winners is on the stage. Before the awards of professional class presented, in addition to introducing the presenter, the video introducing all judges will also be played. At the same time, the judges will be talking about their viewpoints in selection of this category this year. This part of the Comment is very rewarding to us. The entire ceremony is not a short time, but through the schedule arrangement, multimedia, and interspersed performances, etc., you can see the well intentions of the organizer, so even if you only participate in the ceremony without receiving award on the stage, you still have a lot of harvest.

After the awarding ceremony finished is followed by the easy Designers' Night. This activity in 2013 was in a composite art space and about 1,400 people participated in this evening, including the winners, customers, judges, and design enthusiasts gathered there to enjoy endless wine, beverages, snacks, and various creative works; which was really a great feast. The exhibition contained two floors, and presented completely the current year's winners. Plane works were presented on the walls, and three-dimensional works were displayed on the cabinets; multimedia works were shown on the computer screens in another area. I did not know the indoor heating was too strong or the design communication was too exciting; each person was holding a cup or a bottle in the hand, and all words were about design with pleasure. Under the catalysis of alcohol, the peer young designers were no longer shy or afraid of speaking; the language barriers around the world were suddenly disappeared. With time getting late, the designers were getting happier. The dance floor was full of music and dancing, and never stopped. If you have the opportunity to participate in this activity, do not easily give up the exchange in Designers’ Night. For the relatively shy Asians, everything was liberated all of a sudden under such an atmosphere. No matter in design thinking or interaction, another page had opened up.

Prize Money and Related Information

The prizes of Red Dot Award contain the “Best of the Best” and “Red Dot”, and the Grand prix in the Professional Group, this is the highest honor for a designer and each famous design company to pursue. And the Junior prize is for young designers and regardless of category, and it has a scholarship of € 10,000 euros to encourage the creation of more outstanding young designers’ works. In addition, the Ministry of Education provides school students with generous incentives to encourage them to participate in international design competitions (Table 3), in recent years it is fruitful and has rewarded many Taiwanese students. So if the Taiwanese students have the opportunity to get this award, do not miss the opportunity to apply for an additional incentive; if you get the approval, the Ministry of Education will hold a grand ceremony to encourage and praise you.

Umspannwerk Alexanderplatz

_{Umspannwerk Alexanderplatz}

After the simple introduction, it’s once again to remind you of something; the historical data of Red Dot design competition is quite rich, so do not miss its official online information (http://en.red-dot.org/). In addition, the organizer also has developed a mobile phone App this year, so that all people can view the annual award-winning works on their cell phones. Just search on the phone bazaar, then it can be easily downloaded, and you can enjoy the wonderful works at any time. Moreover, IDC of Ministry of Education (http://www.moe-idc.org/) also is helpful, and transmitting the information of these international design competitions and sharing of relevant experiences, really help the interested young students very much.

Design on Stage

_{Design on Stage}

_{Design on Stage}

I had the honor to participate in the competition and ceremony of Red Dot Award. I am very grateful to the Ministry of Education for promoting the policies and subsidies, and the strong support from the Asia University. I just roughly share what I had seen and heard here, and hope to have some little help for those interested in participating in this design contest. I don’t think my knowledge and experiences are good enough, so if any omission, please feel free to relay your comments.