Exceptional audio from 2021 iF Design Award winners

Germany’s annual iF Design Award has long been a symbol for aesthetic quality, user-focused, ergonomic and efficient design in all disciplines, by prestigious companies from all over the world. The aim of the event is to celebrate ‘good industrial form’, drawing attention to particularly well-designed industrial products and communicating the importance of design and all it can achieve: for users, brands and communities.  

Running since 1954, the iF Design Award has been presided over by judging panels including the likes of Dieter Rams, Richard Sapper, Franco Clivio, Stefan Diez and Paloma Picasso. It honours achievement across myriad design disciplines – product design, communication, packaging, service design, architecture, interior architecture, UI (user interface) and UX (user experience), all the way up to professional concept.  

The 2021 panel received almost 10,000 submissions from 60 countries, and was encouraged to evaluate each category using iF’s guiding principles: to identify, support and promote good design; to raise awareness of design among the public and the role it plays in our lives; to help companies integrate design into their long-term strategies; to safeguard the role of professional designer and boost awareness for this job profile; to effect social change through design and support talented young people and create a public platform for young designers.  

‘The clarity and role of design and communication are increasingly important to the way brands and businesses connect with their audiences,’ says iF juror Andy Payne, global chief creative officer at Interbrand. ‘We're not looking for just any packaging or message – we're looking for the exact presentation at the right time, in the context of our values, our beliefs, and the short- and long-term relationships we build with brands. But saying and showing that is not enough. Great design and communication today lie in the doing, the actual behaviour and physical manifestation. It's no longer only the idealised images with their contents, goals, manifestos, reasons for belief and propositions that we remember, but the reality of our experience.’

Here, we introduce the award-winning products in the iF Design Award’s Exceptional Audio Experiences category. For the best in wireless music systems, smart speakers, bluetooth-enabled earbuds, smart radios and more, listen up.