When it was established in 1968, the Braun- Prize was Germany’s first international competition to promote the work of young designers. Braun’s commitment to this cause has been highly regarded by the design world and the design-aware public ever since. In sponsoring the BraunPrize, Braun seeks to highlight the importance of industrial design and innovative products and to promote ideas for consumer items which help people in all aspects of their daily lives.

The BraunPrize seeks to promote the work of young designers from all over the world, to recognise the work of design schools and to help develop a greater appreciation of the factors and criteria which make for good product design. Furthermore, it serves to make the ingenuity and creativity of young designers accessible to the public and to provide a link between young designers and industry or potential clients.

Participants are free to choose any subject for their product concepts. The BraunPrize has always been entirely independent of the Braun product range and is not restricted to products from the consumer goods sector. The product concepts submitted should represent real innovations in design and technology, focusing on the essential topics of our time. The conceptual designs should be developed with users´ needs in mind showing applications which support them in their everyday lives - in the home, at work or school, during sports and leisure activities or in the context of health and personal care. The jury assesses all the product concepts in accordance with the following criteria:

- Design - innovation, aesthetics, clarity, ergonomics
- Technology - how convincing is the product functionality?
- Usability - the benefit which the product provides for the user The product should be designed with the humanbeing as the focal point in mind. The following additional factors are also taken into account during the assessment process:

- The clarity of the content
- The quality of the presentation and the design models
- A thorough analysis of the assumptions on which the product is based
- The feasibility of the concept with regard to processes and costs
- The social acceptance of the product idea
- The environmental compatibility of the product concept

As the best projects will be shown in the exhibition, the quality of the design model is as important as the clarity of the presentation and the way in which it is delivered. Along with the quality of the design, innovation and practical usability are
prerequisites for a successful entry. In addition to innovative ideas, intelligent re-design concepts are also welcome.
Please note that software and media design concepts are excluded from the scope of the competition.

Entry documents for the first round of the competition may be submitted by using the online upload facility at www.braunprize.com, by mail or courier. A physical design model will have to be submitted by participants who are selected for the second round.

Eligibility
The BraunPrize 2009 International Design Award is open to young industrial designers who are still studying or who have graduated within the last two years.

Awards
The total prize money amounts to 36.000 Euros.

The winner of the BraunPrize will receive 12.000 Euros in prize money and a (paid) six-month internship in the Design Department at Braun. The other finalists will each receive a prize of 5.000 Dollars. The remaining prize money will be distributed in the form of special recognition awards at the discretion of the jury.

Through entering your dates in the online entry form you will get access to your personal BraunPrize online-account. Via online-upload on the BraunPrize server all documents can be submitted, administrated and seen directly.

Jury
- Peter Schneider (Director Corporate Design at Braun and chairman of the BraunPrize jury)
- Anna Kirah (Design Antropologist, Norway)
- Kazuo Tanaka (President of GK Design Group Inc. Tokyo, Japan)
- Florian Seiffert (Professor for Product Design, University of Applied Sciences Mainz and first BraunPrize Winner 1968)
- Rainer Silbernagel (Director Engineering and Quality Institute Kronberg, Kronberg Technical Center)

All the members of the international jury consider, discuss and assess the entries with the greatest care. In order to be able to do this effectively, the jury has only a small number of members who devote a total of 6 days to the judging process which is divided into three stages.

In the first stage, the 5 jury members assess the projects on the basis of design sketches, photographs of the design model, technical drawings and a project description. About 40 - 60 entries will be selected for the second stage. The design models are requested for the second stage of judging, during which the jury selects the finalists who will be invited to the BraunPrize Forum where the overall winner will be elected. In addition other outstanding projects are also
selected during this process for inclusion in the BraunPrize Exhibition.

The third stage takes place at the BraunPrize Forum. The finalists present their projects to an invited audience made up of representatives from the sectors of design, as well as notables from the worlds of industry, technology and the media who have a special interest in the field of design. The overall winner of the 2009 BraunPrize will be selected on the basis of the votes cast by the guest jurors attending the Forum.

Submission Deadline: 31 January 2009

Submission Requirements
The entry must comprise the following elements:
- Brief project description (approx. 300 words) which clearly describes the concept and the innovative character of the project
- A maximum of 10 pages (format DIN A3, legal size) which clearly show the product concept using design sketches, photographs of the design model, technical drawings, and a description of the project
- Two descriptive pictures of the project as jpg files (300 DPI and 10 x 10 cm)
- Registration Form
Via online-upload: enter data using the online registration form on the website.

Via mail: fill out and sign the printed registration form and attach to documents submitted. Only the above mentioned maximum number of pages will be shown to the jury. Additional documents, such as detailed documentations, videos
and animations can only be considered on complementary basis. The model, as well as a detailed description will only be an evaluation component in the second jury round and will be requested seperately. Please consider that the jury has a limited amount of time for each project to capture essential details. Please select the number of documents in a way
that will describe the project clearly and understandably. We recommend submitting all documents in English since the jury is comprised of international members. The name of the entrant must not appear on any of the items submitted, the only exception being the entry form. However, project names – such as "LeapFrog", "Rescue Buoy" are permitted on all elements and are a helpful feature. In order to ensure complete anonymity, projects are only identified by a number throughout the entire competition.

The best entries will be presented in the travelling BraunPrize Exhibition and will also be published in the international press and on the internet. The travelling exhibition seeks to provide an insight into current trends in design and design training around the world.

The design competition concludes with the BraunPrize Event which consists of a Workshop, the BraunPrize Forum and the Award Ceremony. The Workshop provides an opportunity for the finalists to prepare their presentations. The BraunPrize Forum is part of the judging process; it is here that the overall winner is elected. Everyone who is interested in the BraunPrize Competition and its conclusion is invited to the subsequent Award Ceremony which is followed by the opening of the BraunPrize Exhibition.