The Red Dot: Luminary, a top prize for product design, went this year to Romanian startup .lumen, which builds glasses meant to aid the mobility of the blind. 

The prize was granted to .lumen and design studio Desiro Vision, with which the startup designed the glasses.

The nominees for the prizes included a Multi-Purpose Delivery Vehicle by Canoo, an all-electric commercial and small business solution designed to maximize productivity and return on investment for users; Virgin Galactic Spaceship Interior by Seymourpowell, a collaboration with Virgin Galactic on the interior design of Unity, the world's first commercial spaceship; sPEEK by Sagentia Innovation, a voice-controlled surgical loupe headset that helps clinicians to deliver uninterrupted care in procedures through hands-free control of magnification and lighting optimization; and Cognixion One by STEL, a wearable speech generating device that enables communication via Brain Computer Interface with Augmented Reality.

The Red Dot: Luminary is the highest level of recognition accorded at the Red Dot Award: Design Concept. It is selected among the Red Dot: Best of the Best winners. "The Red Dot: Luminary serves as an inspiration to aspire towards. Akin to obtaining a quality seal for design that sets apart from the rest in the field, being awarded a Red Dot meant the works had excelled against a very high benchmark of design excellence," according to a description of the prize.

As Red Dot Luminary winners, the .lumen glasses will be exhibited at the Red Dot Design Museum in Singapore.

(Photo courtesy of .lumen)

simona@romania-insider.com