Sony NEX-5 with 16mm pancake lens
The Sony NEX-5 has won a prestigious iF Design Gold Award for its product design for its compactness (“world’s smallest and lightest interchangeable lens digital camera”) and its elegant and uncluttered user interface.
PRESS RELEASE
Sony Design Triumphant with Four Top Honours
Sony recognised for pushing the boundaries of design after picking up a record four Gold Awards at today’s iF Design Award ceremony
One of the world’s most prestigious design competitions, the International Forum Design Awards (iF), has once again recognised Sony’s ability to create and deliver ‘outstanding design’. Of only 50 awards presented from a total of over 3,000 entries, Sony beat its own record by collecting four prestigious ‘Gold Awards’ for outstanding product design for its Handycam NEX-VG10, BRAVIA NX800 TV Series, “α” NEX-5 digital camera and VPL-FX500L / VPL-FX30 projector. Spanning Sony’s entire product offering, iF also celebrated Sony’s industry leading ‘product’ and ‘communication’ designs by presenting an impressive 22 awards.
Sony always strives to push the boundaries of design to provide users with improved form and function. Having been a striking presence at last year’s Milano Salone Internationale del Mobile design fair, with its industry acclaimed ‘Contemplating Monolithic Design’ exhibition, these awards further demonstrate how Sony is creatively working towards new areas in design. Epitomising this is one of Sony’s Gold Award winners, the BRAVIA NX800 TV series, which follows a new thinking in home electronics design; with the aim of enhancing contemporary living, designers removed all unnecessary outer buttons and used perfectly selected materials to make the TV look just as good off as it does on, the design has come to embody Sony’s award-winning ‘Monolithic Design’ encapsulated by its 2010 home entertainment range and continues across the brand new BRAVIA HX92/HX82/NX72 series launching from this Spring.
Tak Kawagoi, Director, Sony Design Centre Europe, said of the achievements, “This year marks the 50th year of Sony Design and it is fitting that we have won multiple awards for our innovation and creativity from iF. At Sony we are very proud of our rich design heritage which is a core part of our brand’s reputation as an industry leader. We have produced many innovations in the past year with the first ever compact DSLR in the ‘α’ NEX-5, creating a whole new concept in the digital camera market, and the world’s first consumer HD camcorder with interchangeable lenses1. Sony Design is constantly looking into the future and continually striving to create something original, and human-focused design is an essential part of this. Receiving this prestigious recognition in our anniversary year provides considerable motivation for us as a design led brand.”
iF Gold Awards
“α” NEX-5
Speaking of how Sony cultivated a new category in a flooded digital camera market, Executive Art Director, Takuya Niitsu, commented, “For some time, we’ve sensed latent needs in the camera market, seeing how some people are unsatisfied with the creative power of compacts but put off by the bulkiness of digital SLRs. The perfect solution was a smaller camera with superb image quality, and this is why we developed mirrorless interchangeable lens digital cameras. We needed to make a bold statement in design and the NEX-5 was the world’s smallest and lightest interchangeable lens digital camera. For the Award winning design, the designers also focused on its usability by building an elegant, uncluttered user interface – featuring a new ‘never get lost’ menu which collected a Communication Design Award.
“BRAVIA” NX800 Series
The NX800 Series, also known as the award-winning ‘Monolithic Design’ range of BRAVIA TVs was designed to enhance contemporary living with both an elegant design and connection to a huge choice of entertainment experiences. The design essence of ‘Monolith Design’ is created from the idea of the most beautiful, simplified and minimal design making the TVs look effortlessly graceful. Despite their simplicity on the outside, they are packed with the latest innovations for easy access to a world of entertainment and will continue to be available for consumer with the brand new BRAVIA HX92/HX82/NX72 series launching from this Spring.
“Handycam” NEX-VG10
Building on 25 years of continuous Handycam® innovation, the Sony NEX-VG10E – was the world’s first consumer HD camcorder with interchangeable lenses1. It was also the first Handycam® featuring an extra-large Exmor APS HD CMOS sensor that allows the creation of exquisitely cinematic background defocus effects. Through its professional like features such as a 14.2 effective megapixel sensor and interchangeable lenses, the NEX-VG10E opened up unprecedented artistic possibilities for everyday video enthusiasts.
VPL-FX500L / VPL-FX30 (projector)
These Gold Award winning projectors are designed for fixed installation applications such as boardrooms, show rooms, auditoriums and concert halls.
“The VPL-FX500L and VPL-FX30 are a reflection of how dominant the XGA resolution is and will remain in the European mid-range projector market,” said Robert Meakin, Senior Product Manager, business projectors at Sony Europe. “While WXGA and HD resolutions continue to gather momentum, XGA has the lion’s share with an expected 50% of the installation business over the next two years. We wanted to create a highly flexible projector that included innovative features such as the Twin Lamp System and Horizontal / Vertical Shift to become the projector of choice for both the customer and Sony Reseller.”
iF Product Awards
Alpha NEX-3
Alpha NEX-5
BRAVIA EX500 Series
BRAVIA NX800 Series
BDP-S370
BDV-F500
Cyber-shot DSC-T99/T99D
DR-320DPV/DR-350USB
DWM-01
Handycam NEX-VG10
MDR-Z1000
MDR-EX510SL
MDR-EX1000
MPK-THG/THJ, MPK-WF, SPK-CXA
nav-u NV-U75/U75V/U76V/U76VT
S-Frame DPF-XR100/80
VAIO P Series
VAIO Z Series
VPL-FX500L/FX30
Walkman S Series
iF Communication Awards
User Interface for “α” NEX-5 / NEX-3
VAIO Media Gallery