Kia’s design team has won four ‘red dot’ design awards, including a ‘Best of the Best’ distinction for the new Kia pro_cee’d in the product design category. The Kia cee’d five-door, cee’d Sportswagon and Carens compact MPV models collected ‘Winner’ awards.

Along with the iF product design award in November 2012, this is the second prize won by the Kia pro_cee’d before the new model goes on sale later this month. The four 2013 awards bring the total number of Kia’s red dot wins to 10 since 2009.

Kia’s Soul, Venga, Sportage compact SUV and D-segment Kia Optima sedan – the latter was awarded the ‘Best of the Best’ prize – were followed last year by awards for the five-door Kia Rio B-segment hatch and the A-segment Kia Picanto.

“We are very proud of the ‘red dots’ that have been awarded to all of the cee’d family, along with the new Carens. And we are especially enthusiastic about the ‘Best of the Best’ award for the Kia pro_cee’d because, after the Kia Optima, yet another of our vehicles has received the highest honours from the jury,” says Peter Schreyer, President and Chief Design Officer of Kia Motors Corporation.

“The fact that our most important compact models have won four prizes is a great acknowledgement of the work of our international design teams. Our cars have now been winning for five years in a row, which once again confirms that we are on the right path with our consistent design strategy.”

The Design Centre of North Rhine-Westphalia founded the red dot awards programme in 1955, and it is now one of the most prestigious design contests in the world. This year, 1,865 manufacturers from 54 countries submitted 4,662 products. A 37-strong jury judged the products according to nine criteria, including degree of innovation, clarity of function, formal quality and sustainability.

Source: Kia

Tags: car design, design award, Design Centre of North Rhine-Westphalia, iF Product Design Award, industrial design, Kia, Peter Schreyer, product design, pro_cee’d, red dot design award