Each december, world design rankings (WDR) releases a list that positions countries according to the number of international juried design competitions and awards they have won over the last twelve-month period.
Organized by the A' design award & competition, the aim of the WDR is to provide data and insights to economists and journalists regarding the art, architecture and design industries, and bring to light the annual contributions made to global design culture through advocation.
2013 saw 69 countries evaluated, with puerto rico and iceland among them, debuting for the first time under a new section called 'design business insights' that scores countries based on their success in diverse design fields and categories, broken down into three additional tables (strengths, weaknesses and opportunities) for each nation.
'Design strengths' indicate dominant design fields in which a country is competitive and successful in, allowing media and the general public to discover who leads in specific sectors, such as: 'which country is best in industrial design?'; 'which country is best in interior design?'; and 'which country is best in automotive design?'. 'design weaknesses' charts whether or not a country is below average in comparison to others in the context of a specific design category; while 'design opportunities' is an evaluation of the undiscovered areas of design which could be further explored by country. further breaking down the world design rankings in this way allows media and design enthusiasts in the various creative disciplines, to more easily understand and discuss the importance of the discipline's diverse areas in relation to each individual country. the insights could also be used by policy makers to determine whether or not a specific sector or industry could receive government subsidies or subvention.
you may view the full world design rankings for 2013 here and view the general grading for this year below
score points legend:
platinum award counts as six (6)
a golden award counts as five (5)
silver award counts as (4)
bronze award counts as three (3)
A’ award (marked as iron) counts as two (2)
the 2013-2014 A’ design award & competition winners have been organized under three different categories: the ‘world design rankings’ (which lists the ranking of all represented countries), ‘designer rankings’ (individual rankings of designers i.e. the design hall of fame), and ‘design classifications’ (category based rankings).
‘rising moon’ by stanley siu
platinum A’ architecture, building and urban design award winner, 2013-2014
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‘smartstreets-cyclepark™ transformational bike parking by chris garcin and andrew farish smartstreets ltd.
platinum A’ design award winner in street furniture design category, 2013-2014
Original article via designboom