Peter Schmidt Group wins six prizes at the 2022 iF DESIGN AWARDS

Hamburg, 20.4.2022

With projects in a diverse range of industries, including brand identities for mobility providers, sports associations, fashion start-ups and non-profit initiatives, Peter Schmidt Group won six awards at the 2022 iF DESIGN AWARDS.

Presented by the iF International Forum Design in Hannover – one of the world's oldest independent design organization – the iF DESIGN AWARD is of the industry's most renowned international competitions. This year, a panel of 75 experts judged nearly 11,000 submissions from 57 countries. Among the year's winners were six projects of the brand and design agency Peter Schmidt Group. Two of them – the corporate design relaunch for Deutsche Bahn and the brand design for ecological start-up Cocolette Shoes – had already won prizes from other forums, making them the agency's most successful projects of the year.

Agency impresses the judges with projects that promote digitalization and sustainability

Having already won awards from the ADC, Corporate Design Prize (CDP) and Red Dot,  the redesign of the Deutsche Bahn brand identity has now also been honored with the iF DESIGN AWARD. The designers at Peter Schmidt Group simplified the brand's design system and added a new design element called the Pulse, which realizes its full potential in digital interaction such as “micro-moments” and user interfaces, for example – precisely the touchpoints that are becoming more and more important in the era of digitally networked mobility.

The agency's design for the sustainable Cocolette Shoes brand had also been honored with a Red Dot before receiving the iF DESIGN AWARD. The original concept as a graduation project by Laura Ullmann, now a designer at Peter Schmidt Group. She continued developing the idea, and now her completely biodegradable summer sandals are available for sale at Manufactum stores. Cocolette beach thongs are a fashionable way to combat ocean pollution, and this conviction shapes both the brand design and the product itself.

“Our Empathic Branding approach gives brands of all kinds – whether established companies or start-ups – the ability to shape positive change by acting empathetically. We are proud that our work has not only been well received by our international clients but has impressed design experts as well,” said Lukas Cottrell, managing partner of Peter Schmidt Group.

Brand appearances full of personality – for home savings associations, Triathlon athletes, not-for-profit initiatives and even for our own colleagues

The iF panel of judges also honored four more Peter Schmidt Group projects. One of them was the brand design for the Landesbausparkasse (LBS), a home savings and loan association. In collaboration with their network colleagues from BBDO advertising agency, Peter Schmidt Group designers added playful illustrations to home floor plans and enhanced their emotional appeal. 

The new look for Germany's Triathlon Bundesliga also impressed the panel of judges. In keeping with the brand's motto “Going Beyond Limits,” the designers visualized the athletic process of exceeding one's limits in a central design element that transforms the league into a contest among genuine heroes – and increases its visibility among potential sponsors.

Peter Schmidt Group lent just as much power to the brand design of a fashion collection called “Gegen den Tod Couture”. As if the designer garments themselves, which make an organ-donor card a fashion statement, were not eye-catching enough, the initiative's visual identity also commands attention. The implementation of the communication media was carried out in collaboration with partner-agency Proximity.

Appealing to people's emotions and getting them involved is something the brand agency does not only for its clients, but for itself as well. The agency's designers developed a colorful employer campaign for their own colleagues. The unifying motif is a set of drawings of faces that can be mixed and matched in any number of combinations. They appear on do-it-yourself craft sheets, in social media posts, on mugs, notepads, stickers and posters that greeted Peter Schmidt Group colleagues when they returned to their offices after working from home for months. The campaign impressed not only the employees and team members, but also the panel of judges for the iF DESIGN AWARD.

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