Since 1954, the International Forum Design has been honoring outstanding design work in a variety of disciplines with its iF DESIGN Award. Its 70-year history makes this one of the most venerable and internationally recognized awards.

 

Moreover, the competition also evaluates the performance of the submitting companies and agencies over the past five years. After all, only by consistently delivering top performance can agencies prove that design excellence is firmly anchored in their own creative culture. As in previous years, Peter Schmidt Group was ranked in the “Top 10 Branding” and “Top 25 Studios for Design and Architecture” in the global comparison. Among all agencies, Peter Schmidt Group achieved a strong third place with 280 points. 

 

“The iF DESIGN Award is a competition that is highly relevant to companies and clients, which makes it an important yardstick for our work,” said managing director Ruediger Goetz. “The assessment by internationally diverse juries also contributes to this. After all, our aim at Peter Schmidt Group is to develop solutions with a high level of empathy that not only work on the German market, but are successful worldwide.” 

 

 

Current success story: The teddy bear as a new brand icon for Steiff 

 

Winner of two separate 2024 iF DESIGN Awards is the new brand identity for Steiff. The company is a global "love brand," but not everyone is aware that it actually invented the teddy bear 120 years ago. That's why Peter Schmidt Group made the bear's head – the brand's most valuable asset – an integral part of the logo. The result is a modern, premium look that only impressed the judges but also the target group, which ranges from children to passionate collectors. 

 

 

Packaging with impact: The new look of Delta Cafés 

 

Packaging design is one of the key categories of the iF DESIGN Award, and is also a core discipline in Peter Schmidt Group's service portfolio. The agency's expertise in consumer branding is demonstrated by the new visual appearance it developed for the Portuguese brand Delta Cafés – a consistent design system that increases shelf impact, enhances the distinctiveness of the brand's varieties, and can accommodate future expansions of the product range. Since the introduction of the new design, Delta Cafés has recorded a 16.8% increase in market share in the ground coffee segment. 

 

 

The beginning of a success story: HUGO BOSS 

 

A total of 86 Peter Schmidt Group projects have received an iF DESIGN Award to date. The first was the bottle for the "Boss" fragrance by HUGO BOSS in 2000, which was emblematic of the agency's log tradition in lifestyle branding. Perfumes by Strenesse and Davidoff, but also the iconic Apollinaris mineral water bottle and the design for 0039 ITALY are other examples.