Welcome words by Ralph Wiegmann (iF design's Managing Director) at the reception.

Gianluca Armento (Brand Director of Cassina) explaining the importance of their archive

Over the course of three posts, we take a look at the highlights of the second edition of the Munich Creative Business Week (MCBW), which took place from February 16–24, 2013.

"Die Neue Sammlung," an impressive museum run by the Free State of Bavaria, houses the largest collection of industrial and product designs in the world. We found it difficult to concentrate on curator Corinna Rösner's introductory remarks about the museum as we walked by amazing products that most of us only know from design history classes. During our 20-minute walk, it felt like we are traveling through time, passing by Gerrit Rietveld's chairs, Richard Sapper's TV and AIBO dogs. Suddenly, we found ourselves in front of a huge paternoster system featuring the "secret archive of Cassina" with a dozen items from the Italian manufacturer, which has been archiving products and prototypes since the 1930s. Gianluca Armento (Brand Director of Cassina) elaborated on the importance of an archive and how it can help brand management. As a company, you need to keep track of your history in order to make strategies for the future.

The "Refuge Tonneau" reconstructed by Cassina

Basic kitchen inside the Refuge Tonneau

The exhibition also features the so-called "Refuge Tonneau," designed by Charlotte Perriand and Pierre Jeanneret in 1938, during the threatening early years of World War II. The space-shuttle like mountain shelter has been reconstructed by Cassina for the exhibition to demonstrate that design is not only about objects but also about vision and ideas.

BMW Welt building in Munich

Happy winners of this year's iF gold awards

With some 1,900 visitors from 35 countries, iF design throws one of the biggest parties in Munich (besides the Oktoberfest of course). iF chose to celebrate its 60th birthday at the impressive BMW Welt with the winners of this year's iF awards. The ceremony is sadly without one of their favorite jurors, James Irvine, who passed away last week at the age of 54. Ralph Wiegman invited Peter Raacke, a respected industrial designer at the age of 85, for a flashback at the history of design. Jury chairman Fritz Frenkler explains that it is not an easy job to select 75 gold awards from the 4,352 entries from 51 countries, all of which were reviewed by the expert jury last November. He also refers to Dieter Rams' famous "10 Principles of Good Design," adding an 11th principle: "Gutes Design sollte auch gut bezahlt werden." ("Good design should also be paid well").

Winners on stage at the iF design award ceremony

The awards are given in three categories: Product (981 awards), Communication (346 awards) and Packaging (83 awards). It took over two hours to present the 75 iF gold awards, which required some patience of the winners, who largely expressed excitement when they make it to the stage to finally receive their prizes, a.k.a. "Herberts" (after Herbert Schultes, who designed the award). Luckily, the show is broadcast on several screens at the BMW Welt, allowing the 1,900 visitors to meet and greet with a drink and snack. Three hours later, almost everyone had headed across the street to the "Doppelkegel" space, where the afterparty was underway.

Meet and greet during the iF design award ceremony

Party time in the "Doppelkegel" space

You can find all winners of this year at the iF online exhibition website. Photo galleries of the award ceremony can be found at the iF design website. While each one is worth a look, we've highlighted one iF design gold winner for each category to illustrate the breadth of the honorees.

iF product design award: Metro Harbin This vehicle for the Harbin metro is particularly special and cutting edge, with an esthetically pleasing design never before seen in the sector. This fresh, new quality is particularly visible in the austere, pared-down lines of the vehicle. The colors are extremely restrained and applied with great consistency. Each coach is welcoming, bright and inviting, so that the space as a whole seems larger and every seat seems roomy. A great modernization of a metro in a particularly unique style.

iF Communication Design Award: CNN Ecosphere This is an interesting visualization of the data. It is not just counting and counting / boring numbers. It's also symbolic / help grow. Technologically impressive but the beautiful aspect is that wonderful symbolic metaphor of the more that you are debating about this subject the more you are growing a tree on earth. It's got that lovely meaning that you are making a contribution toward the debate. Unique and very usable.

iF Packaging Design Award: Friends Hand Cream The structure of this eye-catching packaging is very unique and very appropriate for its audience. The way the cute characters are incorporated as die cuts on a rectangular box is very nice. The use of matt colors on it is also great. Despite the cartoon-like nature of the characters, it has a very adult feel to it.

Tomorrow, we'll wrap up our MCBW 2013 coverage with a closer look at the exhibitions downtown.

Munich Creative Business Week 2013:
» Meeting Design Icons from MINI to Maurer
» Revealing Cassina's Secrets and the iF Design Awards