Hasta La Ideas

It’s Christmas in July time, design fans! The results of the 2009 International Design Excellence Awards (IDEA) competition are in, which means that you can get a headstart on holiday shopping for things that only yesterday you didn’t know existed (e.g., the Gold award-winning LiftPod, a “personal, portable aerial work platform designed as an alternative to ladders”). Today BusinessWeek, the Industrial Designers Society of America, Target, and Autodesk announced 150 IDEA winners (31 Gold, 47 Silver, and 72 Bronze) chosen from 1,631 entries. The jury—chaired by Andrew Hartman of Philips Designs—also named 349 finalists.

Among the big winners were IDEO and Samsung, each with eight awards, Apple (7), Dell Experience Design Group (6), GE Healthcare (5), and NewDeal Design (4). ASTRO Studios, frog design, and fuseproject each took home three. Topping our wish list are the Gold award-winning ICON A5 amphibious sport plane, which we’ll fly while wearing New Balance’s amphibious shoes (winner of a Bronze). Meanwhile, back at the office, we’ll organize our physical piles in Teneo Storage Furniture (designed by Birsel + Seck for Herman Miller and the lone Gold winner in the Office & Productivity category) and stow the virtual stuff in Iriver design group’s supersleek Domino USB memory stick (taking home a Silver), although the task of choosing from among the nine available colors is bound to spark a debate at UnBeige HQ. Finally, our hopeless Diet Coke addiction finds a sustainable and design-friendly accessory in the Coca-Cola Refresh Recycling Bin (winner of a Bronze), made entirely from post-consumer recycled PET soda and water bottles by fuseproject’s Yves Behar, Josh Morenstein, and Nick Cronan. We’ll drink to that.

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.