A pair of futuristic concept tires earned Hankook Tire both Bronze and Finalist awards at the 2017 International Design Excellence Awards (IDEA) ceremony.
The International Design Excellence Award is a premier international design competition sponsored annually by the Industrial Designers Society of America (IDSA) and judged by top design experts across the globe. It is known as one of the world’s top three most prestigious awards alongside the iF Design Award and the Red Dot Award. This year’s five judging criteria were design innovativeness, user experience, user benefits, social responsibility and aesthetic impression.
The company collaborated with students from The University of Cincinnati to design Flexup and Shiftrac, both of which won awards at the ceremony. Hankook Tire’s Flexup received the Bronze award at IDEA 2017. Shiftrac received the Finalist award.
Flexup is a one-person vehicle that can access stairs and speed bumps in cities with narrow roads using driving treads that expand and contract, reaching the speed of 35 km/h through the city environment.
Shiftrac is a hyper-agility-based tire concept designed to perform smooth and agile driving within a large city, allowing strong cornering and fast lane-change capabilities.
“It is an incredible honor to be recognized alongside and by such giants in the industry,” said Hayden Lapiska, a student leader of the award-winning team. “Hankook is an incredible company with extremely talented designers, and it was through their proven design sense that we won this award.”
Prior to this year’s achievements, Hankook Tire earned a series of splendid results through its innovation design projects, according to the company. They received the IDEA 2015 award, the Luminary award at the Red Dot Awards and the iF Gold Award 2016 thanks to the innovative Boostrac, Alpike and Hyblade, based on collaboration with Pforzheim University in Germany.
“Receiving these prestigious awards from the world’s top three design competitions testifies to Hankook Tire’s global recognition for innovative design philosophy capabilities for future driving,” said Mr. Seung Hwa Suh, vice chairman and CEO of Hankook Tire. “As a global premium top-tier tire company with cutting-edge technology and design excellence, Hankook Tire will continue with its extensive design innovation for a pleasant future driving experience.”
