The prestigious international Red Dot Award 2016 for excellent design was awarded to a Czech spa manufacturer USSPA for its spa LyraiN. For the first time in history of the spa field, the Red Dot Award was won by an original spa manufactured in the Czech Republic.
The LyraiN design was developed in an internal R & D department of USSPA under the leadership of a Petr Slanina in cooperation with a designer Filip Streit from the Divan Design studio. LyraiN spa is the smallest model of the new generation spa line of the Czech manufacturer USSPA, which sets new benchmarks for spa design. It is a foundation stone on which further six models of the new series launched in 2015 were built.
USSPA is the only manufacturer on the Czech market and one of the very few European manufacturers, who invest in its own design and purposely develop it. Apart from the most prestigious international design award Red Dot Lyra model also owns a victory in a record number of Chinese copies.
"Getting awards is not a primary goal of my work. Awards of this kind give me feedback and confirmation from the outside. It is an evaluation of my work and prove that it gives sense to others as well. Red Dot is a bonus and joy to me. " says Mr. Petr Slanina, an internal designer of the USSPA. The second creator Mr. Filip Streit adds further comment: "For me it is important that the awarded company is a company that does things with vision and that places emphasis on design. This reflects then in the final product, which then fully deserves the award. Personally, the most important point to me is once the product, which design I have worked on, sells well. And also when the company I work for has satisfied customers also thanks to the design, and that works at USSPA well."
USSPA is one of the leading European manufacturers of spas and in the long term the best-selling brand on its home market. Last year, when USSPA celebrated its 20th Anniversary and launched the new generation of private spas, was exceptionally successful.Compared to 2014, USSPA recorded a 71% increase of sales on domestic market in 2015. At this moment, the new generation private spas enter foreign markets. "Investment into design and development of new technologies has brought sales success and now even this exclusive international design award. It is a great satisfaction to us and also a confirmation that the right decisions have been made regarding the company strategies and it is of course a huge encouragement to us as well, " says Mrs. Kateřina Kadlecová, a director and a co-owner of the family-run company.
Products submitted for the 61st edition of the Red Dot competition were judged by so far the largest jury – comprising 41 independent designers, pedagogues and professional journalists, who were tasked to evaluate more than 5 200 registered products from 57 countries according to the criteria of innovation, ergonomics, functionality, durability, ecological responsibility, but also according to symbolic and emotional aspects of each of the products.