The DBA Design Effectiveness Awards winners’ announcement was held live online on Thursday 29 June and celebrated the wide-ranging impact of design on businesses and people’s lives across the world.

Spanning work for global companies and major retailers, to start-up challenger brands and charities, 23 shortlisted projects were awarded Bronze, Silver and Gold awards.

Congratulations to all of the winners.

Established in 1989, the DBA Design Effectiveness Awards recognise and celebrate the compelling influence of design on the success of a project or business.

The Awards are entered jointly by client and designer and winning projects have been rigorously judged by business leaders from organisations such as Airbus, Carlsberg, Ericsson, Google, PWC, Virgin Atlantic Airways and Volvo Group in three rounds of judging. Crucially, the awards are evidence-based, the impact of design measured and verified.

All of the winning projects demonstrate the significant impact design makes across a broad section of industry. The judges found five particularly outstanding, awarding them Gold awards. The Gold winners are:

The High-Risk Pregnancy Referral Tool

Philips Foundation and Philips Experience Design (Grand Prix & Gold): The High-Risk Pregnancy Referral Tool is improving maternity care in low-resource settings in Africa by communicating technical medical knowledge as easy to digest information. The tool has touched the lives of over 280,000 women and their families and helped train more than 700 healthcare workers. As a result of its impact in Sub-Saharan Africa, there are now plans to adapt and scale the tool to reach remote, rural communities in China. 

Says DBA CEO, Deborah Dawton: “In using design to respond to a key priority within the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals, the DBA Design Effectiveness Grand Prix Award winning, High-Risk Pregnancy Referral Tool is having a profound impact on the lives of women and their families. As the world increases its reliance on technology, there are many communities around the world which those advancements cannot reach. The design of the HRP tool is a fantastic example of how design can deliver powerful, appropriate solutions to reach communities across varying socio-demographics to create positive change for people and the planet.”

Find out more about the Grand Prix Award winning High-Risk Pregnancy Referral Tool >

Black Dog Scotch Whisky redesign

Diageo with Butterfly Cannon: Top of mind awareness reached an all-time high following Black Dog’s brand and packaging transformation. The redesign has made the Scotch Whisky more culturally relevant, more authentically Scotch and more recognisable on shelf; it’s attracting younger, affluent Indian consumers and having placed third previously, it now tops the category for brand equity. Read more >

Eichhof Beer redesign

Eichhof with Pearlfisher: Making a stunning come-back, Eichhof’s volume increased +4.7% within six months following a complete redesign. In a highly competitive category, and following seven years of continuous market share loss, Eichhof grew market share an impressive 1.2% in the year following the redesign. Read more >

Gordon & MacPhail redesign

Gordon & MacPhail with Contagious: Addressing the complexity of its product portfolio, Gordon & MacPhail’s redesign has enabled the business to maximise opportunities in a buoyant sector. A clear consumer pathway was created, and revenue has leapt 71% from selling 18% less whisky. Value sales of Gordon & MacPhail’s luxury products increased 61% within a year, while the global luxury whisky market grew only 4% in that time. Read more >

Guinness NitroSurge

Diageo with Dolmen Design & Innovation: The ground-breaking Guinness NitroSurge dispense system enables consumers to achieve beautiful Guinness pints at home and the innovation has changed consumer perceptions around the at-home experience. In just nine months, Net sales exceeded the Year-Five global target, and with a higher price point and lower production cost than the existing canned offering, Guinness NitroSurge has achieved an 8.5% uplift in beer sale profitability. Read more >

Congratulations to all the Gold, Silver and Bronze Winners

The variety and breadth of work the judges saw amongst the Gold award winners also played out across the Silver and Bronze winners too, with work spanning retail, not for profit, FMCG and charity sectors, amongst others. 

Among them were Sigtún Thróunarfélag and M Worldwide’s placemaking design strategy for Icelandic town Selfoss, the most sustainable branch fit-out in Lloyds Banking Group’s history by SpaceInvader, Else’s elevation of key pages of Avast’s website, and the immersive design and visitor experience of the Hockney’s Eye exhibition for Fitzwilliam Museum by Holmes Studio, which increased donations from the public 373%.

“It’s been a huge pleasure to chair the discussions with experts across design and business to identify and celebrate such inspiring examples of the power of design,” says Chairman of the Judges, Clive Grinyer, “my congratulations to all the DBA Design Effectiveness Award winners.”

Browse all the Gold, Silver and Bronze Award winners and take a look at their case studies >

2023 DBA Design Effectiveness Award Winners

More information on the DBA Design Effectiveness Awards and how to enter can be found here.

Jointly created by the Philips Foundation and Philips Experience Design with the International Committee of the Red Cross, Grand Prix and Gold award winner, The High-Risk Pregnancy (HRP) Referral Tool is fundamentally improving maternity care in low-resource settings in Africa by communicating technical medical knowledge as easy to digest information.

The clarity of its design has seen the HRP Referral Tool touch the lives of over 280,000 women and their families, and train more than 700 healthcare workers.

The UN’s 17 Sustainable Development Goals are an urgent, global call for action to promote prosperity, while protecting the planet. They recognise that ending poverty must go hand-in-hand with strategies that build economic growth and address a range of social needs, while tackling climate change and environmental protection.

Goal Three is focused on good health and well-being for all, of which maternity care is key, especially amongst socio-economically disadvantaged communities. In 2017, Sub-Saharan Africa alone accounted for roughly two-thirds (196,000) of all maternal deaths (WHO, 2019). Most of those deaths were associated with preventable causes and could have been avoided with simple antenatal care services. But in low-resource areas, or regions affected by war and natural disasters, identifying high-risk pregnancies in time to reduce maternal and infant mortality can be challenging.

To improve the situation, the International Committee of the Red Cross, the Philips Foundation and Philips Experience Design joined forces to create the High-Risk Pregnancy (HRP) Referral Tool to raise awareness at community level on early signs of potential complications as well as healthy practices during pregnancies.

In remote settings, poor infrastructural conditions limit the delivery of healthcare services even if primary care facilities are in place. Facilities are often hampered by limited or no access to electricity and connectivity, and even when connectivity works, the costs of digital transfer is not affordable. The design, development and deployment of the HRP referral cards has provided a cost-effective analogue tool for communities in these challenging settings.

Specifically designed as a low-cost, portable set of tear-resistant cards which can be taken on household visits by healthcare workers, the HRP Referral Tool translates technical medical knowledge into illustrations and easy to digest information on pregnancy. The clarity of the design has ensured the cards are highly effective in equipping traditional birth attendants and community healthcare volunteers with reliable knowledge in:

• Recognising and explaining the signs and discomforts of high-risk pregnancies to women in the community, encouraging them to approach healthcare centres for consultation and safe delivery.
• Educating and raising awareness on practices for healthy pregnancies, and on the importance of regular antenatal check-ups.

“Earlier risk detection in pregnancy will lead to earlier referrals from the community to the first level of care, and from primary healthcare to hospitals,” says Sigrid Kopp, former Supra Regional Midwife for the International Committee of the Red Cross, adding that,“this time factor plays a crucial role when working on the high number of maternal morbidity and mortality in areas where the access to quality healthcare is hampered due to low coverage of healthcare services, harmful cultural practices, war, displacement, insecurity, lack of infrastructure, lack of skilled healthcare providers and lack of awareness and knowledge.”

Delivering impact

In two Kenyan counties, a 15-month evidence-based study of the tool’s effectiveness was conducted with the Kenya Red Cross Society, and the many benefits generated included:

• The identification and referral of 485 women with pregnancy risks to healthcare centres by healthcare workers.
• An increase in the number of 1^st and 4^th antenatal care visits in study facilities in both counties.
• 75% of women of reproductive age in the county of Siaya, and 91% in Bomet reported gaining new knowledge on risks and danger signs in pregnancy, with the most mentioned including excessive vomiting and absence of foetal movement.
• There was a significant increase in knowledge of healthy habits in pregnancy in both counties, with the most mentioned including healthy eating, drinking clean water, avoiding carrying heavy weights and attending antenatal care visits.
• A reduction in the number of high-risk complications in pregnancy was reported by health workers, which they attributed to timely referrals related to use of the tool.

The HRP tool has had such an impact in Sub-Saharan Africa touching the lives of over 280,000 women and their families, there are now plans to adapt and scale the tool in China, to help provide better healthcare services to pregnant mothers in remote, rural communities there.

“In using design to respond to a key priority within the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals, the DBA Design Effectiveness Grand Prix Award winning, High-Risk Pregnancy Referral Tool is having a profound impact on the lives of women and their families,” says DBA CEO, Deborah Dawton. “As the world increases its reliance on technology, there are many communities around the world which those advancements cannot reach. The design of the HRP referral tool is a fantastic example of how design can deliver powerful, appropriate solutions to reach communities across varying socio-demographics to create positive change for people and the planet.”

Watch a short video about The High-Risk Pregnancy Referral Tool

• Income per head is an important metric to track, and easy enough for everyone to understand – one speaker suggested £10k per person per month as a good target to aim for. If you need help with this, or any aspect of completing the DBA’s Annual Survey, then get in touch with Adam. Note the DBA recommends £100-120k per person per year (especially for London based agencies that have a higher cost base to cope with). London based DBA members average £107k per head if they do not include freelancers, but as freelancers are a people cost to create income they should be included. This made the average for London based DBA member agencies £97.5k per head in 2022. Outside of London the average (inc. freelancers) was £80k per head.
• Keep an eye on cashflow, and keep at least 2-3 months of overheads covered in cash reserves. And if you don’t have that yet, you can cut back on costs and bake the discipline into the team. One member built their culture around everyone in the team understanding where they can add value and how their individual actions, be that ordering pos-its or working late on a deck, contribute to the bottom line. 
• If your team understand where they can add value, it helps them to prioritise what they spend time on and know what actions make the most money, otherwise they were busy but making no money. And if there is a project that isn’t the most profitable, but keeps the team engaged or brings publicity, then only one at a time makes financial sense, and share your decision making with the team so they understand why you’re choosing one client over another. 
• Being able to say no and resisting those ‘sugar rush’ easy wins is key. Blair Enns has some great insights on this. Listen to his podcast with David C. Baker here or his new podcast on dealing with procurement departments here. You can also get his latest book with an exclusive DBA member only discount: use code DBA2023 to get the ‘action pack’ version of Pricing Creativity for $199 instead of $320. Be quick, that expires on Friday. 
• Scenario planning was a vital way one member ensured their business was financially resilient, giving the team accountability and encouraging them to be honest and realistic about their pipelines so you can have the data at your fingertips. What if we lost that client? Or if they don’t pay on time or the scope creeps? Being able to make decisions on this information is crucial, especially in times of uncertainty.  
• Do you have an invoice finance facility set up? Don’t wait until you need it. If payment terms aren’t at an ideal 30-day level, you can suggest a 1% reduction in overall fees and save yourself money on your invoice facility.
• Private banking might also give you much better, more personal and experienced advice than your high street banks – one speaker recommended Arbuthnot Lantham, other banks are available. 
• Getting external support can be critical for those of you who are too close to the work to be objective – the DBA Experts can help.
• For more on financial resilience, we had a webinar last month on the same topic with a panel of DBA experts, you can watch the recording here. 

Our Members’ Forum takes place on the first Monday of each month, at 4 – 5pm. If you would like to attend, get in touch here. 

Our next Members’ Forum will be taking place on Monday 3 July at 4pm BST.