From the Series
The World Design Rankings (WDR) announced their updated list of design rankings based on the number of design awards won at international juried design competitions and awards. United States ranked as number 1 among the 83 represented countries, with 249 design awards, followed by Italy, England, Japan, Brazil, China, Germany, Greece, Hong Kong and Turkey.
Using the lists provided on the WDR site, members of the public, industry and international media can find out who the top design firms and designers in different countries and across different design fields are.
The ultimate aim of the world design rankings is to contribute to global design culture through advocating and highlighting good design and providing a snapshot of the state-of-art and design potentials of countries worldwide by highlighting their creative strengths, design weaknesses and available opportunities.
The Design Business Insights section provides a ranking of countries based on their success in different design fields and creative categories. Using this section, media members and design lovers could discover leading countries for specific design sectors and get answers to which country is best in industrial design or interior design or fashion design.
Five new countries are included in the 2015 rankings: Pakistan, Bangladesh, Colombia, Swaziland, Qatar and Democratic People's Republic of Korea. The top 10 changed slightly from 2014, with China climbing up the ladder and bumping Great Britain and Japan down. Greece also joined the Top 10 in place of the Republic of Korea.
For each country, three additional tables for strengths, weaknesses and opportunities are listed. The table of Design Strengths shows dominant design fields, in which a country is highly competitive and successful. The “Design Weaknesses” table display design fields that are below average in comparison to other countries. The “Design Opportunities” table display latent design categories that could be further explored.
These tables provide a wealth of insightful information about these countries
The Design Classifications platform ranks specific designers, artists and architects in their respective fields. It is in this section that users can find out who the best design agencies and architecture firms are as well as who the best individual designers in the world are.
The Designer Rankings list top designers in over a hundred creative disciplines. It provides media and members of the public with a list of “Top Designers” in product design, graphic design, architecture, interior design, fashion design and service design.