Red Dot Grand Prix 2026 Winners: Elastique, Polestar and KUKA Robots

Red Dot, the German design competition, has named the five winners of its top prize for branding and communication work. At a gala in the Konzerthaus Berlin on Friday, 6 November 2026, it presented the Red Dot: Grand Prix in its Brands & Communication Design 2026 competition and handed Cologne agency Elastique. the title of Red Dot: Agency of the Year 2026. The Grand Prix names were kept secret until the ceremony, making the evening the first public reveal of the competition’s highest-rated work.

What happened at the Red Dot Gala 2026?

The ceremony brought designers, agencies and brands from 38 nations to the concert hall on Berlin’s Gendarmenmarkt, according to Red Dot. Founder and CEO Professor Peter Zec hosted, and presented trophies with jury members Daniel Leyser, Mariam Braimah and Sang In Lee. The dress code was “Black Tie Creative”, and German design magazine PAGE reported guests in tailcoats, top hats, knickerbockers and kimonos. The night ended with a Designers’ Night party at BRICKS Club Berlin.

Red Dot said in September that the 2026 competition received projects from 52 countries across 18 categories, judged by 30 international experts in Essen. Ordinary Red Dot and Best of the Best winners were published earlier, but the Grand Prix and the Junior Prize were held back for the gala.

Who won the Red Dot Grand Prix 2026?

Five works received the Grand Prix:

• RUTA – On Foot Tours (Croatia): a brand design for a hiking and trekking travel company, created by Croatian studio Fabula for client Vanja Tintor. PAGE described its dynamic look as drawing on landscapes and mountains.
• Jewel by Tenuta Ulisse (Italy): a limited-edition wine bottle designed in-house by the Italian winery. The bottle has a pronounced waist and a gold-coloured band that can be taken off and worn as a bracelet.
• The Biography of Hua Wenyi (China): an editorial project from Ningbo University about a performer of Kunqu, a traditional form of Chinese opera. Its pared-back design uses the stage, and especially the theatre curtain, as a motif throughout the publication.
• KUKA Twinbots – A Synchronised Robot Performance (Germany): created by Elastique. for robotics and automation company KUKA’s Customer Experience Center in Augsburg. PAGE reported that movement data from twin brothers David and Kevin, street dancers who work as junior digital artists at the agency, was transferred to the robots to shape how they move.
• Polestar 5 website (Sweden): the Swedish electric car brand’s in-house website for its Polestar 5, which PAGE said carries the brand’s minimalism through large images and moody lighting.

Why is Elastique Agency of the Year?

Agency of the Year is the highest honour in the Brands & Communication Design competition, and Red Dot has awarded it since 2008. Elastique. was announced as the 2026 holder in October and collected the Stylus trophy on stage from James Temple, Chief Design Officer at Accenture Song, which held the title last year.

Elastique. is an independent, interdisciplinary agency founded in Cologne in 2005 by Betty and Andreas Schimmelpfennig. Its clients include KUKA, Villeroy & Boch, Deutsche Telekom, BMW, BRABUS and Mitsubishi Electric. Red Dot first recognised the agency in 2006, and its earlier Best of the Best wins include the Telekom #UNHATE project in 2023.

In its October announcement, Peter Zec pointed to the agency’s conceptual clarity, its appetite for experiment and its curiosity about technology. Betty Schimmelpfennig, co-founder and managing partner, summed up the studio’s view: “For me, design needs a point of friction.” At the gala, Professor Christian Schmachtenberg of Hochschule Kaiserslautern gave the laudatory speech, and Red Dot said Betty Schimmelpfennig described the title as feeling like a lifetime achievement. The agency also designed the cover of the new International Yearbook Brands & Communication Design 2026/2027.

Who won the Red Dot Junior Prize?

The Red Dot: Junior Prize, worth 10,000 euros, went to “Fasteners: Form-Making Machine” by Yiyang Li, Gengsheng Hong, Li Ying and Zeyu Wu. PAGE explained that the project borrows from Oulipo, the Paris literary group founded in 1960 that wrote under strict, often mathematical constraints, and applies the same idea to type: a system rearranges and recombines letter parts to generate many different typefaces. Li could not attend because he was refused a visa and accepted the prize by video message.

PAGE also highlighted two other student concepts from Dongseo University in South Korea: NO TAKE, a Tylenol label printed with ink that changes over time and shows “NO TAKE” once the medicine expires, and a McDonald’s “Fake Meal” app idea that hides a silent emergency call.

Why it matters

The Grand Prix list shows how wide brand and communication design has become. A wine bottle, a website, a book, a travel brand and a robot performance all competed for the same honour, and an experiential project built on motion data and robotics won alongside traditional print and packaging work. For brands, it is a reminder that a design identity now covers physical objects, digital products and live experiences, not just a logo. For a different view of this year’s standout work, see our report on the Dezeen Awards 2026 public vote winners, and for a recent rebrand, read how Benelli redrew its lion logo.

What happens next?

The winning projects will be exhibited at the Red Dot Design Museum in Essen from December 2026, and the full list of 2026 winners is searchable on the Red Dot website. Red Dot is also taking entries for its Red Dot Award: Product Design 2027.