The IDSA/BusinessWeek 2006 Industrial Design Excellence (IDEA) awards have just been announced. Chris Conley, who chaired the Jury this year, describes this year's jury, his reasons for selecting them and the awards selection process, here's a snippet,

With the increasing profile of design in business and the broadening of design's role in innovation, I used the opportunity to shape a jury unlike those of previous years. I invited a broad range of professionals, targeting those I knew cared deeply about design and were involved routinely in creating new, successful products and services. But I wanted these jurors to come from marketing, business development, and senior business leadership positions in addition to industrial design.

Corporate design teams took the lead this year, with Japanese giant, Matsushita raking in 6 awards. BusinessWeek interviews Toyoyuki Uematsu, head of the Panasonic Design Company, as the corporation's design division is known. In the 6 years since Matsushita's CEO made design a priority and integrated the disparate design divisions under Uematsu, the company's products have undergone a visual change, creating a coherent brand strategy, and coinciding with net earning bounding to 15-year highs for the once ailing company.

Best Product Design 2006 was awarded to Decathlon, a French manufacturer of sports and outdoor equipment.

Among design consultancies, Ziba Design of Portland, Oregon, took the lead with 3 golds and a bronze, totalling 4 awards altogether. Note that of Panasonic's 6, only one was a gold. Ziba's work with Lenovo stands out in all aspects of what good design should be - indepth research, unerring insights and superlative form giving. Yes, DD is proud of Ziba, which means 'beautiful' in Farsi.

An insightful comment on culture specific design, such as Lenovo's shown above, came from Don Norman, guru of good design,

Juror Don Norman (author of Emotional Design and The Design of Everyday Things) said: "At first the judges said 'yuck' to the design but then changed their minds when the research showed the Chinese didn't want our sleek U.S. design but their own from their own culture."

The awards tables for corporate teams seems to demonstrate the companies who have committed themselves to good design - Samsung, Philips, Lenovo and Panasonic are already global brands. Is Decathlon on its way?

Of the three largest design consultancies by size, only DesignContinuum (250+ employees) makes a showing. Where are traditional winners IDEO this year? Innovating, I'm sure. In the meantime, DD says Yay! to newdealdesign, Stuart Karten Design, One and Co, BresslerGroup and Lunar Design.

Students from Art Center College of Design and the Pratt Institute have put their schools on the map, here are the Student Design winners.

DD's favorite was the Pluma, a Portuguese entry, by design firm Brandia Central which won the gold in packaging. Having used LPG gas extensively for home cooking, this gas cylinder is half the weight of the usual metal cans - perfect for maneuvring in small kitchens.

Finally, the IDSA Gallery has the exhaustive listings and descriptions of the 108 medal winners this year. Or browse all 108 in this slideshow.