The Spanish outdoor furniture brand Calma won the Red Dot award: Best of the Best 2015 for the design of OM sunshade, becoming the first Spanish firm to win the Red Dot competition’s top award since 2011. OM collection’s designer, Andreu Carulla, and Calma’s art director, Ricard Vicens, collected the award last june in Essen (Germany), in front of more than 1,200 people from 40 different countries who attended the glamorous Red Dot Gala. The Red Dot Award: Product Design, which celebrates the 60th anniversary this year, places Calma as one of the innovative firms in the international design field.

The Red Dot’s top award, Best of the Best, with which Calma has been awarded, was presented to 81 products from 4,928 candidates from 56 different countries. OM sunshade captivated the Red Dot jury, formed by 38 renowned and independent experts from 25 countries, because of its quality and innovative design. The jury highlighted: “The OM sunshade merges a clear and elegant design with highly refined functionality. The innovative, outstandingly smart rotating system is highly fascinating as it allows for comfortable opening and closing. The sunshade can be used in many different configurations and enhances almost any ambiance. It can serve as standing umbrella or attached to the wall and also as space partition. Moreover, the use of high-quality materials gives it high durability.”

OM collection

OM is a collection of shades, designed and manufactured 100% in Spain, which reinvent and bring a twist on the so characteristic umbrellas from the Mediterranean coast. Its versatility possibilities its adaptation to any space and functionality, creating fresh and relaxing environment.

Because of its innovative unfolding mechanism, the umbrella can be adapted to the needs of the moment, whether it is fully, half or hardly open, providing different shade for each position. When the canopy is closed, a simple mechanism allows a 360° rotation of the canopy creating a vane effect when the wind blows.

OM is available in three different models:

• The central pole umbrella, which allows a 360º opening and is available with a 60 cm base or a 22 cm base to fix it to the floor. The structure is in extruded aluminium anodized in black or silver.

• Wall umbrella (for 90 / 180 / 270° angles);

• Folding wind/ambience screen for 180° angles, fixed to the floor.

The covers, currently, come in technical fabric, and with the colours Sunless500 in grey and black. The price of the OM sunsade is 1,589 € (although it varies depending on the sizes and bases)

The Red Dot award

The Red Dot: Product Design competition, which could be compared to the Oscars but in the design field, was created by the Design Center Noedheim Westfalia in 1954 to evaluate the designs of the time. Currently, with 17,000 annual presentations, is one of the most respected in the world and a seal of exceptional quality recognised in the international design field. The best products of the competition receive the top award “Best of the Best”. Among the awarded brands and companies in Red Dot’s history, we can find Apple, Sony, Philips, Nokia, Ferrari or Mercedez Benz.

The Red Dot’s jury is formed by renowned international specialists with a wide experience which guarantees a high quality and high level of the competition, as well as an importance of the Red Dot seal. The composition of the jury changes every year, which means that the members always comitt to a honour code and can not participate in the competition. The jury evaluates each product according to 9 criterion, which includes, for instance, the innovation or the functional impact or even the ecological impact.

The designers awarded use the Red Dot seal and receive other privileges as winners, such as the presentation of their product on Red Dot online, on the Red Dot Design Anual Book on the Red Dot app, and on Red Dot 21. Moreover, the awarded products are included in Red Dot Design Museum’s permanent exposition for one year.

Calma

Calma is a spanish brand dedicated to the outdoor furniture design and distribution which was born in 2004 in Alt Empordà (Girona, Spain). This location, the Empordà region, known for the Tramuntana wind, the Mediterranean sea and cradle of genius such as Dalí, is precisely the source of inspiration of Calma’s designs.

Calma’s products don’t have a defined esthetic style, but they do have an specific product philosophy: the intention of transmitting these mediterranean values. The result of this will are products with a clear own character, innovative in design and in the field of working with state of the art materials, and which combine elegance, functionality and high quality.

Calma offers very versatile solutions with the aim of getting the most of all kind of outdoor spaces: chairs, tables, shades, deck chairs… All of them specially designed in order to bring comfort and elegance to porches, patios and terraces.

CALMA shows at the major international trade fairs, such as the Maison & Objet in Paris, Spoga+Gafa in Cologne and Il Salone Internazionale del Mobile in Milan..