Winners - Red Dot Award 2024: Product Design

Earlier this week, Red Dot gave us the thrilling news that we had won a Red Dot Product Design Award - one of the most prestigious awards available in the field. Naturally, we are over the moon to have our innovation recognised by the award, globally renowned as a symbol of excellence and considered one of the most coveted accolades in the design industry; we could not be prouder.

How do Red Dot decide their winners?

There is an extensive process to choose their winners - a panel of international experts evaluates the products based on various criteria, including aesthetics, degree of innovation, functionality, ergonomics, symbolic and emotional content, and ecological compatibility. This evaluation is conducted through discussions, debates, and individual assessments by jury members.

The people behind the latest generation of Pinter 

We thought there’s no better time to offer some insight into the Product Development team - our majestic team who embody everything about technology and Pinter innovation. Here’s a quick run through the team:

Jed - Head of Product Development. Jed has been here since the early days, developing every generation of Pinter and even its predecessors. Engineering and design are etched into Jed’s heart. 

Nick - Product Design Engineer. Nick too had a huge role in the development of Pinter 3; mainly focusing on designing a number of Pinter parts and the assembling of the Pinter from initial conceptualisation all the way through to mass production. Setting up manufacturing lines, making “jigs” (custom-made tools) and more are key to Nick’s day-to-day. 

Ronan - Head of Technical Project Management. Ronan lives and breathes all projects… and management. 

Ronan heads up the delivery off PD projects, guiding the team from each development phase to the next...the slightly less colourful but equally as important part of product development (and any other project across the company).

Greg - Head of Engineering. Greg’s responsible for overseeing all engineering calculations and validations for the product and was also personally responsible for designing the Active Pour Tap which allows users to enjoy a great serve from the first pour to the last drops.

Here's a little more insight from Greg on what the team do:

“The Pinter 3 is essentially a polymer pressure vessel which must withstand fermentation pressures onto which we add generous safety factors. It has a variable valve, safety valves and a flow control valve in the tap - all of these have to perform consistently for the product to work.

The great thing about our small Product Design team is that we are all required to deliver on multiple fronts including design, material selection, prototyping, testing and - most fun of all - research and development of new and exciting innovations (many of which must remain a secret for now 😉).” 

Mark - Head of Quality. Not only is Mark a top quality person, he also created and now maintains our quality management system, has implemented full traceability and QA & QC processes at all key suppliers, developed and managed all Part Approvals for 113 individual components, and many other essential parts of ensuring that every Pinter manufactured comes out squeaky clean when you open your Pinter box! Mark keeps us consistent and needs an extreme attention to detail so that everything produced is in specification.

Alex Dixon, our co-founder and Chief Innovation Officer, was particularly delighted with the award, being at the forefront of development for each generation of Pinter. Alex came up with the idea for Pinter technology as well as iterations even before Pinter 1. Alex is the head that brings the brewing and product innovations together for future tech and beer or cider releases. Here are his thoughts on winning the Red Dot Product Design Award:

“It is a really proud moment for the business to receive this award, which is the cumulation of a huge amount of hard work and dedication from the team to deliver such an innovative and quality product. The Pinter community have loved this version of the Pinter and the successful launch in the USA has solidified the product in the market. Being awarded a Red Dot and having our product next to so many iconic designers and companies is a real "pinch me" moment, and it really motivates us to continue to innovate for our customers!”

The future

Awards and prestige such as this gives us the confidence to continue to innovate. We’re so excited to bring future innovations as the business continues to develop. Now that you've met the Product Design team and got some insight into what everyone does, what technology would you like to see in future iterations of Pinter?