German President Rau awards Commendation at the German Design Prize to Heidelberger Druckmaschinen AG’s Speedmaster CD 74 September 3, 2002 -- At the International Frankfurt Trade Show today, German Federal President Johannes Rau awarded the 2002 German Design Prize. Heidelberger Druckmaschinen AG (Heidelberg) received a Commendation for its Speedmaster CD 74. This was presented to Chairman of the Management Board Bernhard Schreier. “Our customers are media service providers, whose clients insist on both high print quality and sophisticated product esthetics. This is why we offer a refined product design and – most importantly – a user-friendly product”, explained Mr. Schreier. The German Design Prize is German’s top design award and is bestowed by the German Design Council on behalf of the Federal Ministry for Economics and Technology. The success of the Speedmaster CD 74, a sheetfed offset press for packaging and commercial printing, was helped by the fact that the press had already won last year’s “Top 10 Award” from the Design Industry Forum in Hanover, and had been nominated for the Federal Prize by the Baden-Württemberg Economics Minister Dr. Walter Döring. A previous design prize and a nomination are required for participation in the German Design Prize competition. This is the first time a commendation has ever been awarded to a printing press. A total of 19 out of 321 nominated products received the award. The panel of judges, which was made up of prestigious names from the worlds of industry, commerce, design, media and academia, awarded three prizes and 16 commendations. The judges awarded marks for design quality, usability, technical qualities and the product’s overall concept. These products will be on display in Hall 4.1 at the Tendence consumer goods trade show, which is being held from August 30 through September 3 in Frankfurt. Design is a success factor for Heidelberg Heidelberg has evolved from its days as a press supplier pure and simple and is now a total solutions provider. This transition was unveiled to the public at the drupa 2000 print trade show with a new corporate product design. The corporate design is modern and innovative, and supports Heidelberg’s brand values, which are proximity to the customer, confidence and strength. The most striking aspect is the colors and design elements used. On the presses, which are mostly colored Heidelberg gray, technical elements are highlighted with a silvery “mica” color. Heidelberg blue is used throughout for product names on the press. In addition to all these style elements, Heidelberg has also defined a “fifth element” – emotion. Integrated handgrips on the Speedmaster series lend elegance to the design, while glass and lights on the prepress platesetters create a truly digital feel. Dynamism is created through the use of angled side elements. Heidelberg’s designers predict that the design factor will also play a significant role in customers’ decisions to buy Heidelberg products. Heidelberg’s product designers have amassed more than twenty awards since 1990. In this year alone, they have won three major prizes, including the “reddot award – Product Design 2002”, awarded by the North Rhine – Westphalia Design Center for the Quickmaster DI Pro digital offset press and the Mainstream 80 newspaper rotary press, and the I.D. Annual Design Review – America’s top design award – for the Topsetter platesetter. Speedmaster CD 74 – versatile and flexible The Speedmaster CD 74 prints in the A2 mid-range format (four A4 pages per print sheet) and is also ideal for packaging and commercial printshops. The entire production process is highly automated, flexible and runs extremely efficiently. This press is ultra versatile and supports a whole raft of applications. It can print anything from thin papers to cardboard, and even plastic. This facilitates the production of labels, high-quality cosmetics and medication packaging, or plastic cards and tags. There are now more than 200 presses installed worldwide. This is a success story that speaks for itself, since the Speedmaster CD 74 was only put into series production at the end of 2000. Since the spring of this year, the CD 74 has also been available with UV option. This enables printers to achieve a range of different finishing effects, for example using gold or silver coatings. The press can be supplied with four, five, six and eight printing units and a coating system in both the standard and UV versions.