The Speedmaster XL 105 sheetfed offset press from Heidelberger Druckmaschinen AG (Heidelberg) today received the Silver Design Award of the Federal Republic of Germany. At a ceremony held to mark the opening of the Frankfurt Trade Show "Ambiente", Parliamentary State Secretary Dagmar Wöhrl presented the certificate to Dr. Jürgen Rautert, Management Board Member responsible for Engineering and Manufacturing at Heidelberg, and Björn Wilke, who was responsible for designing the Speedmaster XL 105. An international panel of ten experts selected 25 from 868 nominated products. Five of these received the Gold Design Award and 20 products were given the Silver Design Award. The German Design Prize is the Federal Republic of Germany's official design award and is bestowed each year by the German Design Council on behalf of the Federal Ministry for Economics and Technology. It celebrates outstanding product and communication design. It is often referred to as the "award of the awards" as products are only nominated if they have already received a national or international design award. For example, in 2004 the Speedmaster XL 105 received the Good Design Award in the USA and last year received the Good Design Award in Japan, the American I.D. Award and the German IF award. "The product design needs to highlight the technology and quality of our presses," explains Dr. Jürgen Rautert. "Our customers are media companies who themselves deal with design on a daily basis and have demanding requirements when it comes to investment goods. After all, their customers often give the go-ahead for final printing at the press itself. The high-quality image of the production equipment supports our customers' image of quality too," adds Rautert. Heidelberg sees itself as a solutions provider for the entire print media industry. Industrial design is geared up for this too, involving design constants such as Heidelberg Blue for the logo and design characteristics, such as highlighting key technical features with the mica silver tone. This philosophy applies to prepress, press, and postpress products alike. Heidelberg has its own industrial design department and attaches particular importance to adapting product image to all other aspects of corporate identity. Throughout the design process - from the initial sketch and production of a full-scale model right up to series production - the marketing, development, and design departments work closely together. Since 1990, Heidelberg has won nearly 40 design awards, including a commendation in 2002 for the Speedmaster CD 74 at the German Design Prize.