Valtra’s SmartTouch armrest that was unveiled in Paris in February has won the Red Dot 2017 Design Award, while the fourth generation Valtra N Series received an honourable mention in the same competition. This year’s awards are a continuation to Valtra’s success in the world’s most famous and prestigious design competition, as last year the Valtra T4 Series won the Red Dot 2016 Design Award.
“The Red Dot 2017 Design Awards demonstrate perfectly how adopting industrial design as a cornerstone of our success leads to results. The success of the Valtra SmartTouch armrest in particular is very rewarding, as we have focused in recent years especially on usability and the user experience in order to provide concrete benefits to the customer in their everyday work,” says Jari Rautjärvi, VP, Brand Lead, Valtra.
Valtra’s brand new SmartTouch armrest and user interface are groundbreaking in terms of ease of use. SmartTouch marks the culmination of in-depth R&D work by leading experts in numerous fields. All of the controls on the SmartTouch armrest are logically arranged and within easy reach. Special attention has been paid to ergonomics, user comfort, ease of use and simplicity; the individual materials too have been specially selected for the intended purpose and to support the functions.
“We have had breathtaking success in recent years. The N and T Series have won numerous awards, and this year the new A4 Series was named Machine of the Year 2017 in its size category at the SIMA Show in Paris. The latest Red Dot 2017 Design Awards prove once again how industrial design can be applied to make the most of the latest technology on human terms and according to customer needs,” says Kimmo Wihinen, who is in charge of industrial design and the user experience at Valtra.
This year the Red Dot competition received more than 5500 entries from 55 countries. The jury comprised 40 international design experts.
The Awards will be presented to the winners at the Aalto Theatre in Essen, Germany, on 3 July.
Valtra’s recent awards provide a solid basis and legitimacy for the company’s own design competition, which was launched at the SIMA Show in Paris in February. The Valtra Design Competition is open this spring to design students, individual designers and design studios worldwide. The aim of the competition is to seek the views of designers regarding the tractor of the future and how they can help agriculture become more efficient and environmentally friendly.
Source : Valtra