Verton R-series wins Australia’s coveted Good Design Award
Verton Australia has achieved the nation’s highest honour for design and innovation after being acknowledged at Australia’s peak industry design awards at the 61st annual Good Design Awards announced tonight at a ceremony at The Star in Sydney. The R-series received a Good Design Award Best in Class Accolade in the Engineering Design category in recognition for outstanding design and innovation.
The annual Good Design Awards is Australia’s most prestigious international awards for design and innovation with a proud history dating back to 1958. The awards celebrate the best new products and services on the Australian market, excellence in architectural design, engineering, fashion, digital and communication design and reward emerging areas of design strategy, social impact and design entrepreneurship.
The Good Design Awards Jury spent several days evaluating each entry according to a strict set of design criteria which covers ‘good design’, ‘design innovation’ and ‘design impact’. Projects recognised with a Good Design Award must demonstrate excellence in all areas and convince the Jury they are worthy of recognition.
The Good Design Awards Jury praised Verton R-series, commenting: “The simplest ideas are always the best! The Verton R-series uses such a fundamental principle of dynamics to great effect and with minimal moving parts. Importantly, it effectively addresses a key safety issue when manoeuvring large lifts into place and will be instrumental in the constant striving to make construction sites safer places to work. This score high on every criteria. Exemplary innovative engineering design leading to a step change in safety for crane operations. Return on investment in 12 months due to speed gain is a real plus.”
Verton CEO Trevor Bourne said:
“The Good Design Award caps off a massive year so far for Verton and the R-series, which is attracting worldwide interest from transport, construction, renewable energy and mining companies around the globe.”
“This award is a tribute to the vision of Verton’s founder and the R-series inventor, Chief Technology Officer Stanley Thomson, and all of our hard-working management and staff,” Mr Bourne said.
“The R-series is manufactured in Brisbane and we would particularly like to thank the Queensland Government’s Business Development Fund (BDF) for their support. The R-series is already supplied to national crane hire company Universal Cranes and mining services company MACA Interquip.
“Verton was recently selected to take part in the PortXL Port and Maritime Accelerator program in Rotterdam, Netherlands, where it established partnerships with global marine contractor Van Oord, international heavy lifting and transport specialist Mammoet and wind turbine supplier Vestas to further develop a new, safer lifting method for installing wind turbine blades.
“The R-series provides unprecedented safety for crane operations as it eliminates the need for tag line use and workers will no longer be near the danger of moving loads. It also improves efficiency and productivity. We hope our product will be used all around the world.”
Esna Louwrens and Trevor Bourne at the Good Design Awards Gala Event.
The Good Design Awards attracted a record number of submissions with close to 700 design projects evaluated in this year’s international design awards.
Dr. Brandon Gien, CEO of Good Design Australia said: “Receiving a Good Design Award at this level is a significant achievement given the very high calibre of entries received this year. Australia’s Good Design Award is more than a symbol of design excellence, it represents the hard work and dedication towards an innovative outcome that will ultimately improve our quality of life. These projects showcase the brilliance of design and the potential it has to improve our world.”