Dongseo University Wins Two Best of the Best Awards and One Winner Award at the 2026 Red Dot Design Award

[Financial News] Dongseo University, led by President Jekuk Chang, announced on the 7th that it had won two Best of the Best awards and one Winner award at the 2026 German Red Dot Design Award, one of the world’s most prestigious design competitions. The Best of the Best honor is awarded only to the top 1% of entries worldwide.
With these awards, Dongseo University has won a total of 48 Red Dot Design Award trophies over the past 12 years, including seven Best of the Best awards and 41 Winner awards, once again demonstrating its unrivaled global design competitiveness.
Established in Germany in 1955, the Red Dot Design Award is regarded, alongside the iF Design Award and the International Design Excellence Awards (IDEA), as one of the world’s three major design awards. It is also known for its long history and prestige. About 8,000 entries from more than 50 countries were submitted for the 2026 competition and underwent a rigorous, impartial evaluation by 24 renowned creators from around the world.
The winning works will be presented to audiences worldwide through online and offline exhibitions.
The Best of the Best-winning works will be permanently displayed at the Red Dot exhibition hall in Berlin, Germany. The official awards ceremony and gala show will be held in Berlin on November 7, with all of the winning students expected to attend.
McDonald’s Fake Meal, which received the top honor, is an app-based solution that turns an ordinary McDonald’s app order into a distress signal for victims who find it difficult to report an emergency directly. When users place a preconfigured Fake Menu order as they normally would, their location information and request for assistance are transmitted via GPS to a nearby police station, allowing them to seek help safely without arousing suspicion.
The other Best of the Best winner, No Take, is a packaging design solution focused on the danger posed by medicines whose appearance changes little even after their expiration date, making the risk difficult to recognize. The design makes the phrase “Tylenol Take as needed” change to “NO TAKE” after a set period following opening. It visually communicates an otherwise hidden danger and encourages safer medication use.
The Winner entry Bite Care addresses the difficulty of detecting kidney failure early in older dogs, as the condition has few initial symptoms and can be fatal. Sensors embedded in a toy used by dogs during play measure urea, sodium and potassium in their saliva, then transmit the data to an app to provide early warnings of abnormal signs.
The winning works were produced through the interdisciplinary courses Convergence Ideation Practicum and Creative Problem Solving, operated with support from Dongseo University’s University Innovation Support Project Group and the Institute of AI Convergence Education.
Han Yu Jin, a third-year student in the Department of Advertising and Public Relations who participated in creating No Take, said, “I am deeply moved to receive such a meaningful award on the global stage, and I feel proud and fulfilled that my abilities have been recognized internationally.” Han added, “Building on this experience, I will continue to grow into a valuable advertising professional who connects people and the world.”
[email protected] Kwon Byung-seok Reporter