DESIGN COMPETITION
The »DOVO« design competition is addressed to all designers who passionately enjoy working between the poles of tradition and modernity. We are looking for esthetically superior and savvy design solutions for a new DOVO straight razor. As inherent part of the design process, makers should consider haptics, ergonomics, sustainability and manufacturability of their creations.
Our objective is to breathe real life into the winning design and to launch it on the market as a new DOVO straight razor. Eventually, it will be decided in the market if the new design meets the spirit of our time and speaks the language of DOVO enthusiasts.
To ease the necessary research, we’ll provide all participants with images and additional information about the product history, customer profiles, brand guidelines and technical details of DOVO’s straight razors. For this purpose we kindly ask you to send a short email request with the subject “Design Competition” to the following address:
design@dovo.com
REQUIREMENTS
FORMAT OF THE DOCUMENTS TO BE SUBMITTED
The documents to be submitted should consist of 2-dimensional drawings, illustrations, computer graphics and conceptual and technical explanations, e.g. on materials and manufacturing process. Only after the 5 designs to be implemented in prototypes have been preselected, the participants concerned may be asked to provide 3-dimensional drawings.
MATERIAL AND MANUFACTURABILITY
• the blade material is carbon steel
• the blade width should not exceed 6/8”
• the blade length (including tang) should not exceed 15 cm
• the handle material should allow riveting of the blade and handle
• the handle material should be grindable and polishable
• the finished handle material should be easy to clean
• the handle material should be stable in shape and color to water, solvent (e.g. alcohol) and shaving soap
SELECTION OF THE WINNING DESIGN
In order to better understand the design works, DOVO will preselect 5 proposals from all submissions and manufacture a straight razor prototype of each of these designs.
The prototypes will be presented to the main jury, which will select the winner of the »DOVO« design competition. Our main jury consists of the following experts:
• Dr. Sixt Wetzler (Head of the German Blade Museum Solingen)
• Dirk Schlobach (representative of the barber community)
• Emmanuel Sanwogou alias “Shesher” (representative of the barber community)
• Jens Grudno (CEO of DOVO Stahlwaren GmbH)
We will announce the winning design on May 16th, 2021 on the “Day of the Knife” in the German Blade Museum. The winner of the »DOVO« design competition will receive € 5000 and a share of the sales profit made with the new DOVO straight razor.
DOVO’S STORY
DOVO Stahlwaren was founded in Solingen in 1906. Since then the company evolved into what is now a globally recognized manufacturer of cutlery with the traditional manufacturing of straight razors – one of the supreme disciplines in the field of cutlery.
Over the past century, the company diversified its cutlery portfolio with the acquisition of well-known pliers and scissors manufacturers and expanded its products all over the world. With a passion for DOVO’s history and many ideas to rethink its traditional craftsmanship, new owners took over the company on October 1st, 2020. The future direction of its product portfolio leads the DOVO brand back to its origin of handcrafted masterpieces for wet shaving.
With the »DOVO« design competition, DOVO’s new management team, in collaboration with
the German Blade Museum Solingen, invites designers and metal designers from all over the
world to become part of DOVO’s future success.
SUBMISSIONS and CONDITIONS OF PARTICIPATION
You can submit your design proposals:
by email
design@dovo.com
(When sending the documents by email,
we kindly ask to attach only small files directly to the
email and to share large files via a cloud-based data
storage / file hosting.)
or post to:
DOVO Stahlwaren GmbH
Boecklingstrasse 10
D-42719 Solingen
CONDITIONS OF PARTICIPATION
The »DOVO«design competition is an open competition. Each participant can submit up to three proposals.
The work must be designed exclusively for the »DOVO« design competition and may not be published, used
or given to third parties in any other way. The intellectual property rights remain with the designer. A transfer
or licensing of the intellectual property to DOVO Stahlwaren GmbH can be contractually agreed in case of
mutual interest.
SUBMISSION DEADLINE
March 31st, 2021