Crown Wins Design Award for ESR 5000 Reach Truck

 

Enlarge Image Crown 's ESR 5000 series

July 2, 2010 — Along with some of the world’s most recognized brands, Crown Equipment, New Bremen, Ohio, was honored recently by the Industrial Designers Society of America (IDSA) with an International Design Excellence Award (IDEA) for the Crown ESR 5000 series of narrow-aisle reach trucks used throughout Asia and Europe. This is the fifth consecutive and eighteenth overall IDEA for Crown. No other company has won more of the awards in the commercial and industrial equipment category in the last 10 years. “Great products come from great thinking,” said Mike Gallagher, vice president of design, Crown Equipment. “It’s always gratifying to be recognized for our efforts. It’s one more stamp of credibility for the design staff and Crown employees who are driven to create not only great and innovative products but also great experiences for our customers. We will continue to pursue this goal with thoughtfulness and zeal.”

Isabel Ancona, one of the competition’s judges and a user experience consultant, wrote in her evaluation of the Crown ESR, “Strong product strategy and user research, combined with elegant and practical design solutions, has created a very accessible and effective vehicle. There are several details that demonstrate a solid understanding of the various workflows and user needs—creating a safe and usable 'workspace' for the driver, [providing] more visibility, [simplifying] user interface controls, and [including] visual cues on the truck for safer driving.”

 

Since the 1960s, Crown has earned more than 50 design awards. In the past decade alone, IDSA recognized Crown with a  2009 Gold IDEA for the GPC 3000 series order picker; a 2008 Gold IDEA: RC 5500 series stand-up counterbalanced lift truck; 2007 Gold IDEA for the ST/SX/WF 3000 stacker series; a Silver IDEA for the TSP 6000 series turret stockpicker; a 2004 Silver IDEA for the PE 4000 series rider pallet truck; a 2003 Gold IDEA for the FC 4000 series sit-down counterbalanced lift truck; and a 2000 Gold IDEA for the WP 2000 series walkie pallet truck and SC 4000 3-wheel counterbalanced truck.

 

According to the IDSA, the 2010 IDEA jury was comprised of 18 world-renowned designers and design thinkers who spent weeks previewing entries online, and two-and-a-half days in face-to-face evaluation and debate. Judging criteria in the commercial and industrial equipment category focused on innovation; benefit to the user, benefit to society and natural ecology; benefit to the client, visual appeal; and, appropriate aesthetics.