Despite the long tradition of industrial design promotion - achievements are reviewed by Slovenia's international Biennial of Industrial Design, the Information and Documentation Centre for Design at the CCIS, as well as the Mesec Oblikovanja (Month of Design) event held annually since 2003 - most Slovenian enterprises continue to pay too little attention to considered and well-executed design management, or the role of design in the development of products, services and processes.

This said, however, there are companies that are major exceptions to this general rule. Based on decades of ongoing professional work by its design centre, Gorenje (www.gorenje.com) has been granted a number of international awards for the excellence of its products. Most of this nation's sports goods manufacturers, including companies such as Elan (www.elansports.com), have long been fully aware that the best way to success is through design and innovation, while this select band of internationally acclaimed firms has also been joined by the Slovenian footwear manufacturer Alpina (www.alpina.si)

There are also a number of small and medium sized enterprises, such as Intra Lighting (www.intra.si), Seaway (www.seaway.si), and Trimo (www.trimo.si), that have placed special emphasis on design and innovation and are very successful on foreign markets. Indeed, year after year their accomplishments are now being followed by a new generation of design-oriented companies.

Some International Awards

• Seaway
  • * 2002 Yacht Design Award;
  • * 2007 Boat of the Year in Europe, USA Boat of the Year (Salona 37)
• Gorenje
  • * 2002 ICSID Industrial Design Excellence Award (Touch the Future);
  • * 2005 Red Dot Design Award, Design Zentrum Nordrhein Westfalen (washing and drying machine);
  • * 2006 ICSID Industrial Design Excellence Award (Pininfarina)
  • * 2007 Plus x AwardTM (fridge-freezer)
• Alpina
  • * 2002 Gold Medal - BIO 18 (Alpina XC Racing CL footwear)
• Elan
  • * 2006 Ispo European Ski Award;
  • * 2006 Medal of Excellence
  • * 2007 Red Dot Design Award
• Kolpa
  • * 2007 Red Dot Design Award (YOU range of products)

Sources (accessed on 12 June 2008):

http://www.eu2008.si/en/Slovenia/Business/index.html
http://www.gzs.si/slo/
http://www.eu2008.si/includes/Downloads/misc/Slovenia_Your_Business_Partner.pdf