Audi has come away from this year's 'red dot award: product design 2013' with distinctions for three models: The Audi R8 impressed the high profile international jury with its "highest design quality", which earned it the top award 'red dot: best of the best'. The Audi A3 Sportback, already a repeat winner, and the Audi S3 were also rated very highly, winning the 'red dot' for their high styling quality.

Head of Interior Design, Enzo Rothfuss, took receipt of the awards yesterday evening at the red dot gala in Essen's Aalto Theater. He expressed his thanks to the jurors and the design team, "Design is a dynamic process in which we all seek to blend tradition with vision."

Of more than 4,600 products and projects entered from 54 countries, the winners included 22 car models. The jury comprises 37 experts from 24 countries. The award acknowledges not just aesthetic form, but also pioneering trends and the designers' innovations.

"It is designed and elaborated to an extraordinarily high level. Its proportions are balanced, it has perfect poise and its aesthetics are of high calibre," declared the jury as its reasons for choosing the Audi R8.

"Choosing new directions in design first of all involves questioning every design with a critical eye," commented Audi Chief Designer Wolfgang Egger.

"The design process often resembles a dynamic car trip, with all its highs and lows. For innovative creation to take place, things repeatedly need to be looked at from a variety of perspectives and new solutions invented without losing sight of the brand's DNA," Egger added.