Freedom Smart Bridge Wins Iron A' Design Award

May 12, 2021

The controller earned recognition in the Information Technologies Design Category, following detailed scrutiny from the grand jury panel of the A' Design Award and Competition.  Winning the approval of the panel is no easy task; the panel is comprised of more than 200 influential press members, established designers, leading academics, and prominent entrepreneurs from all over the world. Made of custom-built electronics and flame-resistant plastics alongside some off the shelf components, Freedom Smart Bridge is an Internet of Things (IoT)-driven security controller linking access readers and locks, designed to make decisions on allowing access to the appropriate people at the right time. It is mounted in an electronics closet which is only opened if there is an issue.  The Identiv team knew that the perceived value of the controller, as with all products, is directly influenced by the design. Being stored in an electrical closet, we knew the product would largely be out of sight, meaning overdramatic design styling would represent wasted costs and possibly be a deterrent to potential customers.  Our aesthetic inspiration was a tasteful design that stands out from the crowd, but not falling into the trap of something over engineered and detracting from the product's ease of use. We took inspiration from existing products such as consumer routers and external hard drives, especially those with vents, subtly incorporating our brand graphics in the form of a red circle motif. 

More Than an Award for Freedom Smart Bridge

Achieving recognition with an A' Design Award means more than just the formal title we can attach to the product.   The International Design Academy itself states that it is an “indicator of quality and perfection in design”, a status which attracts the eyes of design-oriented audiences worldwide, with winners able to find better and higher profile jobs and sales leads. Identiv fully embraces the spirit of the A' Design Award and Competition and its purpose to “provide a fair, ethical and competitive platform for companies, designers and innovators from all design fields with different experience levels, diverse disciplines and market focus to compete on, while providing them a global audience to showcase their success and talents to”.  The competition serves as an important and mutually beneficial bridge connecting designers, corporations, and the media, and is a platform that Identiv will look to participate in with further products in the future.  The Freedom Smart Bridge project started in November 2020 and involves Identiv teams from both Bristol in the UK and Santa Ana in California. Concluding in March 2021, the product is now moving to the manufacturing stage and is about to be launched into the market.  The full list of A' Design Award and Competition categories and winners can be found at competition.adesignaward.com. To learn more about Freedom Access Control and other physical security solutions, contact us today at sales@hirschsecure.com or +1 888-809-8880.