It is no secret that Volkswagen has been through a lot of controversies lately that have shocked the whole automotive industry. But despite such, Europe’s largest automaker and producer of the popular Volkswagen relay has come out unscathed and still in its full grandeur ready to face more challenges that come its way. For the almost 62 years that Volkswagen has spent in the automotive industry it has its shares of ups and downs but the fact that it is still Europe’s largest automaker simply shows that its achievements has overshadowed its failures.

And just recently, Volkswagen was awarded with the Silver 2007 Design Award of the Federal Republic of Germany for its corporate book called “Volkswagen Corporate Design Essentials.” This “brand bible” gives a clear documentation of brand tonality and visual presentation of the design principles of the Volkswagen brand. The awarding was held at a public ceremony at Frankfurt am Main during the Ambiente International trade fair.

The German Design Council has invited an international jury to pick the Design Award Winners. There were 940 nominations but only 25 products were chosen to receive Germany’s only official design award. According to Jochen Sengpiehl, Head of Marketing at Volkswagen, “For Volkswagen, corporate identity and corporate design play an extremely important role. They contribute to the high awareness of the Volkswagen brand. We are proud to have won the Design Award of the Federal Republic of Germany.”

The Design Award was presented by the Federal Ministry of Economic and Trade. But the organizer of the awarding event was the German Design Council. The Ministries and Senators for Trade and Industry of the German Sates and the Federal Ministry of Economics and Trade nominate individual companies and their products for the Design Award. The contest also requires for nominated products to at least have a national or international prize at their sleeves.

The “Volkswagen Corporate Design Essentials” corporate book has already received a red dot communication award as well as a prize in the Best of Corporate Publishing competition. MetaDesign, a Berlin-based agency has created the design for the corporate book and for the Volkswagen brand corporate design system.

Complete details of the 2007 Design Award are published on the comprehensive catalog created by Birkhauser Verlag. An exhibition showcasing all the winners is going to be organized after the award ceremony. The exhibition will also tour on several locations in Germany and also in other countries.