Tires with the Wow Factor: Conti Hybrid Wins Red Dot Award

Hanover, April 19, 2023. Milton Glaser, the celebrated graphic designer who created the world-famous ‘I LOVE NY’ rebus, once said: ‘There are three responses to a piece of design – yes, no and WOW! Wow is the one to aim for.’ And ‘Wow!’ was precisely the response to the Continental Hybrid HS5 and Hybrid HD 5 tires at this year’s Red Dot Award. The two commercial vehicle tires manufactured by Continental fought off stiff competition to win the Product Design category. This annual design competition for product and industrial design, brand and communication design, and design concepts presents the Red Dot quality label to the best entries. “We are particularly delighted to receive the award for the first two models in our new generation of tires,” says Hinnerk Kaiser, Head of Product Development Bus and Truck Tires at Continental. “It is an endorsement of the quality and strength of our development work, which involved bringing together concept and mileage with design and performance.”

The new Continental Hybrid family of Generation 5 tires have been developed for the rigorous demands of daily operation in the transport and logistics industry. They cope effortlessly with frequent acceleration, braking, maneuvering and cornering on a variety of road surfaces, while offering high mileages, excellent durability and optimum traction. The tires also help to bring down a truck’s fuel consumption effectively and minimize fleet costs thanks to their lowered rolling resistance. “Tire design plays a key role here in a number of ways,” explains tire expert Kaiser. “It reinforces brand identity by emphasizing innovative strength and technological sophistication.”

The design of both winning tires, particularly of the tread, clearly visualizes the operating principles at play. And tire design is of crucial importance for ensuring our products are clearly distinguishable from those of other brands. “When developing the Generation 5 tires, we were looking to bring a logical evolution of the long series of successful Conti Hybrid truck tires onto the market, with its innovations easily identifiable,” adds Kaiser.

“We also had to come up with an appropriate design language that would indicate the tire’s use in freight haulage.” The hexagonal hatching effect on the tire sidewall links it to the tire segment covered by the Conti Hybrid Gen5 series. This has a particularly strong brand-enhancing effect when the tires are fitted on the vehicle. In addition, new application icons combine with the product name to illustrate the tire’s suitability for different road conditions. It all adds up to a thoroughly successful development concept that gets the vote of professionals on both a functional and design level.