Crystal Achievement Awards 2015: The Crystal Standard

Emily Kay Thompson
September 19, 2015
FEATURE ARTICLE | Design & Performance

The industry is constantly looking for what’s next in terms of style, energy efficiency, and innovative manufacturing. As one of our Crystal Achievement Awards judges noted, the companies that are recognized with our Crystal Achievement Award “are listening and have showed they continue to add to or improve their offerings to fulfill those needs.”

Selected by a panel of judges representing various segments of the industry, the Awards recognize significant innovations and achievements in window and door technology, manufacturing and marketing.

The Criteria

This year, we received nearly one hundred entries for consideration, each of which our judges carefully reviewed. Many of the categories were extremely competitive, so the final results were tallied according to how well each entry scored against specific criteria as well as the judges’ overall selections and comments. (Note that judges were not allowed to vote in any categories for which their company’s products were nominated.)

The Most Innovative Window, Door, and Window and Door Component categories all were evaluated against similar benchmarks, including to what degree each entry:

Is aesthetically pleasing,
Incorporates innovative design, components and/or manufacturing technology,
Fills a unique need in the industry (i.e. sets/leads trends in category, has a creative approach to satisfying a need, provides a solution to an existing problem, etc.), and
Takes a different approach than other products in the same category (in terms of technology, aesthetics, etc.)

In the Best Website categories, each nomination was scored on three criteria:

How clean, easy to navigate and aesthetically pleasing it is,
Whether it incorporates unique and innovative features, and
That it fills a need in the industry (i.e. educates visitors, makes it simple to order, is a good resource).

Finally, each entry in the Most Innovative Machine/Equipment category were assessed in terms of how well each machine:

Brings a unique approach to manufacturers,
Solves a common problem for manufacturers, and
Incorporates innovative technology.

On the following pages, you’ll see how each winning entry demonstrates innovation in its category. We encourage you to use this information to add to your product lines or manufacturing capacity and to be inspired toward innovation of your own.

Editor’s Note: See more information on how to nominate your company for the 2016 Crystal Achievement Awards program or how to become one of our Crystal Achievement Award judges.