Leading tech companies have cleaned up at the San Francisco Design Awards, with Dropbox, Pandora, Credit Sesame and Invoice2go all gaining recognition for outstanding projects. In total more than $3.6B worth of design projects were celebrated; illustrating that as well as providing human benefits, design is a significant economic activity.

“San Francisco is a huge centre of design. It’s fantastic to celebrate so many outstanding design projects that both drive the economy and create positive returns for the people that experience them,” said San Francisco Design Awards Chairman Mark Bergin.

According to Mr Bergin using design to understand users and their needs in order to create meaningful experiences and environments is essential to ensure tech continues to flourish.

“Obviously developments in the tech industry drives innovation, but design is integral to this process and is the difference between success and failure.

“All the projects in the awards are prime examples of design excellence and show just what’s possible when design and new technology come together," said Mr Bergin

Dropbox was named the design champion and best large design studio for their commitment to design across the whole organisation. Yves Béhar’s Fuseproject was awarded best mid-size design studio and Nextbit was recognised as the leading small studio.

Other award winning designers and brands included Samsung for the the Bouroullec brothers designed Serif TV, Google and Levis for their Commuter x Jacquard collaboration and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art expansion by Snøhetta.

In total over 35 projects were recognised in the multi disciplinary awards program across categories from architecture and interior design to digital, product and service design.

The San Francisco Design Awards is organised by design100 a global community of 75,000 design experts that celebrate creative courage, recognise design excellence and grow demand for design. In New York a panel of 180 of the world’s leading design minds providing curatorial, judging and creative direction.

design100 run in awards throughout the world including New York, Chicago, London, Hong Kong and Sydney, and provide the design community links into global markets and an efficient method to gain recognition in export markets.

“We are extremely proud and excited about the success of our San Francisco program,” said Mr Bergin.

“And we’re excited about its continuing growth and further involvement from leading design organisations, studios and brands as we work together to strengthen the design economy and increase awareness about the importance and unquestionable benefits of good design.”