The archive · Design & Visual · Product decision · 2024–2025
nwm ONE's open-ear headphones keep you in the room — iF Gold 2025 and Red Dot Best of Best
NTT's first audio brand designed headphones around 'Co-being': open-ear sound that enhances reality instead of escaping it, winning top prize at iF and Red Dot.
NTT Sonority
What it had to solve
NTT Sonority, NTT Group's first audio brand, launched on the philosophy of 'Co-being' — sound that connects people to the world rather than pulling them into self-immersion — and nwm ONE, its flagship, had to make that philosophy tangible in hardware.
How it works
When NTT Group created its first audio brand, nwm (pronounced 'noom'), it started from a critique of the category: conventional earbuds and closed headphones pull listeners into self-immersion, cutting them off from the people and places around them. The brand's founding idea was 'Co-being' — sound as a way of coexisting with the world, not escaping it.
The flagship nwm ONE made that philosophy physical. Studio 83Design defined the product as 'a door connecting two worlds of sound' and gave it a design language of blank spaces and colorlessness: an open-ear, over-head ear speaker with no ear cups and no noise cancelling, so ambient sound and conversation stay present. The restrained form communicated the idea before the product was even worn.
The bet paid off in the industry's own judgement: the iF Design Award 2025 gave it the Gold Award, one of only 75 among roughly 11,000 entries judged by 131 experts, praising sound 'without isolating users from their surroundings'; weeks later Red Dot Design Award 2025 named it Best of the Best, and JIDA Design Museum Selection gave it Gold.
Why it lands
- Chose connection as the product axis when every rival pushed deeper isolation
- Open-ear architecture made the philosophy physically real — no ear cups, no noise cancelling
- A restrained 'blank spaces' design language turned restraint into premium identity
- Renaming the product an 'ear speaker' repositioned it as a lifestyle standard rather than another headphone
What it did
iF Gold Award 2025 — one of only 75 Gold winners from roughly 11,000 entries, chosen by 131 experts — followed by Red Dot Design Award 2025 Best of the Best and JIDA Design Museum Selection Gold. Judges called it 'not to escape reality but to enhance it'.
What you can take
When a category races toward isolation, design the opposite: open sound that preserves connection. 'Co-being' shaped the restraint, and restraint became the award-winning differentiator.
Since then
nwm ONE collected the top prizes at both iF (Gold, March 2025) and Red Dot (Best of the Best, April 2025), and the 'Co-being' philosophy became the design language for the brand's later products; NTT Sonority continued to expand the nwm line around open, socially connected listening.
Sources
- nwm ONE Wins 'iF Gold Award' at the 2025 iF Design Awards
- nwm ONE Wins 'Best of the Best' at the 2025 Red Dot Design Award
- A design that fully conveys the innovation and uniqueness of nwm — project page
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