C2K Bloodsampler Wins Red Dot Design Award for Simplicity in At-Home Blood Collection
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3 min read
Red Dot Design Award
When a product is designed well, the complexity behind it is often invisible.
The C2K Bloodsampler is a good example. Developed by Voxdale together with the Institute of Tropical Medicine Antwerp, the device was designed to make blood collection at home more straightforward, using familiar, readily available components rather than electronics or proprietary consumables.
That approach recently earned the C2K Bloodsampler a Red Dot Design Award, recognising the quality of its product design and the thinking behind a device designed to quietly do its job.
Red Dot Design Award
When a product is designed well, the complexity behind it is often invisible.
The C2K Bloodsampler is a good example. Developed by Voxdale together with the Institute of Tropical Medicine Antwerp, the device was designed to make blood collection at home more straightforward, using familiar, readily available components rather than electronics or proprietary consumables.
That approach recently earned the C2K Bloodsampler a Red Dot Design Award, recognising the quality of its product design and the thinking behind a device designed to quietly do its job.
Red Dot Design Award
When a product is designed well, the complexity behind it is often invisible.
The C2K Bloodsampler is a good example. Developed by Voxdale together with the Institute of Tropical Medicine Antwerp, the device was designed to make blood collection at home more straightforward, using familiar, readily available components rather than electronics or proprietary consumables.
That approach recently earned the C2K Bloodsampler a Red Dot Design Award, recognising the quality of its product design and the thinking behind a device designed to quietly do its job.
Designing for a simple experience
At-home blood collection presents a particular design challenge. The product needs to support a process that is reliable and practical, while making the experience as straightforward as possible for the person using it.
For the C2K Bloodsampler, the design team focused on reducing unnecessary complexity.
The device works with a standard lancet and standard specimen tube, avoiding the need for specialised consumables or electronic components. This helps keep the system familiar and practical while supporting the collection process.
But making something simple is rarely simple.
Every part of the product had to be considered in relation to the user's experience, the sampling process, manufacturing requirements and the realities of using the device outside a clinical environment.
The result is a product where the design is deliberately understated. Rather than adding complexity to solve individual problems, the team looked for ways to make the overall system more intuitive and efficient.
Designing for a simple experience
Designing for a simple experience
Where design meets engineering
The C2K Bloodsampler demonstrates an important part of Voxdale's approach to product development: good product design is not only about how something looks.
Materials, mechanisms, ergonomics and manufacturing all influence whether a product ultimately works as intended.
For the C2K Bloodsampler, design decisions had to work within the requirements of blood collection while keeping the interaction as clear and uncomplicated as possible.
That meant questioning every element of the product and considering whether it genuinely contributed to the experience.
The goal was not to make the product stand out.
It was to make the process feel straightforward.
Where design meets engineering
Where design meets engineering
A collaborative development process
The C2K Bloodsampler was developed in collaboration with Irith De Baetselier and the Institute of Tropical Medicine Antwerp.
Bringing together medical and scientific expertise with product design and engineering allowed the team to approach the challenge from different perspectives.
The result is a product designed around a real-world need: making blood collection more accessible outside the traditional clinical environment.
A collaborative development process
A collaborative development process
Recognised with a Red Dot Design Award
The C2K Bloodsampler was recognised with a Red Dot Design Award, one of the international design awards that celebrates outstanding product and industrial design.
For the Voxdale team, the recognition is particularly meaningful because it reflects the work that happens behind a seemingly simple product.
It represents the contribution of the designers, engineers and collaborators who worked through the details to arrive at a solution where the complexity is largely invisible to the person using it.
As the Voxdale design team accepted the Red Dot certificate, the award provided an opportunity to recognise everyone involved in bringing the C2K Bloodsampler from concept to finished product.
Recognised with a Red Dot Design Award
Recognised with a Red Dot Design Award
Designing products that quietly make a difference
The C2K Bloodsampler reflects the kind of product development Voxdale is passionate about: combining design and engineering to solve practical problems in ways that feel natural to the people using the final product.
Sometimes the strongest design statement is not adding more.
It is knowing what can be removed.
And when the result is a product that quietly makes an important process easier, that is something worth celebrating.
Discover the C2K Bloodsampler: Collect2Know
Read the Voxdale case study: Institute of Tropical Medicine Antwerp
Read the interview: From knowledge to innovation: rethinking blood sampling (Business in Antwerp)
Designing products that quietly make a difference
Designing products that quietly make a difference
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Wonderful ideas, engineered from sketch to scale
Wonderful ideas, engineered from sketch to scale
Wonderful ideas, engineered from sketch to scale
Wonderful ideas, engineered from sketch to scale
© 2026 Voxdale BV
© 2026 Voxdale BV
© 2026 Voxdale BV