Winners 2015/Industrial Design Gold

Project: Referee Electronic Paging System

Client: Touchline Flags

Design: LA Design

Historically a distribution company of equipment for football referees in the UK, A+H International and its owner, identified an opportunity for developing a system that could enable football assistants to communicate with referees electronically.

The design programme started with input from professional referees, identifying what was needed to produce the best system in the world. The resulting design sees the referee alerted by a sound and vibration from their receiving pager unit worn on an upper armband.

Since launching their own manufactured products they have seen an increase in gross profit of 224% and rising, with total annual unit sales of pagers increased by 293% and flags by 290%.

The success has resulted in a new company, Touchline Flags, being formed with huge potential for future development. Increases in market distribution have seen eight new countries make purchases and Touchline Flags have 100% of the target market in the UK.