The Industrial Design Award has been recognized worldwide as the most intuitive indicator of a country's design competitiveness. Since its inception in 2006, the Red Star Award has been one of the most authoritative design awards in the early stage of China. The work aims to analyze the relationship between the Red Star Design Award and the development of Chinese design industry, in order to explore the current value of "design" from the aspects of stage, path and trend. The changes of the Red Star Award in the judging criteria during the past 15 years were sorted out systematically and the characteristics of the winning works and the evolution of design hotspots were analyzed quantitatively. Compared with relevant international design awards, the evaluation system of the Red Star Award mainly includes seven aspects:innovation, function, physical attribute, quality, social responsibility, ecological responsibility and commercial value. The winning works over the years reflect the rapid development trend of Chinese design industry in the three urban clusters in the eastern coastal areas. The development of the design industry is more inclusive, and the trend from professional equipment to civil use is also significant. This study summarizes the four key stages of Chinese design industry development and their division methods and proposes the design