A’ Design Award and Competition is looking for the best designs, design ideas, prototypes and finished products by talented designers, artists and architects to award them with the A’ Design Award. The call for entries is for the furniture, packaging, architecture and interior design categories. Winners will receive a free and extensive public relations campaign for their design, plus the chance to feature in an annual book. Designs will be judged by professionals, academics and a focus group. All entrants will be given a detailed score sheet and feedback to help assess and improve their own work, plus a certificate and trophy.
Deadlines for entries are as follows:
Furniture design 30 November 2010
Packaging design: 28 February 2011
Architecture and building design: 31 January 2011
Interior design: 30 June 2011
More about the A’ Design Award
The competition was developed as a Ph.D. thesis first, but later we decided to go further and make it a reality; after an extensive research on design competitions and analyzing around 400+ competitions in very detail (checking 180 points of information on each) we have found out that the existing design competitions, especially the famous premium competitions were not good enough. Existing competitions were covert, there were no feedbacks other than you win / you lost, marketing was profit oriented and the scoring was not standardized.
We have come up with an extensively developed guideline and “quality-rank” mechanism for competitions and we applied these “quality-points” in our competition:
Feedbacks
Designers deserved something better, a good competition should provide at least an amount of solid feedback (so that designers could at least make a self-assessment of why they get their score, why they win or lose), so we came up with a score-sheet, for the first time, to give to designers after the competition. No matter they win or lose, they can still see which areas they were good at, which areas they needed improvements, they can compare their scores with the rest of the designers and they can see which percentile they are in.
Methodology
A good quality competition required transparently clean and explained methodology for voting, we could no longer tolerate keep this / eliminate that kind of approach, for each category we have a questionnaire that the jury members need to follow.
No Further Fees
No Further Fee requirements for Winners: Unlike other High-Profile competitions, we do not ask any further fees. Winners should not be losers. Although our competition looks profit-oriented, it is hardly so: we spend almost all of the income on advertising, organization and management of the event.
Academics Oriented
The purpose is most of all to provide an equal ground for designers to prove themselves. We aim to provide 15 Person Jury for each of the categories; this makes a huge 360 people jury (planned) for the all 24 competitions or (currently we have 45 people jury for 3 different competition types: Industrial/product Designs, Architecture and Others). Jury is always announced at the end of the competition, because we believe that the Jury are not “advertising tools” and we want to keep it this way, and we also like to keep any outside influences away from the reach of jury before results are public.
Standardized Scoring
Score standardization and normalization is what makes the A’ Design Award and Competition different from the rest; compare it to a TOEFL score; when you get a standard score from the TOEFL exam, you can use it anywhere in the world. It is an indication of proficiency. The scoring starts by explaining in detail what the criteria stands for, and the scoring continues by explaining what the score ranges means, and it will have necessary notes to make it more clear for all the jury members to clearly understand it. Most of the criteria are scored from a range of 0 to 11, while some of them will be yes or no questions. The scores are standardized, weighted and normalized. However we have a base-limit for the number of applications, each category must reach 100 people to receive a standard score, because if the target participant numbers are not reached, we cannot apply score-standardization and normalization formulas (error margins are too high when the population size is small). How it works is simple: after voting, the scores given by the jury members are normalized and weighted, normalization of the scores helps to eliminate personal biases, while weighting the results make sure that specific questions are answered by the relevant parties; such as the votes of professionals will be higher on engineering and realization related questions and vote of academics will be higher on sustainability etc.
Publicity
We work with DesignPRWire, we use their database of press contacts, and we also get help from them to make the competition reach the biggest audience as possible. Our difference is that we do not only target “design oriented” magazines; we want to advertise the designers at every possible location, because this is how it should be, you know it better; even when we speak about for example, let’s say the most famous designer Philippe Stack, how many non-designers know him, we want to change that too.
Here is the example Evaluation Criteria for Industrial Design Categories for your consideration, of course it will be different for some categories:
Design
Form and shape, texture, finishing, graphical communication, colors and color options, material, innovation, emotional values, social context, targeted segment relevance, engineering, ease of use, surprise element, timelessness of design, design of the packaging or protective casing, overall complexity or simplicity, all of these details are addressed and are voted by three different juries, the juries have equal weight at this point, the questions are answered on a scale from one to ten.
Engineering
Function, ergonomics, usability, details, engineering, ease of production, efficiency of production, economies of scale, marketability, technological availability, safety, cost advantage, resource friendliness, sustainability, reparability, durability, impact on nature, recyclability, re-usability and similar details are discussed and are voted by three different juries, the professional and academic jury’s votes are given more importance according to the question, the questions are answered on a scale from zero to eleven.
Presentation
Presentation of design, visualization of use and maintenance, clearness representation and relevant details are addressed and are voted by three different juries, the focus group jury’s votes are given relatively more importance, the questions are answered on a scale from zero to eleven.
Specific
For each different category and also for realized and concept stage products, the evaluation criteria will have different weights, and there is possibility of category specific evaluation criteria to be present. At this step details are discussed and are voted by three different juries and the professional and academic jury’s votes are given more importance. The questions are answered on a scale from zero to eleven. To learn more please check the methodology pages.
Winner Designers of A’Design Award receive the following benefits and exposure:
1. Featured in the yearly Result Book
Top designs are featured in this yearly book to increase the exposure of designs and products to a wider public. These yearly ResultBooks are delivered to a wide range of professionals, design oriented companies and press members.
2. Communicated to the Press
Extensive coverage in global media ensures that you are renowned worldwide. We provide free services to prepare your press releases to communicate to a worldwide audience furthermore we also help you to find services for custom press release preparation in addition to the ones we deliver.
3. Advertised to a Wide Range of Design Sensitive People
In addition to standard press and traditional media, A’Design Award & Competition advertises winners in online media and search engines as well to millions of people who are searching for design. We have a large dedicated budget to reach millions of people every year.
4. Introduced to Companies
Winning designs are introduced to relevant companies. Winners find the opportunity to meet with the industry and businesses. Some winners will have the opportunity to be supported and mentored by industry leaders and large players in the design field. Meeting with the companies usually lead to eventual realization of concept or idea-stage designs, or finding new distribution channels for existing products.
5. Certificate of Quality
The “A’ Design Award Winner Certificate” is a proof of quality of design which you can use to highlight the qualifications of your designs. Winner Designers can download the “A’ Design Award Winner Logo” and use this special logo with their product packaging or websites.
6. Trade Fairs, Conferences and Meetings
The A’Design Award will also present itself in design oriented trade-fairs around the world, winners will get chance to be promoted in these fairs, conferences, meetings and other design related events in order to create the sectorial hype.
7. Introduced to Design World
Winners are introduced to Curators, Architects, Designers, Companies, and other relevant people and institutions in the design world to get more out of the award. Special notifications are send to the Museum Directors, Academicians, Media Directors and Design Departments of Multi-National Companies.
8. A Reason to Contact Press
Winning the A’Design Award, is prestigious, it is a very solid reason to contact the press and have increased exposure of your designs and products around the world and we provide free PR and press-release services to winners.
9. Realization Possibilities
Winning designs are very likely to be realized by thousands of companies that are following the competition each year, the winners are communicated early so that they can make an early patent rights application right-away.
10. Increased Sales
Winning designs get enough exposure to increase the sales of products significantly, it is an investment that you can rely on throughout the life of the product. More fame means more business.
About the Award
The A’Design Award and Competition is for designers, innovators and companies that want to highlight themselves to attract the focus of media, publishers and buyers.
Competition
In a world where there are millions of products and designs launched each year, this award was born out of the desire to underline the best designs and well-designed products. The award-winning products and designs are highlighted to the international public in the A’ Design Museum and Gallery in Italy and they are communicated to all relevant press across the world.
Categories
A’ Design Award and Competitions are organized and awarded annually in a wide range of categories, every month a particular competition is held. These are; Furniture Design Competition, Packaging Design Competition, Architectural Design Competition, Fashion Design Competition, Lighting Design Competition, Toy Design Competition, Digital Devices Competition, Interior Design Competition, Vehicle Design Competition, Interface Design Competition, Home Appliances Design Competition and Graphic Design Competition. Addition to the annual competitions there are also sponsored competitions, held in parallel to other competitions.
The main competitions are organized in the following categories:
- FURNITURE AND HOMEWARE DESIGN
- PACKAGING DESIGN
- ARCHITECTURE AND BUILDING DESIGN
- FASHION AND JEWELERY DESIGN
- LIGHTING DESIGN
- TOY AND RECREATION DESIGN
- DIGITAL AND ELECTRONIC DEVICES DESIGN
- INTERIOR DESIGN
- VEHICLE DESIGN
- INTERFACE DESIGN
- HOME APPLIANCES DESIGN
- GRAPHICS AND ADVERTISING DESIGN
- COMPUTER GRAPHICS AND 3D MODEL DESIGN
- PHOTOGRAPHY AND PHOTO MANIPULATION DESIGN
- ENGINEERING AND TECHNICAL DESIGN AWARD
- MEDICAL AND SCIENTIFIC DESIGN AWARD
- MOVIE AND ANIMATION DESIGN
- FOOD AND CULINARY DESIGN AWARD
- MATERIAL AND TEXTURE DESIGN
- SOCIAL DESIGN
- IDEA DESIGN
- ARTS, CRAFTS AND READY-MADE DESIGN AWARD
- META DESIGN
- UNEXPECTED DESIGN
Learn more here.
Mission
The mission of the A’ Award and Competition is to provide a fair, ethical and competitive platform for companies, designers and innovators from all fields with different experience levels, different disciplines and market focus to compete on, while providing them a global audience to showcase their success and talents to. The A’ Award and Competition aims to act as blender; to bring together designers, companies and the press.
Vision
Highlight, Advertise & Advocate good design, designers and design oriented companies. To channel the attention of press, interactive medias, design critics, distributers and buyers to the award winner.
Publicity
With its database of tens of thousands of press contacts, the competition aims to highlight existing products and designs which were developed with a good taste of design, our aim is to increase the publicity of good products and good designs, to provide designers and companies a solid excuse to shout-out that they have a good product, good design. A’Design Award is a great opportunity for designers to have a jump in their careers as the A’ Design Award offers winners extensive marketing services to make use of the success of winning the award. The winning designs are also presented for a year at the A’Award museum and gallery in Italy. Winners of the Award will have extensive press appearings and this is free; A’Design Competition does not ask any further money from the winners and aggressively pursues media opportunities for the winning designs for free.
Unique Aspects
The A’ Design Award and Competition offers an unique system for designers to sell their winning ideas to sponsor companies, likewise the companies can bid for the competing design ideas and make offers to buy the designs. The system also provides an online exhibition system and creates free profile pages for designers, innovators and companies, this system is always on and whether you win or not, you will have full access to the system. This is an interactive system where you can write your biography or corporate profile, create an extensive online portfolio by adding additional designs and exhibit new designs or products.
Results
The results are always published first to the designers, there will be a period given to both companies and the designers to get production rights and patents globally, a four month period to file for protection. Designers also receive help and support from the A ‘Design Award for filing and application to protect their designs. The winning designs will be exhibited in our Gallery and Museum in Italy. The winners can use the A’ Design Award can use badges and stickers free of charge to further underline that their products and designs have been evaluated by a respectful organization and that their products have been marked as great designs.
Organizer
The competitions are organized in association with the Salone del Designer, Association of Design, Museum of Design, OMC Design Studios, Design Faculty, Design PR Wire, Designer Press, Advanced Design Conference, ADF and Design League.
We invite all talents, designers, artists and architects to join and nominate their designs for A’ Design Award.
About A’ Design Award and Competitions
A’Design Award and Competitions, aims to highlight the excellent qualifications of best designs, design concepts and design oriented products. A’ Design Award and Competitions are organized and awarded annually and internationally in a wide range of categories, every month a particular competition is held.
