Design Week Awards 2019 entry deadline extended

We’re extending the Design Week Awards entry deadline by two weeks, meaning that the final deadline is 29 March.

Many of you told us that you needed a bit more time to get your entries together so we’re happy to give you that.

Meanwhile, we’re thrilled to announce our biggest ever line-up of independent judges. We’ve found 28 design experts who are specialists in each of the categories we cover.

Judges

This year’s judges include Jack Renwick Studio founder Jack Renwick, Priestmangoode associate director Son Tran, Ustwo design director Helen Fuchs, Afroditi Studios founder Afroditi Krassa and Guardian digital design director Ben Longden. We’ll be revealing the full shortlist very shortly.

Find out more about the new look, new format Design Week Awards and how to enter them here. This year, we’ve given you more chances to win by adding new categories while rethinking old ones.

Design Week Awards has been celebrating excellence in design across the gamut of the industry since 1990. That means branding, graphics, exhibition, product, packaging, furniture, interiors, digital, retail and many other sectors.

New categories

Design Week readers and former judges have helped us reshape things and we’re excited to announce the following changes.

Within the Communication section, we’ve made a distinction in the Identity category between identity launches and identity rebrands, splitting them into two separate categories.

Similarly it was important to recognise the merits of two-dimensional (2D) and three-dimensional (3D) packaging design, so these have been given distinct categories.

Communication also sees the introduction of some brand new categories.

One of these is Brand Strategy. We want to spotlight the work that underpins the positioning of a new brand, or repositioning of an existing one. Our judges will be looking to award projects with a strong sense of purpose, meaning or direction and those which can provide evidence to this effect.

We’re also singularly celebrating the work of illustrators who have contributed to branding projects, with the new Illustrating for Branding category. Skill, execution, ability to respond to a brief and capture the mood of a brand will be under scrutiny.

The former Hospitality and Workplace Interiors category has now been split into two separate categories so that similar projects can compete on a level playing field.

Our digital categories already cover everything from website design to digital installations, augmented and virtual reality (AR and VR), and more.

As usual, we’ll be poring over the best consumer products, industrial products and furniture design.

Then we have our Landmark Awards — old favourites like Hall of Fame and Rising Star are still there, as well as the newer Social Design, which has seen some really strong examples of design for social purpose and good in recent years.

Look out for Best In-House Design team in this section, too. This award recognises the work achieved by an in-house design team over the course of a year. Judges will be looking for a team which has developed its brand or product in a way that is truly beneficial for customers.

A more accessible ceremony which better showcases work

That’s not all, though; when it comes to the awards ceremony in June, we’ve got an exciting new format which will showcase work for the duration of the event.

Trophies and presentations will be very much part of the evening but there will be more in the way of meeting, mingling and networking. More importantly you’ll be able to see winning work for the duration of the event rather than for a few seconds during the awards presentation.

This year’s awards event will see the sit-down meal replaced with a more informal drinks and canapé party, meaning that we can guarantee cheaper entry so that it’s easier for you to share the experience with your colleagues and clients.

We’ll be amplifying winning work beyond the event with profiles on the designers behind it later in the year, as well as including all winners in our book of the night and publishing a full showcase of winners on Design Week. We’ll also be looking to extend the reach of your winning work through our sister titles Marketing Week and Creative Review.

Find out how to enter here.