Designers Australia Awards 2024

Winners announced

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About Designers Australia Awards

The Designers Australia Awards, a first for the industry, identify Australia's preeminent designers and studios, calling attention to the individual/s and their design processes as much as the outcome.

The Design Institute of Australia (DIA) believes that designers and their contributions shape everything around us and that this 'contribution' is most effective when design is accurately investigated. The awards promote ideas, creativity, diversity, and processes and reinforce design's social, cultural, economic and environmental impact.

The Designers Australia Awards are generously supported by Cullen Jewellery, Brickworks, Colorbond and Vetassess.

The entry process in 2024 is via Nomination or Self-Nomination, and accepted via three categories—Place, Use, Interact.

Backed by the DIA, the awards differ in their categories and criteria from other awards. Reflecting a trend toward multi-disciplinary approaches and problem-solving, the awards recognise the most nuanced design thinking applied across the categories Place, Use, Interact, and dissolve the traditional silos.

The categories replace conventional design groups such as industrial, interior, graphic, digital, product, environmental, textile, fashion, and architecture. All designers are welcome to enter.

Entry Requirements can be downloaded from here.

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Key Information

• ELIGIBILITY

Entry is open to designers aged 18 years and over who are current members of the Design Institute of Australia.

JOIN HERE →

Projects completed between 1 January 2023 – 30 June 2024 are eligible to be provided as evidence in your application.

Entrants must be Australian citizens or permanent residents.

Incomplete, speculative, experimental and unbuilt works are most welcome to enter.

    • ENTRY CRITERIA
  
Evidence and material submitted may demonstrate a commitment and an exceptional contribution to one or more of the following:

■ PLACE - spaces we live, work, play. 

e.g Architecture, Interiors, Placemaking, Landscape, Wayfinding, Environmental Design 

May address ethical design and sourcing, wellbeing, designing for diversity, regenerative design, energy conservation, corporate social responsibility

• USE - things we use.

e.g Industrial Design, Product Design (Furniture and Lighting Design, Homewares, Home Appliance, Fashion and Textile Design, Jewelry and Metalsmithing, Digital and Electronics) 

May address ethical design and sourcing, circular economy and product stewardship, regenerative design, automation, advanced materials, additive manufacturing

▴ INTERACT - what or who we interact with.

e.g Graphic Design, Exhibition Design, Digital Media, Visual Communications, Digital Experience, Game Design

May address ethical design, i.e avoidance of dark patterns, accessibility to all, integration of AI, cross-platform experience, application of Internet of Things (IOT).

    • JUDGING
  
The jury is comprised of design professionals and experts who have been selected to represent the wide range of design disciplines acknowledged in the Designers Australia Awards program. 

A Jury Chair is appointed by the DIA to oversee each judging session, as is a moderator. Both representatives will be members of the DIA. 

Judging takes place over two rounds, Shortlisting and Judging.

 Shortlisting  

The five DIA state committee representatives from the jury shortlist the entry pool.  The shortlisting process considers the eligibility of the entry based on the details in the application form and if evidence meets the overall criteria.

    Judging 

Working as one panel, the jury members judge all shortlisted entries against the criteria in each category. This round will determine the commendations and winners at both the state and national level.

All decisions made by the jury are final and binding in the Designers Australia Awards program.

• ENTRY FEES

• Entry $299 + GST

* Ineligible submissions will be refunded, minus an administration fee of $75

** Requests to withdraw an entry can be made by contacting admin@design.org.au up until close of entries date (5 August 2024), entries cannot be withdrawn after this date. The entry fee will be refunded minus an administration charge of $75.

• ENTRY REQUIREMENTS

• Before submitting an entry please read the TERMS & CONDITIONS →

• Register and pay.

• A tax invoice will be generated upon completion of entry.

• We recommend that you collate the entry information and pre-prepare your answers in a document before cutting and pasting your answers into the online entry form.

Download Entry Requirements →

Enter Now →

   • JUDGING CRITERIA
  
The Designers Australia Awards focuses not just on the resolved design outcome, but on the process a designer employs in order to achieve a quality design.  

Entries will be considered against the following criteria.

1)	Designer’s Profile

2)	Work synopsis

3)	Overarching criteria

4)	Category specific criteria

 Overarching Criteria

CONCEPT  

How did you add value to the brief? 

 DESIGN PROCESS  

How did your design process improve or change the expected outcome?

    REALISATION

How did the realisation consider authenticity, diversity, equality, inclusivity, community and the environment?

Category Specific Criteria 

Evidence and material submitted may demonstrate a commitment and an exceptional contribution to one or more of the following:

■  PLACE  

Ethical design and sourcing, wellbeing, designing for diversity, regenerative design, energy conservation, corporate social responsibility etc… 

●   USE 
 
Ethical design and sourcing, circular economy and product stewardship, regenerative design, automation, advanced materials, additive manufacturing etc…
 
    ▴ INTERACT 

Ethical design, service design evolution, ecosystems thinking, avoidance of dark patterns, accessibility to all, integration of AI, cross-platform experience, application of IoT etc...