Lessons from judging industry awards
Design awards recognize and celebrate excellence across a wide range of disciplines—including graphic design, product design, digital experiences, architecture, advertising, and more.
Their primary goal is to highlight outstanding creativity, innovation, craftsmanship, and problem-solving.
Over the years at Great Apes we’ve had the honour to be a part of various juries in both local and international design awards.
Here we aim to give you a little glimpse behind the scenes of judging, different type of awards, the things we’ve learned and how judging has affected on how we approach our work.
Our niche
As a tech-oriented design studio we mostly get invited to judge digital-first work, but we’ve seen the growth of digital elements increasingly influencing traditional categories extending from branding to even packaging design through XR solutions.
Local awards
Nordic design awards focus on regional talent and often prioritize local cultural, economic, and industry-specific contexts. However, they also frequently include work intended for a global audience.
The challenge in judging local design awards lies in maintaining objectivity. You’re likely familiar with the work, you certainly know the market, and you may even be evaluating submissions from direct competitors. This introduces a range of grey areas and potential conflicts of interest that must be carefully navigated.
One of the most eye-opening aspects is gaining insight into the processes and thinking of your peers. You’ll often find yourself reflecting on how you would have approached a particular project—sometimes even a project you pitched for but didn’t win.
Despite the local context, the judging criteria is similar to international awards: idea, innovation, craft, and results are the key pillars of evaluation.
In addition to getting a clear snapshot of the current state of the industry, perhaps the greatest benefit of judging local competitions is the shift in perspective—it allows you to see the work through the eyes of your potential clients.
International awards
International design awards, such as D&AD, One Show, European Design Awards, Red Dot Design Awards, Webby Awards and other leading awards present a different challenge for jury members.
There is obviously more work to be judged from all corners of the globe resulting into a longlist done during a prejudging phase. Prejudging is done prior to the actual judging event and therefore fully subjective to to a single judge’s views.
A longlist is formed solo through a simple yes/no division of all the entries submitted - by all the members of the jury. At the actual judging event begins the forming of the shortlist - this is done with discussions involving the entire jury. From there, entries advance through additional judging rounds to determine the different award levels.
While the overall process resembles that of local competitions—often involving hours of debate—the jury dynamic differs greatly. International juries are deliberately diverse to reflect the global nature of the entries.
Unlike in local competitions, budgets and results don’t carry as much weight. This is mainly because many entries are from some of the most known brands in the world with somewhat unlimited resources. Instead, the focus tends to be on innovation (the strength of the idea) and craft (the quality of execution). There is also greater attention paid to global design and technology trends.
By far the most important thing you learn from judging international awards is to recognize design that has universal appeal. You also gain insight into the current state of design worldwide—and often, a glimpse into where it’s heading next.
Daily awards
Some design awards—such as Awwwards, FWA and many others—are given out on a daily basis. Judging for these competitions is fast-paced and primarily focused on craft and execution.
These awards use a scoring system, and judges work independently without collaboration or discussion. As a result, the process is highly subjective. Judging occurs on a rolling basis, and you can review and score entries any day of the week.
Serving as a judge for daily awards provides real-time exposure to highly experimental and cutting-edge work—often from smaller studios or individuals. Much of this work might not appear in major, high-entry-fee international competitions, making it a unique window into grassroots and emerging design trends.
By far the most important thing you learn from judging international awards is to recognize design that has universal appeal.
In conclusion
No matter if you work at an agency or on the client-side if offered a jury position it is almost always beneficial to take up on it.
Not only does it offer valuable insight into where the industry is heading, but it also teaches you how to submit work more effectively, reveals the processes behind award-winning projects, and underscores just how subjective design truly is.
