Kicking off its sixth year, the Core77 Design Awards invites designers from all over the world to put their best work forward and participate in this annual celebration of design enterprise and intent. The program embraces a wide range of design practice: commercial, cultural, social and environmental. Each year, thousands of profes- sional and student designers submit their projects and ideas to be critiqued and honored by globally distributed panels of juries. The result is a collection of projects that inspire a broader discussion about the current state and future of design. 

Since its inception in 2011, the Core77 Design Awards program has welcomed nearly 10,000 entries from professionals and students in over 49 countries. More than 250 individual design firms have received honors, including IDEO, frog, Pentagram and fuseproject. Students from 149 universities and schools around the world submit hundreds of entries each year. Many projects honored by the program have gone on to achieve far-reaching commercial success, such as the Nest Learning Thermostat and Yaktrax Run. All honored projects are announced each year and promoted across the entire Core77, Inc., network, bringing them widespread recognition.

The Design Awards rely on the commitment and insight provided by an internationally distributed panel of Jury Teams to ensure a balanced and broadly informed judging process. Jury Captains for each category are invited by Core77 each year to independently assemble and lead their dedicated teams. They are tasked with building teams that will bring a wide spectrum of experience and perspective to the judging table, thus ensuring a unique point of view for each category. Once the teams review their category’s entries, deliberate and choose which projects to honor, they announce their decisions in a Jury Video that reveals a deeper look into their decision process. This level of transparency is rarely seen among award programs and provides a unique value to entrants seeking professional critique of their work.

Past Jury Captains have included Ayah Bdeir, John Thackara, Bruce Sterling and Matali Crasset. For the 2016 season, the 14 Jury Captains will bring on approximately 50 members in total. This year’s Jury Captain line up includes Joe Gebbia, Founder, Airbnb, Pradyumna Vyas, Director of the National Institute of Design in Ahmedabad, India, Alexis Lloyd, Creative Director, New York Times R&D Lab and Mackey Saturday, Principal Designer at Chermayeff & Geismar & Haviv.

The global design community has always been a primary stake holder in the mission and opera- tions of Core77. The Community Choice Prize was introduced in 2015 to directly incorporate the voice of the design community into the program. Once the Design Awards honorees are announced, the public is invited to vote on their favorite projects from all categories. The votes are tallied and a Community Choice Prize winner is crowned in each category. The honored project with the most public votes across all categories is named the Grand Prize winner and receives airfare and accommodations to attend the annual Core77 Conference in Los Angeles.

The 2016 Core77 Design Awards are currently open for entries. Regular entry prices end on March 8th and the Final Deadline to enter is April 6th. Judging takes place in May and the honorees will be announced in June. 

About the Core77 Design Awards

Recognizing excellence in all areas of design enterprise, the Core77 Design Awards celebrates the richness of the design profession and its practitioners. We present 14 categories of entry, providing designers and researchers a unique opportunity to communicate the intent, rigor and passion behind their efforts. From client work to self-initiated projects and entrepreneurial engagements, we embrace a wide diversity of enterprise: commercial, cultural, social, environmental and discursive.

Both the Professional and Student Winners of each category will receive the C77DA trophy, and all Honorees will be published in the Awards Gallery, across the Core77 online network. Be part of the most inclusive and celebratory design awards platform of the digital age. 

See the 2016 Entry Price Schedule

2015 Core77 Design Awards Winners 

Follow the Core77 Design Awards – @C77Awards