AIGA’s suite of competitions is widely recognized as the most discerning statement on design excellence today, extending a legacy that began more than 90 years ago. By means of the competitions, AIGA creates an authoritative chronicle of outstanding design solutions, each demonstrating the process of designing, the role of the designer and the value of design.
The selections in AIGA’s annual competition represent the best work across all disciplines of communication design and strategy, as chosen by a distinguished jury of design peers.
Objective
Submit your work that has been designed, produced and used in the marketplace between January 1 and 31 December 2009.
Each entry must fit one of the categories listed below. (If you’re unsure, select the category that most closely describes the purpose of your entry.)
- Branding
- Entertaining
- Experimenting
- Informing
- Packaging
- Promoting
Prizes
Winning entries become part of the AIGA Design Archives, a searchable visual database of exemplary design, they are exhibited at the AIGA National Design Center in New York and offered as a traveling exhibition for display across the country.
Rules
- Work in all media that has been designed, produced and used in the marketplace between January 1 and December 31 of the previous year is eligible.
- School projects are not eligible.
- Following AIGA’s membership in Icograda (International Council of Graphic Design Associations) and in keeping with a deepening commitment to demonstrating the importance of diversity, entries from all countries will be eligible for AIGA competitions for the first time in AIGA’s history. In order for the jury to understand the content and context, entries that are in languages other than English must include a brief English translation.
- Submit only actual work; no photographs accepted.
- We regret that entries and disks cannot be returned.
- Posters must always be submitted as the actual piece, even if oversized.
- Magazine and newspaper designs, print advertisements and editorials should be submitted as complete unmounted tear sheets. If you are submitting a complete issue, you do not need to separate it into tear sheets.
- Logos must be printed in color on a letter-size sheet and mounted on one-ply board; please note the purpose on the lower-right corner (e.g., “for bakery,” “for record label”).
- Packaging (including music CDs) must always be submitted as actual pieces, even if oversized.
- Signage and environments must be submitted as QuickTime video on CD or DVD, especially if the project involves moving or electronic components. Do not send photographs, slides or transparencies.
- Stationery systems can include one each of unmounted letterhead, business card and envelope (the complete system counts as one entry).
- Television broadcast graphics, film and video graphics, and animations will be accepted in QuickTime video on CD or DVD. You can include several individual entries on one disk, as long as they are to be judged in the same category.
- All disks must be labeled with entrant’s name and telephone number.
- Please do not include your company name in the actual entry.
- Interactive media entries (computer graphics, games, interfaces, etc.) need to be submitted as a URL if the entry can be viewed on a browser; otherwise must be submitted on DVD or CD. Please send a color printout of four different screens from the project together with the disk and a list of technical requirements for proper viewing.
- Website entries must include full address of the site on the entry form, as well as a color printout of four different screens from the project. If the site will not be live by the time of the judging, please send a complete working version on DVD or CD. If the jurors will need a username and password to access the submission, you must include this information as a PDF or Word file in the same disk.
How to enter?
- Select a channel according to what your entry actually is – a brochure, a logo, a website, etc.
- Select a medium.
- Select a category.
- Upload a JPEG of your entry.
- Submit payment and print forms.
- Send actual work and forms to AIGA.
Entry fee
- One to four individual entries
- AIGA members: $35 per entry
- Nonmembers: $55 per entry
- Five or more individual entries
- AIGA members: $30 per entry
- Nonmembers: $50 per entry
- Series entries (up to five pieces for the same client and project, which collectively comprise one entry in any one category)
- AIGA members: $50 per entry
- Nonmembers: $70 per entry
- Late fees (per entry; add to regular fees after March 7)
- AIGA members: $25 per entry
- Nonmembers: $25 per entry
There is a production fee of $40 for members, $60 for nonmembers, per selected entry, payable after notification of selection. This fee offsets part of AIGA’s production costs for inclusion of your work in the AIGA Design Archives.
