The second edition of the Next Gen Design Competition invites young designers and thinkers across Europe to engage with a world in flux—and to step in boldly to protect values they stand for and shape what will come next. If you are aged 18 to 35, born, studying, or living in Europe, this is your moment. Whether you’re an individual innovator or part of a collaborative team, you’re welcome to submit up to five entries showcasing your vision for a sustainable future. Winning this competition is an entry into a pan-European movement of change-makers. As a winner, your work and your voice will be amplified through The Next Gen Design Traveling Exhibition, The Next Gen Design Digital Showcase, The Next Gen Design Residency Program and The Next Gen Design Residency Awards, with a total prize fund of 2,000 EUR per festival.

Read more about Next Gen Design 2026: Futures Worth Living on Contest Watchers.

The premiere edition of the Next Gen Design Competition invites all creatives aged 18-35 across Europe to explore bold, regenerative, and inclusive design solutions. Under the theme “Redesign Tomorrow, Today,” this competition empowers the next generation to tackle the pressing challenges of our time with ingenuity and imagination. Submit your innovative ideas addressing sustainability themes like circular products, eco-friendly textiles, solutions to food waste, urban farming, and more. Up to 5 entries are welcome.

Read more about Next Gen Design: Redesign Tomorrow, Today on Contest Watchers.

Balkan Design Network has recently opened applications for the Young Balkan Designers 2015 competition, accepting submissions of projects that offer innovative, yet rational solutions to everyday problems. Anything from design concepts, products (furniture, lighting, interior elements, everyday objects, home accessories, stationary, aid products), to urban services, recycled materials and fashion garments is eligible for entry. Of all the submitted projects, 20-30 winning projects will be selected for inclusion in the “Young Balkan Designers” touring exhibition, which will start in Belgrade in June, 2015 and continue in Zagreb, Plovdiv, Skopje, Vienna, Istanbul and Cologne through to January, 2016.

Read more about Young Balkan Designers (YBD) 2015 Competition – Common Grounds on Contest Watchers.

Croatian Designers Society, Mikser and Public Room are inviting young Industrial designers from thirteen (13) Balkan countries to enter their best conceptual and completed industrial design work in the Young Balkan Designers 2014 Competition. Ten (10) best projects will be selected to participate in the Young Balkan Designers exhibition (touring all major regional design events and fairs in 2014) and three (3) best designers among the exhibition participants will be invited to attend a series of residency workshops and practical trainings around the region (Zagreb, Belgrade, Skopje). The Young Balkan Designers slogan for 2014: “Everyday Heroes” emphasizes the power of simple, incremental changes in social behavior that designers can contribute to their community, collaborating with the locals, visioning and solving local problems and needs related to the economic crisis, limited resources, and the necessity for people to search for alternatives to inefficient public services.

Read more about Young Balkan Designers 2014 Competition on Contest Watchers.