European Design Awards
| European Design Awards | |
|---|---|
| Native name | ED-Awards |
| Description | Celebrating outstanding work in communication design |
| Country | Europe (Host city varies) |
| Presented by | Joint initiative of European design magazines |
The European Design Awards, also known as the ED-Awards, are annual awards presented to European designers for outstanding work in the communication design field. The ED-Awards is a joint initiative of design magazines from across Europe and endorsed by the International Council of Design. The ED-Awards are judged by a panel of representatives (journalists and design critics) from fifteen European design magazines, while the winning submissions are featured in the ED-Awards Catalogue.
Model
The ED-Awards is different from other design awards schemes in that the jury is not made up of designers, but of design journalists and critics – people who see and judge work for a living.[1] Furthermore, since the ED-Awards organisation is made up of design magazines, it provides an opportunity for everyone submitting work, to have it featured in a number of these media. A lot of stories and articles are created through the submitted work every year.[2]
Jury
Originally, the ED-Awards jury was composed exclusively of journalists from leading graphic design magazines across Europe, including Germany's Novum (Zeitschrift), UK's Eye, and France's étapes:, among others. However, in recent years, the ED-Awards has broadened its jury composition to incorporate a more diverse range of expertise within the communication design field. This evolution reflects a strategic decision to include not only journalists but also critics, curators, academics, and content creators (always linked with the realm of communication design)[3]
Categories
There are 47 award categories, in nine groups,[4] covering branding, packaging, exhibition design, typography, digital design, illustration and self-promotion, among others. There are also three special distinctions: Agency of the year, Best of show and Jury prize.
European Design Agency of the year
The top accolade in the ED-Awards is every time, the distinction bestowed upon the most (creatively) successful studio of the continent. This title has so far been awarded to:[5]
- 2008 Beetroot Design Group, Greece
- 2010 Lava Design, the Netherlands
- 2011 Les Graphiquants, France
- 2012 Silo, the Netherlands
- 2013 Jaeger & Jaeger, Germany
- 2014 R2, Portugal
- 2015 Ermolaev Bureau, Russia
- 2016 Raffinerie AG für Gestaltung, Switzerland
- 2017 Silo, the Netherlands
- 2018 Vruchtvlees, the Netherlands
- 2019 Kind, Norway[6]
- 2020 ANTI, Norway[7]
- 2021 WePlayDesign, Switzerland[8]
- 2022 Verve, the Netherlands[9]
- 2023 Studio Dumbar, the Netherlands[10]
- 2024 Studio Airport, the Netherlands
- 2025 Clever°Franke, the Netherlands[11]
- 2026 Dizain, the Netherlands[12]
Host cities
Each year’s results are announced during the European Design Awards Ceremony, which takes place as part of the European Design Festival hosted in a different European city each year. So far, the Festival and Awards Ceremony have been hosted by:
- Greece Athens, Greece (2007)
- Sweden Stockholm, Sweden (2008)
- Switzerland Zurich, Switzerland (2009)
- Netherlands Rotterdam, the Netherlands (2010)
- Lithuania Vilnius, Lithuania (2011)
- Finland Helsinki, Finland (2012)
- Serbia Belgrade, Serbia (2013)
- Germany Cologne, Germany (2014)
- Turkey Istanbul, Turkey (2015)
- Austria Vienna, Austria (2016)
- Portugal Porto, Portugal (2017)[13]
- Norway Oslo, Norway (2018)[14]
- Poland Warsaw, Poland (2019)[15]
- The 2020[16] and 2021 [17] events that were scheduled to take place in Valencia, Spain had to be cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic[18]
- Estonia Tallinn, Estonia (2022) [19]
- Luxembourg Luxembourg city, Luxembourg (2023) [20]
- Italy Naples, Italy (2024) [21]
- Slovenia Ljubljana, Slovenia (2025) [22]
- Bulgaria Sofia, Bulgaria (2026) [23]
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Related links
References
- ↑ Eye Magazine
- ↑ Pool, #21 March 2012, ISSN 0976-1659, p. 3
- ↑ Slanted: European Design Awards 2024
- ↑ Categories Archived December 30, 2013, at the Wayback Machine
- ↑ List of European Design Agencies of the year
- ↑ Kind kåret til årets byrå i European Design Awards
- ↑ The Top 3 Winners of the European Design Awards 2020
- ↑ Le duo de WePlayDesign qui remporte prix sur prix!
- ↑ Partner in the Spotlight: International ambitions - with Verve
- ↑ European Design Awards and Festival 2023 in Luxembourg
- ↑ Recap European Design Festival
- ↑ "Groningse Dizain uitgeroepen tot beste designbureau van Europa". Groninger Ondernemers Courant (in Nederlands). 2026-06-18. Retrieved 2026-06-22.
- ↑ European Design Awards serão entregues no Porto em maio e as candidaturas já estão abertas
- ↑ "Oslo and grafill chosen to host 2018 european design awards". Archived from the original on 2017-02-13. Retrieved 2017-02-12.
- ↑ Domus: European Design Festival: Warsaw is the capital of graphic design 2019
- ↑ València será sede de los European Design Awards en 2020
- ↑ Los European Design Awards cancelan su edición de 2020 pero prometen a València ser sede en 2021
- ↑ Los European Design Awards 2020 se suspenden… pero todavía hay esperanza
- ↑ European Design Festival 2022 Tallinn programme and tickets now available!
- ↑ Luxembourg to host European Design Festival 2023
- ↑ European Design Festival 2024 in Naples from 30 May to 2 June
- ↑ European Design Festival 2025 in Ljubljana from 5 to 8 June
- ↑ Recap: European Design Festival 2026