European Design Awards

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. 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.

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)

Categories

There are 47 award categories, in nine groups, 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:

• 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
• 2020 ANTI, Norway
• 2021 WePlayDesign, Switzerland
• 2022 Verve, the Netherlands
• 2023 Studio Dumbar, the Netherlands
• 2024 Studio Airport, the Netherlands
• 2025 Clever°Franke, the Netherlands

Host cities

Each year's results are announced during a ceremony which is hosted in a different European city. So far, the European Design Awards ceremonies (and accompanying events) have been hosted by:

• GRE Athens, Greece (2007)
• SWE Stockholm, Sweden (2008)
• SUI Zurich, Switzerland (2009)
• NED Rotterdam, the Netherlands (2010)
• LTU Vilnius, Lithuania (2011)
• FIN Helsinki, Finland (2012)
• SRB Belgrade, Serbia (2013)
• GER Cologne, Germany (2014)
• TUR Istanbul, Turkey (2015)
• AUT Vienna, Austria (2016)
• POR Porto, Portugal (2017)
• NOR Oslo, Norway (2018)
• POL Warsaw, Poland (2019)
• The 2020 and 2021 events that were scheduled to take place in Valencia, Spain had to be cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic
• EST Tallinn, Estonia (2022)
• LUX Luxembourg city, Luxembourg (2023)
• ITA Naples, Italy (2024)
• SLO Ljubljana, Slovenia (2025)

Related links

• German Design Award
• Red Dot
• Communication Arts

References

References

1. [http://www.eyemagazine.com/blog/post/european-design-still-exploring Eye Magazine]
2. Pool, #21 March 2012, {{ISSN. 0976-1659, p. 3
3. [https://www.slanted.de/european-design-awards-2024/#:~:text=Consisting%20of%20editors%2C%20academics%2C%20and,perspective%20to%20the%20evaluation%20process.y Slanted: European Design Awards 2024]
4. [http://designcollector.net/european-design-awards-2013-call-for-entries/ Categories] {{webarchive. link. (December 30, 2013)
5. [http://europeandesign.org/ed-awards/winners/?award-type=agency-of-the-year-award List of European Design Agencies of the year]
6. [https://www.nettavisen.no/økonomi/kind-karet-til-arets-byra-i-european-design-awards/3423695954.html Kind kåret til årets byrå i European Design Awards]
7. [https://www.printmag.com/design-news/the-top-3-winners-of-the-european-design-awards-2020/ The Top 3 Winners of the European Design Awards 2020]
8. [https://cominmag.ch/cl-227-le-duo-de-weplaydesign-qui-remporte-prix-sur-prix/ Le duo de WePlayDesign qui remporte prix sur prix!]
9. [https://dutchdigital.design/articles/partner-in-the-spotlight-verve Partner in the Spotlight: International ambitions - with Verve]
10. [https://www.slanted.de/european-design-awards-and-festival-2023-in-luxembourg European Design Awards and Festival 2023 in Luxembourg]
11. [https://www.bno.nl/blog/artikelen-10/recap-european-design-festival-2593 Recap European Design Festival]
12. [http://www.porto.pt/noticias/european-design-awards-serao-entregues-no-porto-em-maio-as-candidaturas-ja-se-encontram-abertas European Design Awards serão entregues no Porto em maio e as candidaturas já estão abertas]
13. "Oslo and grafill chosen to host 2018 european design awards".
14. [https://www.domusweb.it/en/design/gallery/2019/05/24/european-design-festival-warsaw-is-the-capital-of-graphic-design-2019.html Domus: European Design Festival: Warsaw is the capital of graphic design 2019]
15. [https://valenciaplaza.com/valencia-sera-sede-de-los-european-design-awards-en-2020 València será sede de los European Design Awards en 2020]
16. [https://valenciaplaza.com/los-european-design-awards-cancelan-su-edicion-de-2020-pero-prometen-a-valencia-ser-sede-en-2021 Los European Design Awards cancelan su edición de 2020 pero prometen a València ser sede en 2021]
17. [https://graffica.info/los-european-design-awards-2020-se-suspenden/ Los European Design Awards 2020 se suspenden… pero todavía hay esperanza]
18. [https://www.beda.org/news/european-design-festival-2022-tallinn-programme-and-tickets-now-available/ European Design Festival 2022 Tallinn programme and tickets now available!]
19. [https://delano.lu/article/luxembourg-to-host-european-de Luxembourg to host European Design Festival 2023]
20. [https://aiap.it/en/european-design-festival-2024/ European Design Festival 2024 in Naples from 30 May to 2 June]
21. [https://www.media-marketing.com/en/news/in-seven-days-the-european-design-festival-begins-in-ljubljana/ European Design Festival 2025 in Ljubljana from 5 to 8 June]