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.Eye Magazine 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.Pool, #21 March 2012, , p. 3
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)Slanted: European Design Awards 2024
Categories
There are 47 award categories, in nine groups,Categories 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:List of European Design Agencies of the year 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, NorwayKind kåret til årets byrå i European Design Awards 2020 ANTI, NorwayThe Top 3 Winners of the European Design Awards 2020 2021 WePlayDesign, SwitzerlandLe duo de WePlayDesign qui remporte prix sur prix! 2022 Verve, the NetherlandsPartner in the Spotlight: International ambitions - with Verve 2023 Studio Dumbar, the NetherlandsEuropean Design Awards and Festival 2023 in Luxembourg 2024 Studio Airport, the Netherlands 2025 Clever°Franke, the NetherlandsRecap European Design Festival 2026 Dizain, the Netherlands
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: Athens, Greece (2007) Stockholm, Sweden (2008) Zurich, Switzerland (2009) Rotterdam, the Netherlands (2010) Vilnius, Lithuania (2011) Helsinki, Finland (2012) Belgrade, Serbia (2013) Cologne, Germany (2014) Istanbul, Turkey (2015) Vienna, Austria (2016) Porto, Portugal (2017)European Design Awards serão entregues no Porto em maio e as candidaturas já estão abertas Oslo, Norway (2018) Warsaw, Poland (2019)Domus: European Design Festival: Warsaw is the capital of graphic design 2019 The 2020València será sede de los European Design Awards en 2020 and 2021 Los European Design Awards cancelan su edición de 2020 pero prometen a València ser sede en 2021 events that were scheduled to take place in Valencia, Spain had to be cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemicLos European Design Awards 2020 se suspenden… pero todavía hay esperanza Tallinn, Estonia (2022)European Design Festival 2022 Tallinn programme and tickets now available! Luxembourg city, Luxembourg (2023)Luxembourg to host European Design Festival 2023 Naples, Italy (2024)European Design Festival 2024 in Naples from 30 May to 2 June Ljubljana, Slovenia (2025)European Design Festival 2025 in Ljubljana from 5 to 8 June Sofia, Bulgaria (2026)Recap: European Design Festival 2026
Related links German Design Award Red Dot Communication Arts
References
External links Official European Design Awards site 2013 Winners