German Design Awards 2021

Design, branding and innovation are the most important factors in the success of entrepreneurial strategy, especially in times of change and crisis like the present. Receiving a renowned award is an efficient opportunity to draw attention to the recipient’s work with precise, positive messages. The German Design Awards—the international premium prize of the German Design Council—are entering the call-for-entries stage and offering winners the best-possible opportunity for publicity. They are proof of innovation capability and design expertise and demonstrate that the winners are well positioned and able to differentiate themselves through outstanding design.

Businesses, designers, architects and agencies internationally can register now for the German Design Awards 2021. After a review by the German Design Council, entrants will find out if their project has been accepted for the competition and is receiving a nomination; the nomination process here is what ensures the excellence of the awards. The registration deadline is July 10th, 2020. The German Design Awards honour exclusively projects that are pioneering in the German and international design landscape. This is overseen by an international jury made up of leading figures from all disciplines of design. The winners of the awards gain visibility for their success and achieve access to networks, reach, an international presence and even better market opportunities. The awards ceremony on February 19th, 2021, part of the Ambiente trade fair, will be one of the year’s biggest design events where international guests from various different industries will meet and converse.

Award disciplines and categories
Honours will be given to the best work in the award disciplines Excellent Product Design, Excellent Communications Design and Excellent Architecture. Participants will register for the categories relevant to them. Additionally there will be an extra category for Universal Design, honouring projects that excel through barrier-free use, flexible application and intuitive operation.

New category: Start-Up—innovative, forward-looking projects with growth potential.
For the first time, start-ups and their projects will be judged and awarded in their own category based on the aspects of innovation, growth and scalability. Winners will receive the label German Design Award—Start-Up 2021 as well as other benefits to support them with their public relations, networking and client acquisition. Participation is open to start-ups that are younger than four years old. The entrants’ date of formation must have been in February 2017 or after. The competition The German Design Awards are the German Design Council’s premium international prizes and are one of the world’s most renowned design competitions. With roughly 5,300 entries from 69 countries, the German Design Awards 2020 again recorded pleasing growth of their international renown.

German Design Council—the award giver
The German Design Council is one of the world’s leading centres of expertise in communication and knowledge transfer within design, innovation and branding. More than 320 businesses are currently members of its Foundation. The German Design Council was founded in 1953 as an initiative of Germany’s federal parliament to strengthen the German economy’s competence in design. Its many and varied activities all have the one aim: communicating a lasting improvement of brand value through the strategic use of design.

German Design Awards 2021

Registration at early-bird price: until 29 May 2020
Deadline for grant applications: 10 July 2020
Registration deadline: July 10th,  2020
Jury meeting: July 30th and 31st, 2020
Awards ceremony: February 19th, 2021 in Frankfurt am Main as part of the Ambiente 2021 trade fair
Register now!