The 2018 SEGD Global Design Awards, the only international awards program focused on user experiences in the built environment, opens for entries today. The SEGD Global Design Awards have set the standard of excellence for environmental graphic design and experiential graphic design for over thirty years—honoring design work that connects people to place by providing direction, content and compelling experiences in public spaces—since 1987.
A multidisciplinary international jury, composed of nine highly esteemed design practitioners, will evaluate all SEGD Global Design Award submissions using a unique and rigorous process. Among the vital criteria used to assess projects are connecting people to place, creating a memorable user experience and solving the objective or design challenge.
The seven entry categories reflect the core practice areas of experiential graphic design: Digital Experience Content, Exhibition, Interactive Experience, Placemaking and Identity, Public Installation, Strategy/Research/Planning and Wayfinding. Honor and Merit design award winners will be chosen from submissions in each category. A Sylvia Harris Award winner will be selected from all submissions for a project that exemplifies design for the public and societal good in honor of the legacy of Sylvia Harris, founder of Citizen Research & Design; and a Best of Show Award will be chosen from among the Honor awards.
The 2016 SEGD Global Design Awards Best of Show was an exhibition on information design in Latvia called INFORMATION. In 2017, the Best of Show award went to an impressive and dynamic light-based media installation at the Kunstmuseum Basel entitled “Light Frieze.”
The 2016 and 2017 winners of the Sylvia Harris Award were the Canadian Museum for Human Rights exhibitions and “Who, Like Me, is Threatened?”—an interactive installation at the Center for Civil and Human Rights in Atlanta—respectively.
Former winning projects have spanned from architectural signage and multifaceted wayfinding systems to design research initiatives, branded environments, retail and interior design, media-rich interactive museum exhibitions, and sustainable public art projects. Winning projects in each of the seven categories dating back to 1998 are available to view in the SEGD Global Design Awards archive gallery.
“The breadth and strength of the experiential graphic design field in creating meaningful memorable experiences that connect people to place is reflected in the exceptional projects that receive SEGD Global Design Awards,” says Clive Roux, CEO of SEGD. “Participating in the awards is unequivocally a powerful way to promote and further our field.”
With dramatic increases in visits to the awards gallery, winning is an effective opportunity for individual designers, firms and fabricators to promote their best work and raise their public profile. In the last year, the awards gallery received more than 70,000 unique visitors and 280,000 page views—over 10 percent of which were attributed to clients.
The deadline for submissions is January 31, 2018, via SEGD’s online design awards entry system. Submissions will be accepted with late fees through February 14, 2018. Submission guidelines are available for download on the 2018 SEGD Global Design Awards entry page.
Winners will be honored during the 2018 SEGD Conference, June 7‑9 in Minneapolis, and announced on SEGD.org, in SEGD’s annual design awards print publication and via other media outlets.
3M is the Presenting Sponsor of the 2018 SEGD Global Design Awards.
