2018 SEGD Global Design Awards Categories Explained

  3. MahaNahkon is a new 77-story high-rise mixed-use complex located on a 3.6-acre site in the heart of Bangkok’s Central Business District.

  4. The entry to the Visitor Center. Scouts never get tired of the Scout Law. Really. Here it is etched into the glass facade with a brightly colored mural as a backdrop.

  10. The Etsy entryway has been hailed as a new, iconic landmark for what is now referred to as the Dumbo Heights neighborhood in Brooklyn.

  13. 3-D radicals were made by bending metal poles into different angles, shapes and sizes; they are scattered and overlapping randomly but elegantly, creating a surreal and dreamy atmosphere.

  14. A large-scale installation that spotlights Planned Parenthood’s dynamic history has been designed and installed at the organization’s new national headquarters in New York.

  15. The light frieze subtly enlivens the facade of the Kunstmuseum Basel with words and graphic elements.

  16. The Festival of Transitional Architecture (FESTA) in Christchurch was initiated in 2012 as a way to reimagine a city in flux, finding its feet after its devastating earthquake.

  18. The Presidential Center opened in Ekaterinburg and features a complex media façade.

  19. The client’s workplace design team, lead by Anthony Henry, saw the opportunity to make 1 Martin Place ‘the hidden gem’ that would become known as the office where their staff would want to be.

  20. To accompany the renovation and expansion of the Cooper Hewitt, a vibrant signage and environmental graphics program was developed for the museum’s exterior and interior.

The SEGD Global Design Awardsis the only international design awards program is focused on experiential graphic design and recognizes the world’s best examples of experiences designed to connect people to place.

The awards competition encompasses seven categories that represent key practice areas of experiential graphic design:

  • Digital Experience Content

  • Exhibition

  • Interactive Experience

  • Placemaking and Identity

  • Public Installation

  • Strategy/Research/Planning

  • Wayfinding


To help guide you through the submission process, here are the seven categories with examples of project types and past winners.

1. Digital Experience Content recognizes the important role that content plays in experience design. This category includes multi-media content that is part of overall user experiences in all types of environments, from retail shops to transportation hubs to public spaces.

Last year’s winners reinvented the cycloramato propose a concept for a truly bi-national city; created a permanent installation featuring 5,880 arcade buttonsinviting visitors to the public lobby of Google NY; and showcased dynamic digital installationsfor a new 77-story high-rise mixed-use complex.

Browse all Digital Experience Content award winners.

2. Exhibition encompasses the world of exhibit design in locations such as museums, visitor centers, corporate spaces and even schools. It addresses the graphic and media elements used to inform, interpret and educate people in these settings.

Winning Exhibition projects include the Scott Visitor Center at the Boy Scout Summit Reserve,which creates spaces with a reverence to the 100-year-history of Scouting with a contemporary flair; a permanent exhibition at La Cité du Vin,the world’s largest visitor center dedicated to the story of wine; and the highly-anticipated 85,000 square feet of inaugural exhibitions for the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of African American History and Culture,which tells a 400-year story of African American history and culture as central to America’s history.

Browse all Exhibition award winners.

3. Interactive Experience reflects the fact that user experiences are increasingly complex, media-rich and interactive.

These projects can include multi-media installations, like the Sylvia Harris Award-winning Who, Like Me, Is Threatened?;interactive museum exhibits, like DinoStompand the Segregated Lunch Counter and Panorama of the Civil Rights Movementat the National Museum of African American History and Culture; a visual storyline, like the Juliana Children’s Hospital;or the epic digital mediascape at LAX Airport’s Tom Bradley International Terminal.

Browse all Interactive Experience award winners.

4. Placemaking and Identity projects create experiences that connect people to place, providing a strong sense of “you are here” by differentiating a place or space from others. These projects can include design for workplace environments, like those of Etsy,Rabobank Sydney Headquartersand the Washington Post;large-scale installations at the Xintangwanke Mall International Cinemaand Planned Parenthood;and an integrated communication solution, like the one for the Best of Show-winning Kunstmuseum Basel Light Frieze.

Browse all Placemaking and Identity award winners.

5. Public Installation projects imbue spaces with meaning and content through art and design. At their best, they articulate and enhance the uniqueness of a specific place while expressing facets of the human condition.

Winning projects in this category have included a low-budget festival installationconstructed with salvaged materials; an interactive light installation,highlighting a university’s appreciation for its donors; and a complex media facade,honoring Russian President Boris Yeltsin.

Browse all Public Installation award winners.

6. Strategy/Research/Planning is important in grounding the field of experiential graphic design in user-centered and evidence-based research. Winning projects in this category have included books such as Richard Poulin’s history of graphics and architecture, as well as in-depth master plans and a wide range of research projects, from wayfinding for Texas Children’s Hospitalto branding and user experience guidelines for San Francisco International Airport.

Browse all Strategy/Research/Planning award winners.

7. Wayfinding is a core practice area of experiential graphic design and has evolved into a highly integrated, user-focused and increasingly technology-driven discipline with huge social and economic implications for cities, hospitals and other public spaces.

Winning wayfinding projects include workplace design for 1 Martin Place, a vibrant and contemporary signage and environmental graphics programfor Cooper Hewitt’s exterior and interior, and campus wayfinding solutions for the Seoul National University Arts Research Center.

Browse all Wayfinding award winners.

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Submit your entries into the 2018 SEGD Global Design Awards by March 2. Enter your project now.It’s easy!