Dive into the Updated Categories for the SEGD Global Design Awards

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Getting ready to submit your project to the 2023 SEGD Global Design Awards? Check out the latest updates to the awards categories! This includes new categories and updated descriptions for existing categories.

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

  • Branded Environments (new this year)
  • Digital Experiences
  • Exhibition
  • Placemaking 
  • Public Installation
  • Strategy/Research/Planning
  • Wayfinding
     

Branded Environments

This is a NEW design award category in 2023. Spaces designed to extend the experience of an organization’s brand, or distinguishing characteristics as expressed in graphic elements. These projects use space as a physical embodiment of the brand to engage, connect or celebrate an entities’ unique qualities and aspirations. Projects may employ an existing brand or develop a new brand specific to the project. 
 

Digital Experiences

This category includes technology-driven experiences that augment and enhance a visitor’s connection to place through media. Projects may include immersive experiences (sound and/or visual), interpretive film installations, AR / VR experiences, and interactives across all environments from retail, cultural institutions, entertainment venues, transportation hubs, and public spaces.

Past project winners include, The Story of the Moving Image, Hyde Park Barracks – Legacy, and Currents: Niagara’s Power Transformed. To view more Digital Experiences award winners click here.
 

Exhibition 

Displays that orchestrate graphic, object or media elements to inform, interpret and educate visitors. Examples include museums, visitor centers, corporate headquarters, destination experiences, recruiting centers, sports facilities and pops up. A complete facility, gallery or interactive experience within a facility may be submitted in this category.

Information to include in your project description:

2,500 – 5,000 sf

> 5,000 sf

Past project winners include, Greenwood Rising: The Black Wall Street History Center, Planet Word Museum of Language, and Native New York. To view more Exhibition award winners click here.
 

Placemaking

Projects that contribute to the creation of shared spaces and strengthen connections between people and place through graphic, text or media elements. These projects provide a strong sense of “you are here” by differentiating a place or space from others that is not necessarily tied to a brand or brand story. Placemaking capitalizes on a community’s assets, inspiration,  and potential, with the intention of creating spaces that promote people’s well-being, happiness, and shared values. Examples include parks, plazas, streetscapes, community centers, workplace, healthcare, hospitality, and entertainment.

Information to include in your project description:

> Exterior

Past project winners include, Logan Memorial Educational Campus, Spotify New York, and The Future Workplace of Google. To view more Placemaking award winners click here.
 

Public Installation

Projects which imbue public spaces with meaning, mood and context through art and design employing text, image, or media. At their best, these projects articulate and enhance the uniqueness of a specific place while expressing facets of the human condition. Memorials, interpretive art, and temporary installations should be entered in this category.

Information to include in your project description:

> One year installation

Past project winners include, The Tactile of History. Memorial to the Victims of the Soviet Occupation (2022 Best of Show), and Society’s Cage (2022 Sylvia Harris Award Winner). To view more Public Installation award winners click here.
 

Strategy / Research / Planning

Masterplans, standards manuals, strategy documents and published work. Submissions should demonstrate systematic investigation and study of materials to establish strategy, best practices, project standards or reach new conclusions in the field of Experiential Graphic Design. Unbuilt work may be considered when submitted as a planning document.

Past project winners include, Airport Wayfinding, One Park, and See Words: Anywhere. To view more Strategy/Research/Planning award winners click here.
 

Wayfinding

Information systems that guide people through a physical environment and enhance their understanding and experience of the space. Systems may include maps, directions, symbols, color coding, visual landmarks and destination identity. Wayfinding has evolved into a highly integrated, user-focused and increasingly technology-driven discipline with major social and economic implications for cities and organizations.

Past project winners include, Dubai Expo 2020, Merriweather District, and Nine Entertainment Company Workplaces Signage & Graphics. To view more Wayfinding award winners click here.
 

So what are you waiting for? Select the category you feel fits your project best and click submit! 
 

Have a project that has elements that would fit into different categories? Submit your project in each category! 
 

Have questions? Reach out to jennette@segd.org!
 

The early deadline is Tuesday, January 31, 2023, after this deadline every entry will incur a $100 per project late fee. The Late Deadline is Tuesday, February 14, 2023, after this deadline every entry will incur a $150 per project late fee. The Final Deadline is Monday, February 27, 2023. You can’t win if you don’t submit, so submit your projects today!