Do design awards matter to my company?

Let’s start this article in a very direct manner: the answer to the title’s question is yes! Even though some design professionals don’t value awards much – feeling they don’t need the market’s approval or for any other reasons -, truth is winning competitions can bring a set of advantages for a business.

Knowing how to take advantage of these benefits can be an edge for a company that seeks to stand out more. Therefore, for this week’s article, we gathered a few reasons to show the importance of awards!

Competing for awards

Being recognized by other organizations and have a winning design work is not a matter of ego. Winning an award indicates you are on the right track, working on that in which you believe and positively impacting people’s lives. Awards are also a way of creating a historical record of what was a trend in color, style, typography and technology, for example, becoming a reference for a new generation of professionals in the field.

From a more practical standpoint, awards bring a company recognition and credibility in the market. That not only attracts future clients but also makes current clients trust its work even more. Besides, awards can make a team extremely motivated to continue innovating and with the good feeling that their effort is being rewarded.

They can even be relevant to companies whose activities are not directly related to design, but which have internal teams in that field. In that case, winning an award helps justify (or even increase) the financial investments in that department.

Really innovative projects that get awards contribute to making the market more relevant each year. They establish a healthy level of creative competitivity among companies and define quality criteria that other designers vy to surpass.

Participating in awards takes time and money, but they can be relevant opportunities for growth and networking, attracting good business partners and competent professionals that wish to work at your company.

Taking advantage of awards

There’s no magic formula for a project to win a competition. Basically, it needs to come from a creative and original idea, and to be well executed. Therefore, designers need to be motivated to look for something different, always focusing on the people that will be impacted by that work. If awards come, all the better for the company.

If you are interested in the subject and believe awards can be useful for your business, we have a great tip. Recently, the 8th edition of the Brasil Design Award opened up registration for companies from all over the country which wish to run their design projects. There are 10 categories and 78 subcategories that encompass several areas of graphic, digital, packaging, product and service design, and much more. Check out the award rules here!