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Design Business Index

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Explore how the Design Business Index empowers designers, innovators and creators with actionable assessments.

Design Business Index
The Design Business Index (DBI) is a merit-based rating system and professional directory that evaluates and catalogs excellence in design, architecture, and creative industries. Established as an extension of the A' Design Award, DBI serves as a trusted intermediary platform that transforms subjective design quality into objective credentials through a standardized evaluation process. The system combines a rigorous rating methodology with tangible credibility markers (certificates, digital assets, and logos) to help outstanding designers gain visibility while enabling clients to make informed decisions with reduced risk. Unlike conventional directories, DBI's inclusion is exclusively merit-based, requiring designers to demonstrate excellence through the A' Design Award's blind review process. This curated approach, combined with its comprehensive trust-building ecosystem, makes DBI a significant market-making mechanism that addresses information asymmetry in the design industry while promoting higher standards of creative excellence globally.

Design Business Index is a strategic extension of our original mission to promote and recognize outstanding design. DBI is a rating system for good design, helping transform subjective quality assessment into objective credentials, benefiting all stakeholders while making the market more efficient and trustworthy. DBI platform features its design rating system, certificates, digital assets and design business directory to create a holistic platform for good design. By creating a trusted directory with tangible credibility boosters (ratings, certificates, logos), the A' Design Award is ensuring that great designers get the attention they deserve in an often oversaturated market. The unique value proposition of DBI is creating order and trust in a chaotic digital design landscape, which offers real value for both designers and clients. For businesses and brands, selecting the right designer or architect has traditionally been a high-stakes gamble - consuming valuable time in portfolio reviews, reference checks, and capability assessments, while still carrying significant project risk. The Design Business Index transforms this challenging process through its merit-based rating system, powered by A' Design Award's rigorous evaluation standards. Clients can instantly filter through a pre-vetted pool of excellence-verified designers, focusing their attention on professionals whose capabilities have been objectively validated. This systematic approach eliminates guesswork, dramatically reduces selection time, and provides confidence in project outcomes. By replacing subjective evaluation with standardized quality metrics, DBI helps clients make informed decisions quickly, minimize project risks, and achieve superior design results while saving valuable organizational resources. DBI is a great reference when you make a decision whether a designer or architecture firm is a good fit.

A validated rating system like the Design Business Index (DBI) serves as a powerful tool for designers, architects, and creative agencies to establish trust, distinguish themselves in an oversaturated landscape, and command premium fees. For clients, such ratings mitigate risk and simplify the designer-selection process. For the broader industry, the system encourages consistent quality and drives innovation, creating a more efficient, transparent market for creative services. What makes the DBI rating particularly valuable is its merit-based nature - it cannot be purchased, only earned through demonstrated excellence in the A' Design Award competition. This creates genuine scarcity and maintains the rating's credibility as a true marker of quality, which further makes the rating system not just a credential, but a strategic business asset that delivers tangible returns through multiple channels.


Discover the Design Business Index and explore rated designers, visit DesignBusinessIndex.com


A’ Design Awardis fundamentally driven by the belief that good design can and should be recognized on a global scale. However, in today’s digital world, designers, artists, architects, innovators and even large brands face challenges in gaining visibility due to content overload, biased search algorithms, and intense competition for attention. Popular platforms often either prioritize content from dominant regions or boost content from politically affiliated allies, making it harder for good design to gain recognition it deserves. The Design Business Index addresses this by offering a merit-based platform that highlights award-winning designers, architects, engineers, innovators and brands ensuring their work gets the recognition it deserves without external bias. By focusing on excellence, the Design Business Index helps elevate deserving designers in an increasingly cluttered digital landscape. Within this scope online directories are a valuable tool for discoverability and gaining visibility, but not all directories offer the same level of credibility. What sets the Design Business Index apart is its connection to trusted institutions like the A' Design Award. This authority ensures that the designers featured in the Design Business Index have been recognized for their excellence, making it a reliable platform for those seeking true merit-based recognition. The Design Business Index stands out by offering a curated directory that provides real value and trust in a crowded digital landscape. Thanks to its rigorous, blind-reviewed rating system, the Design Business Index is a trusted, meritocratic platform that simplifies the search for top designers. With Design Business Index brands can confidently select designers who excel in innovation, quality, and creative capacity, saving time and reducing risk while driving superior results. By launching initiatives like the Design Business Index, we are extending our original purpose,shining a light on outstanding designers, into a platform where your achievements can continue to make an impact well beyond the initial award ceremony. At A' Design Awards, we know that good design doesn’t always naturally rise above the noise in a saturated market. By providing a merit-based platform, the DBI boosts good design and ensures verified excellence gets highlighted.



Being rated and included in the Design Business Index (DBI) provides you with a comprehensive set of resources designed to elevate your professional success. As a DBI-rated designer, architect or brand, you gain global visibility through inclusion in the prestigious DBI directory, making your work accessible to brands and collaborators worldwide. Your assigned rating serves as a powerful testament to your innovation and creative excellence, which you can leverage in your marketing and branding efforts. To further enhance your professional image, you receive a beautifully designed A4 certificate, ideal for presentations, website displays, or framing to impress office visitors, alongside a social media-friendly infographic for sharing your achievements with a broader audience. Additionally, the DBI logo signifies your inclusion in this elite group, reinforcing trust and credibility across all your professional interactions. Together, these resources position you for greater recognition, trust, and opportunities in the global design landscape. The DBI carries the authority of the A' Design Award’s rigorous assessment process, helping A' Design Award winner designers and brands, whose design is proven good design, stand out in competitive markets.

The Design Business Index (DBI) addresses a fundamental challenge in the creative industry - how can clients be confident they are choosing the right designer when design quality is so subjective and hard to measure before a project begins? This is where the science of trust and decision-making comes into play. Just as we rely on restaurant ratings or product reviews to make informed choices, the design industry needs a reliable system to help separate excellence from mediocrity. What makes DBI particularly powerful is its foundation in proven economic and social principles. Think about how we naturally trust recommendations from credible sources more than random opinions. DBI works the same way - it is not just another directory where anyone can list themselves, but rather a merit-based platform where inclusion must be earned through demonstrated excellence. This creates a trusted signal that cuts through the noise of self-promotion and marketing claims, helping clients make confident decisions while saving valuable time and resources. Design Business Index system creates a positive cycle in the design industry. For clients, the DBI removes the guesswork from designer selection by providing verified proof of capability. For designers, the DBI offers a credible way to stand out in a crowded market while encouraging continuous improvement to maintain or enhance their ratings. This virtuous circle leads to higher standards across the industry as a whole. DBI is similar to how academic credentials or professional certifications work in other fields, DBI provides a standardized way to measure and communicate design quality. What's particularly interesting is how DBI transforms subjective creative excellence into objective credentials. By combining rigorous evaluation through the A' Design Award with transparent rating systems and tangible proof of achievement (certificates, logos, and digital assets), the DBI creates a comprehensive trust-building ecosystem. DBI isn't just about making life easier for clients and designers - it's about creating a more efficient, trustworthy, and merit-based creative marketplace where genuine talent can be recognized and rewarded appropriately.



Inclusion in the Design Business Index
Designers often struggle to differentiate themselves in a crowded marketplace. Being listed in DBI elevates their visibility and positions them as a part of an elite group of creatives recognized globally for their innovation and quality. For clients, the directory serves as a trusted resource to identify proven talent. Inclusion in the Design Business Index places you among a select group of creatives recognized worldwide for their exceptional innovation and design quality. Published globally, the directory provides international exposure to brands, businesses, and collaborators, offering a trusted platform for clients to discover and connect with you. Your presence in the prestigious Design Business Index signals credibility and excellence, setting you apart in a competitive marketplace. Inclusion in the DBI is valuable, because you cannot just get included for money, you need to be a winner; your design must pass strict evaluation by our grand jury panel, where your work is voted on pre-established evaluation criteria. The Design Business index is thus curated through an award-winning lens an as such the DBI inherently holds more value than a generic listing site where anyone can get listed; on the other hand we only accept truly great designers to the Design Business Index.

DBI Rating Assignment
Many designers have strong portfolios but struggle to articulate their unique strengths to clients. The DBI rating provides an impartial, standardized way to showcase innovation and quality, building trust and setting clear expectations with potential collaborators. Your DBI rating serves as a powerful testament to your innovation and creative capacity, evaluated through a rigorous, merit-based process. DBI Rating provides an impartial and standardized benchmark that you can use to communicate your strengths with clarity and credibility. Whether included in portfolios, presentations, or branding materials, your rating builds client confidence and sets you apart as a trusted professional. Your DBI Rating is updated yearly after each win. For your DBI Rating to be valid, it should have its last assessment action date within the last two years. If you wish to keep an active and valid DBI rating, make sure to join and win the A' Design Award at least once every two years. Clients and collaborators often look for a clear, independent indicator of quality. A recognized rating system, especially from a reputable source (like A’ Design Award and its associated DBI), immediately assures potential clients that the designer has met specific criteria and demonstrated proven excellence. In the design world, personal taste can be subjective; what looks good to one person might not resonate with another. A structured rating system such as the Design Business Index applies consistent standards (innovation, creative capacity, usability, etc.), leading to a more objective measure of a designer’s skill set and achievements. Designers often struggle to stand out in a global sea of talent. The DBI rating system helps you rise above the noise by offering proof of quality. This differentiation can be the deciding factor for clients comparing multiple portfolios. From the client side, picking the right designer or architect can be time-consuming and risky. A rating system helps clients filter out less-experienced candidates quickly. With the DBI ratings, clients can focus their attention on highly rated professionals, thereby minimizing guesswork and ensuring better project outcomes.

DBI Rating is provided free of charge to eligible laureates, without any fees, there are no initial screensing fees. There are No Ongoing Surveillance Fees at DBI, you may know that in many rating schemes, after the initial rating, there are often additional surveillance fees for periodic updates to the rating. However, for the DBI ratings, you do not need to pay additional or ongoing surveillance fees, simply taking part in the A' Design Award via Pro-Entry or Digital Entry will help you obtain the DBI Rating update within the scope of the A' Design Prize, however the ratings have validity of two (2) years after your last award, therefore if you wish to update validity of your rating, you should join and win the A' Design Award every two years. That being said, since there are no contractual fees or obligations for you, you can use your ratings everywhere without getting worried about annual subscriptions or recurrent fees, you can simply use the ratings free of charge.



DBI Ratings Certificate
Clients and collaborators value tangible proof of quality and recognition. When you get listed at DBI, you are provided with an A4 DBI Ratings Certificate, ready to print and showcase to clients, consumers and customers. The A4 certificate is a professionally designed document that communicates your DBI rating clearly and effectively, making it ideal for use in presentations, websites, or office displays to leave a lasting impression. The DBI A4 certificate is a professionally designed document that communicates your rating with clarity and authority. Perfect for corporate presentations, websites, or office displays, the certificate provides a tangible and visually impressive testament to your innovation and design excellence. DBI's rating certificate is a versatile tool that reinforces trust and credibility in both digital and face-to-face interactions. The DBI Rating Certificate's professional design and official formatting make it particularly impactful in formal business settings and client presentations where traditional credentials carry significant weight. Its physical nature provides a tangible touchpoint in an increasingly digital world, creating memorable impressions during face-to-face meetings. The DBI Rating certificate also serves as a powerful tool during price negotiations, helping justify premium rates through documented proof of excellence.

Infographics and Digital Assets
When you are included in the DBI, you are provided with digital assets such as infographics to showcase your rating online. Social media is a critical platform for designers to showcase their work and achievements. The DBI infographic leverages the power of visual storytelling, making it easy to share your rating while engaging a broader audience and enhancing your personal or professional brand. The DBI infographic provides a modern, visually engaging way to communicate your rating across social media platforms. Designed for easy sharing and maximum impact, it helps amplify your recognition among peers, collaborators, and potential clients. The DBI digital assets seamlessly blends professionalism with creativity, aligning perfectly with the marketing trends of today’s digital landscape. Your visual proof of merit, demonstrated via DBI Assets, can be the deciding factor for a client who’s choosing between multiple designers. DBI digital assets are specifically optimized for different social media platforms and professional networks. The infographics are designed with viral sharing in mind, making them more likely to be redistributed by peers and industry influencers, extending your reach organically. The visual assets also integrate seamlessly with email marketing campaigns and digital portfolios, creating consistent brand messaging across all touchpoints.

The DBI Rated Business Logo and Authority
Trust and differentiation are critical for designers, brands and architects seeking to stand out. The DBI Rated Business Logo is a simple yet powerful visual asset that instantly communicates credibility, authority and inclusion in an elite group of creatives, helping to strengthen your professional brand. When you are listed at DBI, you are also provided the DBI Rated logo to incorporate your marketing strategy. The DBI logo is a versatile asset that signals your inclusion in a globally recognized index of exceptional designers. Whether featured on your website, business cards, email signatures, or marketing materials, it reinforces your authority and builds trust with clients and collaborators. As a mark of distinction, the logo sets you apart from competitors and strengthens your professional identity. The presence of DBI logos serves as a powerful psychological trigger, instantly activating positive associations with quality and excellence in potential clients' minds. The consistent use of DBI Logo across business communications creates a cumulative trust-building effect that strengthens with each client interaction. The DBI logo's official nature also provides a competitive edge in formal bidding processes and RFPs where credentials and third-party validations are key decision factors. The DBI Rated Business Logo is a specialized digital credential marker designed exclusively for award-winning designers and creative professionals listed in the Design Business Index. The DBI Rated Business Logo features a compact, transparent-background visual asset that displays your current DBI rating and last assessment date in an easily integratable format optimized for digital platforms.



Two-Year Validity Period for All Ratings
The Design Business Index maintains the integrity and relevance of its rating system through a crucial temporal validation mechanism. Each DBI rating includes a last assessment date, which serves as a timestamp for when the designer's excellence was last verified through the A' Design Award's rigorous evaluation process. To ensure ratings reflect current capabilities and recent achievements, DBI implements a two-year validity period for all ratings. This time-bound approach acknowledges that creative excellence is dynamic and evolving - skills grow, methods advance, and industry standards shift. After the two-year mark, ratings are considered less reliable indicators of present capabilities, encouraging designers to maintain their active status through continued participation and achievement in the A' Design Award competition. This policy not only ensures the currency and reliability of the DBI platform but also motivates continuous professional development and consistent demonstration of excellence in the design community. Because design fields evolve rapidly and continuous improvement is integral to creative industries, we recommend that a rating be considered valid only within two years of its latest assessment. Beyond this period, the rating may no longer reflect the designer’s current level of innovation, technical skill, or creative capacity. Clients are therefore encouraged to look for up-to-date ratings when making decisions, and designers are motivated to renew their rating regularly, ensuring that the DBI continues to offer an accurate, trustworthy reflection of quality in the ever-changing world of design.

Helping Clients Choose Best Designers and Architects
The Design Business Index (DBI) is a merit-based platform and rating system that recognizes and promotes outstanding designers, architects, and brands through objective evaluation criteria. Established under the authority of the A’ Design Award, it applies rigorous, blind-reviewed assessments to showcase excellence in innovation, creative capacity, and overall quality. By offering a comprehensive directory, as well as certificates, infographics, and digital assets to endorsed professionals, the DBI streamlines client-designer matchmaking and serves as a trustworthy reference for identifying verified design talent. Through a standardized rating approach, it seeks to reduce market inefficiencies, mitigate information asymmetry, and reinforce global standards for superior design, ultimately fostering greater visibility and credibility for elite creatives in a crowded and competitive industry.

Maximizing the impact of your DBI Credibility Suite™
To truly maximize the DBI Credibility Suite™, begin by featuring your current DBI rating front and center on all professional touchpoints, this includes placing the DBI certificate in your office or on your website, incorporating the DBI logo into your email signature, and showcasing your verified profile link within the Design Business Index directory. Use the dedicated infographics to highlight your design expertise on social media, customizing captions to explain the significance and recency of your rating. Whenever you pitch new clients or collaborators, point them to your DBI directory page to provide a direct source of credibility and eliminate any guesswork about your capabilities. For in-person engagements such as conferences, trade shows, or networking events, keep a printed or mobile-friendly version of your certificate ready to illustrate proof of your recognized creative excellence. And remember to stay active within the A’ Design Award community, by renewing your rating and updating your success stories every couple of years, you’ll signal to prospective clients that your skill set remains on the cutting edge. Above all, let the DBI Credibility Suite™ serve not just as static credentials but as an ongoing narrative of your professional growth, ensuring that every point of contact with a potential partner or client conveys trust, authority, and real, documented achievements. Remember, maximizing the impact of your DBI Credibility Suite™ requires a strategic, multi-channel approach that transforms your prestigious assets into powerful business development tools.

  • Start by prominently featuring your DBI rating and certificate on your website's homepage and about section, always linking back to your verified DBI profile for instant credibility verification.
  • Integrate the DBI logo into your email signature, business cards, and proposal templates, creating consistent trust signals across all client touchpoints.
  • Use the professionally designed DBI infographics to enhance your social media presence, particularly on social media and networking platforms, where visual proof of excellence can significantly impact client decisions.
  • During pitch presentations and client meetings, leverage your certificate as a tangible demonstration of your expertise, using it to justify premium pricing and differentiate yourself from competitors.
  • Include your DBI credentials in all marketing materials, proposals, and RFP responses, ensuring potential clients understand the significance of your rating by briefly explaining the merit-based nature of the Design Business Index.
  • For maximum impact, create a dedicated credentials section in your portfolio that showcases your DBI rating alongside other achievements, using the suite's visual assets to tell a compelling story about your commitment to excellence.
  • Remember to regularly share your credentials across professional networks and industry platforms, always maintaining the verification loop by linking back to your DBI profile, which serves as the authoritative source of your professional standing.

This comprehensive approach ensures your DBI Credibility Suite™ works continuously to build trust, attract quality clients, and strengthen your market position.


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