Digital Edition

Digital Edition
A’ Design Award & Competition offers an alternative design award participation possibility for specific design industries, design disciplines, and concept designs, called the “Digital Edition” which differentiates slightly from the “Professional Edition” through eligibility conditions, winners’ kits and nomination processing fees.

Digital-Edition A' Design Prize
Winning the A' Design Award's Digital Edition represents a transformative milestone that catapults designers and brands into the global spotlight through a sophisticated digital-first approach. This prestigious recognition opens doors to an extraordinary A' Design Award Digital Ecosystem where winners' creative achievements are celebrated and amplified across the world-influential design platforms. Imagine your groundbreaking design being showcased through stunning dynamic award logos that command attention across social media, while your story reaches millions through expertly crafted press releases and features in prestigious design publications. The Digital Edition creates a powerful ripple effect, as your work becomes part of an exclusive digital exhibition, gets immortalized in the Digital Yearbook of Best Designs, and receives translation into over 100 languages – ensuring your creative vision transcends cultural and geographical boundaries. What truly sets this edition apart is its comprehensive digital marketing arsenal: from personalized designer profiles on Designers.org to authority content publication opportunities, each element works in harmony to elevate your brand's presence in the digital realm. The A' Design Award - Digital Edition Laureate's journey extends beyond mere recognition, as winners join an elite global network of design professionals, gaining access to the Distinguished Designer Program and valuable business connections through the exclusive Business Network. While the Digital Edition forgoes physical elements like trophies and gala events, it compensates with an impressive array of digital tools and platforms that align perfectly with today's digital-first business landscape. This carefully curated package empowers winners to leverage their achievement across multiple digital channels, creating lasting impact and opening new horizons for business growth – all without the burden of winner's fees or ongoing financial commitments. It's more than an award; it's a digital passport to global design recognition and unprecedented opportunities for professional growth.

Same Evaluation & Eligibility
Both the Digital Edition and the Professional Edition share the same design evaluation principles and methodology; voting system, preliminary checks, design award jury, score points and weights are the same and the design jury members do not know which design is submitted to the Digital Edition and which design are submitted to the Professional Edition. Given this definitions, both entry methods “Professional Edition” and “Digital Edition” are same when the evaluation principles and methodology is concerned. Furthermore, the submission mechanism and presentation requirements are exactly the same for both the “Professional Edition” and “Digital Edition” to ensure that entries received via both methods could be evaluated on equal grounds. Both Digital Edition entries and the Professional Edition entries are suggested to wait for preliminary checks. The preliminary checking service is also the same for Digital Edition and Professional Edition. Entries nominated via Digital Edition could also request the Express Evaluation Service. Design award participation through Digital Edition is available for all competition categories, there are no eligibility differences, for a list of award categories see: all design competition categories.

TL;DR : Digital Edition participation is much more cheaper but has its own limitations, yet still a great option for young designers, tight-budget start-ups and prudent professionals. If you join digital edition, it is possible to convert/update/migrate to Pro-Edition later but is more effective to directly nominate your work to Pro-Edition if you have the opportunity.

Winners’ Kit Differences
There are significant differences between the “Digital Edition” and the “Professional Edition” when the winners’ kit is concerned. The “A’ Design Award Winners’ Kit” promoted throughout the A’ Design Award & Competition website refers to the winners’ kit provided to entrants who have won the accolades via participation through “Professional Edition” Entry Method. The “Professional Edition” Winners’ Kit includes a series of PR and communication services and tangible materials such as books, trophies, framed certificates, exhibit poster preparation, and merchandise which add value to design award participation and makes winning the accolades a complete experience. On the other hand, “Digital Edition” winners are provided a different limited-edition yet still quite powerful digital winners’ kit with reduced but still relevant contents; especially this particular type of winners’ kits do not include any physical components (thus the name Digital Edition). The “Digital Edition” winners do not receive the following as a part of their winners’ kits: the hardcopy – printed version of yearbook, the metal award trophy, exhibition space, framed award certificate, gala-night invitation and several other services such as inclusion in hard-copy edition of yearbook, specialized press release distribution through third parties (DesignPRWire press-release distribution is included), good design mark is excluded yet multilingual translation services is included. The complete list of differences between the two participation methods are listed at the “Table of Differences”.

All Categories Eligible
You can join any category using Digital Edition Nomination Tickets or Digital Entry Nomination.

No Further Fees
If you join via digital edition entry method, you do not have to make any further fees. You are not obliged to convert to, migrate to or upgrade to pro-edition at any time.

Design Rankings and Classifications
There are no differences between winning the Classic Edition and Professional Edition when the World Design Rankings and the Designer Rankings are considered. There are also no differences in terms of Design Classification rankings based on award categories. Learn more about Design Rankings.

Table of Service Differences
List of Service Differences between Digital Edition and Professional Edition are as follows:

When does it make sense to join Digital?
Digital edition entry fees are significantly lower than Pro-Edition entry fees. If you are risk averse, or if you have limited resources, taking part via Digital Edition maybe valuable to you since you get all digital benefits as well as the significant portion of A’ Design Prize (especially the main items, the award-winner logo, and digital versions of certificate and yearbook as well as PR services), without making a bigger investment. Furthermore, digital edition entry method could be considered if you are mainly concerned about not being able to attend our Physical Events such as Exhibition Vernissage or Gala-Night and Award Ceremony; if you are not sure that you would be able to attend the Physical Events such as Exhibition Vernissage or Gala-Night and Award Ceremony, it may make sense to make a digital nomination first and later upgrade or migrate to pro-edition if you later change your mind or have an opportunity to attend events in person.

Upgrading or Migration to Pro-Edition
Upgrading from Digital Edition to Pro-Edition is possible before results are announced and the upgrade service is subject to the Professional Edition Upgrade fee based on the entry period. Migration to Pro-Edition (i.e. changing nomination method from Digital to Pro-Edition after results announcement) is possible as well: If a design was nominated through Digital Edition, it could be migrated to Pro-Edition, within a one-week period, after the competition results are announced, the migration is subject to a fee which is calculated based on the cost of additional deliveries and production required. Digital Edition winners could pay the “Migration to Pro-Edition Service” fees to receive the winners’ kit that is proposed to “Pro-Edition” participants. The cost of the migration is calculated as a sum of all items that shall further be included such as Gala-Night invitation, Yearbook preparation and Inclusion, Exhibition items preparation and other services and overhead costs. Maximum Upgrade Fee from Digital to Pro-Edition is calculated as 1x the Pro-Edition Entry Fee (For a Given Account Type and for the Late Entry Deadline) and Minimum Upgrade Fee from Digital to Pro-Edition is calculated as 0.5x the Pro-Edition Entry Fee (For a Given Account Type and for the Late Entry Deadline). Maximum Migration Fee from Digital to Pro-Edition is calculated as 1.5x the Pro-Edition Entry Fee (For a Given Account Type and for the Late Entry Deadline) and Minimum Migration Fee from Digital to Pro-Edition is calculated as 1x the Pro-Edition Entry Fee (For a Given Account Type and for the Late Entry Deadline). Within this context, it is much cheaper for Young Designers, Start-Ups, Professionals and Agencies to convert to Pro-Edition, than to say, for example for Enterprises or Consortiums, since the service fees to convert, upgrade or migrate depends on entry fees. The fees for the Upgrade to Pro-Edition Service for Design and Migration to Pro-Edition Service for Design are both derived from the Late-Entry Pro-Edition Nomination Fees which are calculated also based on Account Type and Preliminary Score*. *When calculating the nomination fees (and therefore it is also valid for upgrade or migration fees), we usually apply a discount for works that obtained a high-preliminary score and/or designs with really high final award status achievements, within this context; Preliminary Score is used for calculating the discount when Upgrading Non-Awarded Entries, and Final Award Status is used for calculating discounts when Migrating Already Awarded Works, where Platinum, Gold, Silver, Bronze and Iron award statuses would be calculated as if they would correspond to preliminary scores of 10, 9, 8, 7 and 6, for ease of calculation (in reality, such correlation is neither implied nor guaranteed). These costs include the eventual shipment of winners’ kit and any other additional services that would be normally included within the winner kits. A' Design Award and Competition reserves the right to provide complimentary Edition Upgrade and Migration services for select featured projects, young designers or design ambassadors. Please kindly note that if you have ordered the "Express Evaluation Service" and got an early results announcement for your entry, you can not "Upgrade" to Professional Edition; you should use the "Migration" option instead. Since this calculation is fairly complex, you may simply Click Here to Automatically Calculate Digital-Edition to Pro-Edition Conversion Fees (without any obligations to proceed with any purchase or conversion). Before proceeding you may also want to learn about "Conversion to Pro-Edition Service".

Costs of Upgrading or Migration to Pro-Edition
To calculate the potential maximum cost of Upgrade or Migration, please kindly first calculate Professional Edition Nomination Fee (by selecting Account Type, Preliminary Score, Entry Method as Digital Edition and Entry Period as Late Entry Period); that number is X (Which is the Late Entry Period, Pro-Edition Nomination Fee for the Account Type and Preliminary Score Indicated). Then, consider that the Cost of Upgrading or Migration will be based on X within the Minimum and Maximum multipliers noted below:

	EDITION CONVERSION, UPGRADE & MIGRATION Cost multiplies for Digital Edition entry to Pro-Edition Conversion.	Minimum*	Maximum**
	Upgrade to Pro-Edition (Before Results Announcement) Upgrade is only available before results are announced.	0.75 X	1.00 X
	Migration to Pro-Edition (After Results Announcement) Migration is only available after results are announced.	1.00 X	1.50 X
	Conversion to Pro-Edition (Only for Early and Standard Entry Periods) Fees calculated based on actual cost differences + 20% premium.	(P-D)*1.2	(P-D)*1.2

* Minimum: Upgrade Fee will never be cheaper than 75% of Pro-Edition Entry Fee, Migration Fee will not be cheaper than Pro-Edition Entry Fee, for a given deadline period. ** Maximum: Upgrade Fee will not be cheaper than Pro-Edition Entry Fee, Migration Fee will never exceed Pro-Edition Entry Fee by 150%, for a given deadline period.

Pro-Tip: If you have already nominated a design to digital edition, click the Get Pro button above to automatically calculate Upgrade or Migration to Pro-Edition Service Fees. If you purchase any of Conversion to Pro-Edition, Upgrade to Pro-Edition or Migration to Pro-Edition Services, we will manually check and update your nomination status after payment. In most cases you would see symbol (C) noted next to your Design ID in Control Panel to indicate such designs were Converted to Pro-Edition.

Cost of Conversion to Pro-Edition
The Upgrade and Migration Fees are always calculated based on Late Entry Fees because during Early and Standard Deadline Periods, you can actually contact our support to simply ask them if you could just pay the difference in fees + 20% premium; in this case our support would calculate the current digital edition fee (lets say, that is D), and the pro-edition fee (let's denote this as P) and provide you with a link to pay for “Conversion to Pro-Edition Service” fee for the amount equal to formula (P-D)*1.2 with the current deadline period pricing (instead of late), this would most likely be the most cost effective way to Convert to Pro-Edition. Conversion this way is only possible during Early and Late entry periods.

Digital Edition Winners’ Kit
Winners will be able to use the award winner logo, will be able to download award certificates and they will also receive a digital version of the award winners’ book, in which their award winning entry is also included. Digital edition winners will also be able to benefit all the services and benefits of winning the award as described in the “Table of Differences” above. Digital Edition Winners’ will not be able to order the Pro-Edition Winners’ Kit which is proposed to the Professional Edition participants.

Who can benefit from Digital Edition?
The Digital Edition could especially be beneficial to young designers and start-up companies who do not have the required funds to join the Professional Edition, furthermore the Digital Edition could also be useful and resource-efficient for participants who do not plan to join the Gala-Night and who do not need to join the Exhibition and who do not need the Yearbook. The Digital Edition was also conceived to support some specific design disciplines and industries as listed at the list of “Digital Edition Categories”.

Distinguished Designer Program
Digital Edition winners will also be able to apply to the Distinguished Designer Program, and will be able to utilize the discounts for award participation and offers from third-parties for award winning designers, artists and architects as usual. Learn more about Distinguished Designer Program.

How to Participate via Digital Edition
Joining the Digital Edition of the A' Design Award is a straightforward and convenient process, designed to accommodate designers who prefer an online-focused participation method. Here’s how you can get started:

• Step 1: Prepare Your Design
  Before you begin the submission process, ensure that your design is fully prepared. This means having all necessary images, descriptions, and any other required materials ready to showcase your work effectively.
  
  
• Step 2: Upload Your Design
  Visit the A' Design Award website and navigate to the submission section. Here, you can upload all the prepared materials related to your design. Make sure that every file is correctly formatted according to the submission guidelines to ensure a smooth nomination process. This step is free.
  
  
• Step 3: Nominate Your Design
  After uploading your design, the next step is to officially nominate it for consideration. Look for the nomination option within the platform. During this step, you’ll be asked to select your entry method. You will be required to pay nomination fee.
  
  
• Step 4: Select Digital Edition as Your Entry Method
  When prompted, choose the Digital Edition as your entry method. This selection specifies that you wish to participate in the competition through the Digital Edition, which is tailored for online submissions and includes a unique set of benefits suitable for digital entries.
  
  
• Step 5: Confirm and Submit
  Review all the information and files you’ve uploaded to ensure everything is accurate and complete. Once you are satisfied, submit your nomination. You will receive a confirmation that your design has been successfully nominated through the Digital Edition.
  
  
• Step 6: Await Evaluation
  Your submission will now be evaluated based on the rigorous criteria set by the A' Design Award jury. This process is identical in terms of evaluation criteria and jury expertise across all editions, ensuring a fair and thorough assessment of your work. If you win, there are no contractually obliged winner fees, and you get the A' Design Award's Digital-Edition Prize.

By following these steps, you can easily enter your design into the Digital Edition of the A’ Design Award. This entry method not only simplifies the submission process but also leverages the advantages of digital presentation, allowing participants from all over the world to showcase their designs effectively and compete for prestigious accolades.

Discounted Digital Edition tickets for bulk submissions are also available. Please kindly note that, there is a yearly limit of 10 Digital Edition entries per participant. For discounted bulk digital nomination packages, please refer to Nomination Packages and Promotions page.