FAQ Entry #248

This is a respond to a previously asked question about the A' Design Award and Competition. The full list of frequently asked questions can be accessed here.

#248: I am interested in applying for the design awards, am I right in thinking that there are no fees for submitting work? Also are there any fees thereafter, for example for getting shortlisted?

Yes, there are no fees for submission, and no fees afterwards; Registration is free, and allows you to use the submission optimizer and download the guidelines to improve your design. When you submit - upload your work, there are no fees for getting a preliminary score, this service is called Preliminary Checking and is provided free of charge. Preliminary Checking means that: each time you submit a work, one of the preliminary jury panel members would check your design submission and provide insights and indications for its presentation, the jury would also provide you feedback for your design, the jury would also suggest a suitable category and the jury would provide a 0 to 10 likert scale score regarding the expected performance of your design submission in the competition, all these services are provided free of charge. The preliminary score highlights the overall quality of your submission and hints you whether your design would be awarded or not, and it is explained in detail in the methodology page. The preliminary score allows you to save money by not nominating designs that are going to be eliminated. This system also helps the jury panel to save time in future, since the number of entries are limited. After you receive a preliminary score via email, you have the right to nominate or not nominate the project. If you decide to nominate, you have to pay the nomination processing fees. The nomination processing fees can be waived if you meet award scholarship criteria, or if you have a nomination ticket provided by someone, the free to join options are explained in a separate page called - join for free. After you win the competition, if you join the gala-night or exhibition (which are both free), you can also get your award winner kit; trophy, certificate etc for free, however if you do not come to gala-night, or exhibition, you can pay the shipment fee and request it to be sent to you, in this case you are paying the shipment fee to get the free kit. However, unlike other competitions there are no fees for winners; i.e. just because you win, you do not have to pay fees, all services are provided free of charge. In this case, there are no fees for getting shortlisted; i.e. if you register free, you will get an indicative preliminary score (for free), and if your preliminary score is high, this could be compared to shortlisting, and thus, there are no fees for getting shortlisted. However, after this point, if you apply and not win the awards, you might get a runner-up status, which would be free or not depending on how you join the competition.

Keywords: shortlisting, further fees, application fees, nomination fees

The following questions could be related:

• #96: Could you please let me know the amount winners are supposed to pay? In the Terms & Conditions it's called "Further Fee", however I couldn't find the amount anywhere on your website.
• #121: Is there any other payments after paying the processing fees?
• #303: We would like to add our product to you award competition. However, it is not entirely clear how much we would have to pay in fees for this - could you please clarify.
• #307: Please let us know what are the requirement to enter for the competition, do we need to pay anything?
• #346: Why the nomination fees differentiate based on entry period.
• #410: What is the nominal fee incurred for winning a prize?
• #515: Is a design award fake?

If you did not find your answer, please feel free to check the faq pages for more questions and answers. You will also want to check our webpage for details; thanks to our transparency policy, we document and publish everything.