FAQ Entry #416

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.

#416: Hello! I am new in design competitions and I would like to know why I have to pay so much money in order to participate in the competition. Thanks!

As you might have known, some design competitions are free to join, these so called design contests are brief specific, asking you to submit an entry that follows a specific brief, they are told to be free to enter with fees to winners however here is the catch, when you join such competitions you usually lose the rights to your designs whether you win them or not. Design awards however are much different, when you join design awards, you keep the right to your designs, and winners are usually eligible to receive a series of services, these services vary from organizer to organizer, but A’ Design Award is most likely the design award with the most comprehensive prize; winners are given trophies, their works are published in a book and the winners get a book, there are public relations services, media campaigns, international design exhibition of physical works as well as online exhibitions, and much more, and all these services costs money, thus participants pay a contribution towards these services and that is why you might be asked to pay a lot to take part in the competition, also A’ Design Award could potentially costs more than other design awards, as its winners are not required to pay further fees; in some other design awards winners pay thousands of euros more once the results are announced. We advise you to check the design prize to understand why you are asked to pay an entry fee as well as to check the competition in detail before deciding to join. Professional designers join the design awards in order to promote and advertise their services and skills, to find new clients and prospects, and likewise enterprises and brands take part in order to advertise their products, for example the brands make use of the design award winner logo to increase sales of existing products by communicating the intrinsic design qualities of the products to audiences. The value proposition of design awards are a lot, and therefore there are fees that are asked to be paid due to the value provided as well as the costs incurred by the organizers. If you study our methodology section and the design website you can learn more about the values, the costs and benefits to winners.

Keywords: entry fees, paid competition, why payment, award fees, design award value, award value, value of design awards

The following questions could be related:

• #231: Is the nomination fee per image or per entry?
• #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?
• #326: Can we know the final fee before nominating each work?
• #376: If we apply a project as a group of two (2) people, in this case which is the fee due for nomination?
• #480: We really wish to join as a company, unfortunately we don’t have marketing budget available to submit.

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.