2013 Global Design Awards
The 2013 SEGD Global Design Awards Program is now closed. Entries for the 2014 program will be accepted starting October 1, 2013. Click here to receive emails on the upcoming program.
The SEGD Global Design Awards were established in 1987 to recognize excellence in environmental graphic design. They are the only international design awards focused on communication in the built environment. Winning projects have included complex wayfinding systems, branding and identity work, retail and interior projects, exhibition and experience design, architectural signage programs, and public art installations.
Click here for a printable PDF of the 2013 Submission Guidelines.
Click here for a printable PDF of the 2013 Submission Guidelines in Chinese.
This video sampling of recent winners mirrors the multi-discplinary nature of the field and the dramatic impact that EGD has on the built environment.
Awards are conferred by multi-disciplinary, international juries. Past jurors have included Henry Beer, Peter Dixon, Sue Gould, Graham Hanson, Lars Uwe Bleher, David Vanden-Eynden, Kelly Kolar, Mitchell Mauk, Ronald Shakespear, David Gibson, Paul Prejza, Lance Wyman, and Virginia Gehshan.
"Like most studios, we have reduced our involvement in competitions for financial reasons and lack of return on investment for ourselves and our clients. That said, we continue to make exceptions for those--such as SEGD--that represent the best of a specific design discipline. The SEGD Design Awards bring prestige and a return on investment by validating the caliber of work we provide. And a winning project adds to our clients' cachet."
Tom Marquardt, Principal
Design Collaboratives
In the SEGD Global Design Awards, SEGD invites you to submit your best work in...
Dynamic Environments: media facades, interactive architecture, media-based exhibitions, digital billboards, electronic public art
Office/Workplace Environments: office buildings, business parks, mixed-use centers, industrial and manufacturing buildings, convention and conference centers
Leisure/Entertainment Environments: walking and hiking trails, recreation centers, theme parks, arenas, stadiums, theaters, concert halls, cinemas, hotels, resorts, restaurants, spas, fitness centers, parks, gardens, cruise ships, marinas, golf courses
Educational/Institutional Environments: healthcare facilities, libraries, schools, campuses, government facilities
Transportation Environments: airports, ports, bus, rail, roadways, parking facilities
Retail/Commercial Environments: service businesses, malls, storefronts, interiors, food courts, showrooms, outdoor advertising
Residential Environments: apartments, condominiums, developments, retirement centers, dormitories
Urban Projects: cities, mixed-use complexes, downtowns, neighborhoods, wayfinding systems, streetscapes
Exhibitions: museums, zoos, interpretive exhibits
Trade Shows/Temporary Events: expositions, pavilions, athletic events, festivals
Master Plans/Planning/Research: conceptual ideas, research, recommendation studies, sign/identity/branding standards, programs
Miscellaneous: signage, architectural graphics, placemaking, identity programs, public art, donor recognition programs, maps, symbol/pictogram systems, sign codes, gateways, landmarks
2013 Jury, SEGD Global Design Awards
Joe Zenas, CEO and Principal, Thinkwell Group
With partners Francois Bergeron and Craig Hanna, Zenas leads a team of more than 150 professionals designing and producing projects, from live shows and events to multi-scale theme park resort developments and educational experiences. Based in Burbank, Calif., Thinkwell has created such award-winning environments as Warner Bros. Studio Tour London: The Making of Harry Potter, Ski Dubai, and NatureQuest at the Fernbank Museum of Natural History. Prior to Thinkwell, Zenas was Director of Creative Studios for Universal Creative, and has led teams in world-renowned projects ranging from the Atlanta Centennial Olympic Opening Ceremonies to the 1997 Reunification of Hong Kong. He has overseen productions of 10 Super Bowl halftime and pregame shows, as well as numerous other television events. He is also a member of the SEGD Board of Directors.
Chris Calori, Principal, Calori & Vanden-Eynden / Design Consultants
Calori is an SEGD Fellow, author, teacher, and one of the most influential environmental graphic designers in the world. In addition to creating signage and wayfinding systems for complex transportation and commercial environments worldwide, she wrote the seminal book Signage and Wayfinding Design: A Complete Guide to Creating Environmental Graphic Design Systems, and was a principal author of the SEGD 2012 ADA White Paper Update on accessible signage. Her work has won numerous awards and she has taught at FIT and The Ohio State University, where she is the recipient of the first Distinguished Alumni Award from the Department of Industrial, Interior, and Visual Communication Design.
Ken Carbone, Co-Founder and Chief Creative Director, Carbone Smolan Agency
Carbone is a designer, artist, musician, author, teacher, and one of America's most respected graphic designers. His client list includes W Hotels, Morgan Stanley, Christie's, Tiffany & Co., and the Mandarin Oriental Hotel Group, as well as the Museum of Modern Art, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles, and the Musée du Louvre. He is the author of The Virtuoso: Face to Face with 40 Extraordinary Talents, and co-authored Dialog: What Makes a Great Design Partnership, with his business partner Leslie Smolan. He is a professor in the MFA program at the School of Visual Arts and is a featured blogger for Fast Company magazine.
Phil Freelon, Founder and President, The Freelon Group
Freelon's 65-person firm in Durham, N.C., has won 50 AIA design awards for its work focused on higher education, science and technology, and museum/cultural center projects. The team of Freelon Adjaye Bond is leading the design for the Smithsonian's new National Museum of African American History and Culture currently under construction in Washington, D.C. Recent commissions include libraries in Washington, Atlanta, and Chicago, a park in Houston, and a museum in Jackson, Miss. Freelon has served as adjunct professor at North Carolina State University and has been a visiting lecturer at Harvard and other universities. He currently holds a Professor of Practice appointment at MIT's School of Architecture and Planning.
David Harvey, Sr. Vice President of Exhibition, American Museum of Natural History
Harvey is an interpretive exhibition designer whose passion is creating compelling museum experiences for the public. Directing a team of more than 60, his most recent exhibitions at AMNH include Creatures of Light, Brain: The Inside Story, Traveling the Silk Road, and Mythic Creatures. His permanent exhibitions include the AMNH's Hall of Human Origins, Hall of Ocean Life, and Hall of Meteorites. In addition to drawing high attendance numbers in New York, his exhibitions are seen annually by more than 2.5 million international visitors as exhibitions travel to museums worldwide. In his spare time, he teaches Interpretive Exhibition Design at NYU's ITP graduate program.
Cassie Hester, Designer/Illustrator and Assistant Professor at the University of West Georgia
Hester's typographic installation Dig Deep, part of her MFA thesis exploration at Virginia Commonwealth University, was a Merit Award winner in the 2012 SEGD Global Design Awards Program. Since receiving her MFA in Visual Communications/Graphic Design from VCU, Hester is teaching at the University of West Georgia. She received her BFA in graphic design from the University of Georgia. Hester is a reader, doodler, and "unrepentant typography nerd" whose typographic work has been featured in publications such as Print, Metropolis, and Step Inside Design. She has presented papers on her work at several international design conferences reaching from Thailand to New Zealand.
Tim McNeil, Principal, Muniz/McNeil and Professor of Design, UC Davis
McNeil is a principal with multidisciplinary design/research firm Muniz/McNeil and a Professor of Design and Director of the Design Museum at the University of California Davis. His recent Muniz/McNeil projects include the exhibition Home Lands: How Women Made the West at the Autry National Center, and augmented learning environments for the Huntington Library and Gardens in Los Angeles. He was previously a senior designer at the J. Paul Getty Museum. An authority on environmental sustainability, he chairs the California Association of Museums Green Museum Initiative, is a founder of the Green Museums Accord, and was inducted into the National Environmental Hall of Fame for his design work on the Natural Resources Defense Council's Santa Monica Environmental Action Center. He has received numerous awards for his design and research.
Kevin Owens, Director, owensowens
Owens is a Fulbright Scholar and Yale-trained architect who recently served as Design Principal with the London Organising Committee of the 2012 Olympic Games and Paralympic Games. His work has spanned numerous design disciplines, from exhibition and product design to urban design and architecture, including The Hollywood Bowl redevelopment for the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the Kensington Oval Cricket Ground Barbados, and the Cambridge University Sports Centre. In his central role for the London Organising Committee, he was project lead on the design of the built environment, and provided the strategic direction on the design and overlay for all venues-ultimately facilitating the creation of a single shared design ethos for London 2012. He has taught at the Yale University School of Architecture and the University of Bath. Owens recently established the multidisciplinary design collaborative owensowens.