# European Design Awards

The European Design Awards, also known as the ED-Awards, are annual awards presented to European designers for outstanding work in the communication design field. The ED-Awards is a joint initiative of design magazines from across Europe and endorsed by the International Council of Design. The ED-Awards are judged by a panel of representatives (journalists and design critics) from fifteen European design magazines, while the winning submissions are featured in the ED-Awards Catalogue.

## Model

The ED-Awards is different from other design awards schemes in that the jury is not made up of designers, but of design journalists and critics – people who see and judge work for a living. Further more, since the ED-Awards organisation is made up of design magazines, it provides an opportunity for everyone submitting work, to have it featured in a number of these media. A lot of stories and articles are created through the submitted work every year.

## Jury

Originally, the ED-Awards jury was composed exclusively of journalists from leading graphic design magazines across Europe, including Germany's Novum (Zeitschrift), UK's Eye_(magazine), and France's étapes:, among others. However, in recent years, the ED-Awards has broadened its jury composition to incorporate a more diverse range of expertise within the communication design field. This evolution reflects a strategic decision to include not only journalists but also critics, curators, academics, and content creators (always linked with the realm of communication design)

## Categories

There are 47 award categories, in nine groups, covering branding, packaging, exhibition design, typography, digital design, illustration and self-promotion, among others. There are also three special distinctions: Agency of the year, Best of show and Jury prize.

## European Design Agency of the year

The top accolade in the ED-Awards is every time, the distinction bestowed upon the most (creatively) successful studio of the continent. This title has so far been awarded to:
* 2008 Beetroot Design Group, Greece
* 2010 Lava Design, the Netherlands
* 2011 Les Graphiquants, France
* 2012 Silo, the Netherlands
* 2013 Jaeger & Jaeger, Germany
* 2014 R2, Portugal
* 2015 Ermolaev Bureau, Russia
* 2016 Raffinerie AG für Gestaltung, Switzerland
* 2017 Silo, the Netherlands
* 2018 Vruchtvlees, the Netherlands
* 2019 Kind, Norway
* 2020 ANTI, Norway
* 2021 WePlayDesign, Switzerland
* 2022 Verve, the Netherlands
* 2023 Studio Dumbar, the Netherlands
* 2024 Studio Airport, the Netherlands

## Host cities

Each year's results are announced during a ceremony which is hosted in a different European city. So far, the European Design Awards ceremonies (and accompanying events) have been hosted by:
* Athens, Greece (2007)
* Stockholm, Sweden (2008)
* Zurich, Switzerland (2009)
* Rotterdam, the Netherlands (2010)
* Vilnius, Lithuania (2011)
* Helsinki, Finland (2012)
* Belgrade, Serbia (2013)
* Cologne, Germany (2014)
* Istanbul, Turkey (2015)
* Vienna, Austria (2016)
* Porto, Portugal (2017)
* Oslo, Norway (2018)
* Warsaw, Poland (2019)
* The 2020 and 2021 events that were scheduled to take place in Valencia, Spain had to be cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic
* Tallinn, Estonia (2022)
* Luxembourg city, Luxembourg (2023)
* Naples, Italy (2024)

## Related links

* German Design Award
* Red Dot
* Communication Arts