The Dutch Design Awards offer a platform that annually celebrates the breadth and width of Dutch design. The economic impact of the designs submitted plays a role in the assessments. Twenty prizes are presented in the main categories, and one ‘overall' prize: The Golden Eye. Other prizes awarded during the award event are the Audi Design Award, the Rado Young Designer Award, the Best Client Award, the Life Time Achievement Award, and the Toon van Tuijl Design Prize (see below). Registration for the Dutch Design Awards is possible in the following categories: Communication, Product, Spatial, Rado Young Designer Award. Criteria for nomination are innovation, emotional engagement, zeitgeist, styling in materials and colours, originality, durability, functionality, user-friendliness, ergonomics and safety. Designs can only be nominated if they are not older than and have been publicly accessible for less than a year.
The Audi Design Award is the award for which the audience can vote the winners from a pre-selected shortlist.
De best verzorgde boeken [The nicest books]
The Foundation De best verzorgde boeken [The nicest books] annually selects between 30 and 33 publications, which distinguish themselves through ttheir design, their typography, the lithography of images and the graphical and technical levels of production. The relationship between form and content is an important factor in the assessment. The aim of the award is to draw attention to and enhance appreciation for the culture of book design and the production of the Dutch book as a physical object. The aim is to also encourage publishers and clients to pay more attention to the design and technical production of their publications. Each year the short-listed books are presented in an exhibition accompanied by a catalogue.
The Great Indoors
The Great Indoors Award is a biennial, international interior design award. Eligible for entry are all non-residential interior designs and installations in the categories Show & Sell (retail); Relax & Consume (leisure); Concentrate & Collaborate (work) and Serve & Facilitate (public). Out of all entries an international jury selects a winner in the different categories and an overall winner of the Interior Design Firm of the Year award.
Toon van Tuijl Design Award
The aim of the Toon van Tuijl Design prize is to showcase Dutch design developed in developing countries. The prize honours the legacy of Toon van Tuijl, a highly engaged designer. He died in 2006 in a robbery during his stay in Kenya, where he had been working on a commission for a local furniture factory, a project organised through Dutch Design in Development. The prize has been initiated by Van Tuijl’s widow, the NCDO and the Foundation Dutch Design in Development.
Lensvelt de Architect Interior Design Prize
The Lensvelt de Architect interior design prize has been awarded annually since 2001 to a project realised in either the Netherlands or Belgium. Aim of the LAi prize is the strengthening of a professional and innovative interior design field. The aim is to bridge the gap between culture and commissioners. Every designer who has graduated from a acknowledged (interior) architecture of design course can enter the competition by submitting one or more projects. Projects can also be put forward by clients, fellow designers or architects and third parties.
Thonet Mart Stam Prize
The Thonet Mart Stam Prize is a prize to encourage designers to realise an innovative chair design for the project and consumer market. The prize is awarded on an annual basis for the best designed chair in the twelve months prior to the selection. The focus is on the design of a chair for use in an office or a domestic environment.
Prins Bernhard Cultuurfonds Prize [Prince Berhard Culture Fund Prize]
The Prince Bernhard Culture Fund awards ten prizes for achievements in the ten fields the Fund supports in general. Each prize has its own jury, with an in-depth field-specific knowledge and experience. The prizes for bodies of work are awarded once every three years. The fund inaugurated a prize for applied arts and architecture in 1993, with the aim to celebrate extraordinary achievements in those fields. The prize is accompanied by an amount of € 50.000 of which three quarters are expected to be invested in the advancement of the winner’s practice.
Benno Premsela Prize (D)
The Benno Premsela Prize was inaugurated by the Fonds BKVB in 2000. The award acknowledges people who have played an inspiring and stimulating role for (several) generations of artists, designers or architects. The prize is named after designer Benno Premsela (1920-1997) who was a Dutch design figurehead and contributed to the founding of Fonds BKVB. Since 2004 the prize is accompanied by € 40,000.
Oeuvre Prizes
The Fonds BKVB has awarded a prize for lifetime achievements to artists, designers and architects with a significant track record and profile since 1992. Three awards are given out every two years: one to an artist, one to a designer and one to an architect whose work is of such standing that it deserves (renewed) attention. Each prize is accompanied by € 40,000.
International Design Awards
Red Dot Design Awards
With more than 11,000 submissions from 61 countries, the international ‘red dot design award’ is the largest and most renowned design competition in the world. It is divided into product design, communication design, design concept. Each year an international jury reviews and evaluates the submitted products according to criteria such as degree of innovation, functionality and formal quality. The award-winning products are presented at an international audience in the red dot design museum in Essen, Germany.
Webby Awards
The Webby Awards are the leading international awards honouring excellence on the Internet. Established in 1996, during the Web's infancy, the Webbys are presented by The International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences, a 550-member body of leading Web experts, business figures, luminaries, visionaries and creative celebrities. The Webby Awards presents two honours in every category – The Webby Award and The People's Voice Award – in each of its four entry types: Websites, Interactive Advertising, Online Film & Video and Mobile.
