If you want to understand where global design is headed, look at the projects that rise to the top. Each year, the iF DESIGN AWARD puts work from around the world through a rigorous two-stage jury process led by more than 130 international design leaders.
What emerges from that process is more than a group of exceptional individual projects. Collectively, the winners show what the highest level of design looks like now—and where the benchmark is moving next.
Photography courtesy of iF Design.
That view is only possible because of the scale behind it. The award spans 93 categories across nine disciplines, from architecture and interiors to product, packaging, branding, service design, UX and UI, with more than 130 independent, international design leaders evaluating the entries. Put that breadth through one exacting evaluation process and the result is something larger than a collection of individual winners: a rare cross-section of the strongest design being produced across disciplines, industries and markets at the same moment.
Seen collectively, those winners become a barometer for the global state of design. Not because they follow a single aesthetic or point of view, but because each has distinguished itself within an intensely competitive international field. A winning interior may look nothing like a winning digital service, yet both have reached the same threshold of excellence. Together, they show where execution is strongest, where expectations are rising and how the standard itself is evolving.
Photography courtesy of iF Design.
What reaches that threshold is determined by a clear set of criteria. The jury considers form and function alongside differentiation and sustainability, evaluating not just whether a design is beautifully resolved or performs as intended, but what sets it apart and how responsibly it has been conceived. Sustainability’s place within that core evaluation is significant: environmental responsibility is not treated as an added virtue or a separate category, but as part of the standard for outstanding design itself.
Recognition carries weight precisely because a winning project has come through that level of scrutiny. Michael Seum, Vice President of Global Design at Kohler Co., calls being recognized by the iF DESIGN AWARD a “powerful endorsement” of the company’s design vision, adding that the jury’s validation affirms “the strategic value of design as a differentiator.” For brands and creative teams, that distinction reaches beyond visibility: it places their work among the projects currently defining excellence on an international level.
Photography courtesy of iF Design.
For more than 70 years, the iF DESIGN AWARD has held that line across an exceptionally broad spectrum of design. Its winners give the industry a barometer of where design stands at its highest level today, while the rigor of the competition establishes the benchmark others will be measured against tomorrow.
For ambitious designers, brands, agencies, studios and in-house teams, entering the iF DESIGN AWARD 2027 is an opportunity to measure their strongest work against that benchmark—and earn a place among the projects defining it.
iF DESIGN AWARD 2027
Regular Deadline
September 18, 2026 — €400 per entry
Register by September 18 to save €100. Basic entry information can be submitted at registration, with the full entry completed by the final deadline.
Last Chance Deadline
November 2, 2026 — €500 per entry
Learn more + register → here.
