Eligibility
The Red Dot Award: Design Concept invites companies, design studios, design students and professionals, universities, research laboratories and inventors to challenge the status quo and present their most exciting ideas and prototypes to an international panel of design experts. Any person may participate. All kinds of inventions, novelty designs and aesthetic designs, including executed temporal designs, installations, architectural projects, unexecuted communication projects whether client or non-client can be entered.
Furthermore, participants need to agree to the General Terms and Conditions. Please download and read the Terms and Conditions (English only).
Project Types
There are two project types for open for submission: Next Gen and Professional.
They are evaluated separately by our Jury Panel. Both types enjoy different advantages and face different challenges in the judging field and therefore, these projects can be better considered and evaluated when submitted separately.
More information on the evaluation criteria for a “Concept” and a “Ready For Market” design project can be found in “Judging Criteria”.
Next Gen
Projects designed by universities, institutions, school teams, or designers under 30 years old can submit projects under the Next Gen.
The award is only applicable for projects in its “Concept” stage. This refers to designs that are still at the early developmental stage. They can be just an idea or a prototype and will not be made available for the market within the next few months or years.
Professional
Projects designed by companies, design studios and practising designers can submit their projects under ‘Professional.’ Research projects and collaborative projects by universities with industries may include design teams above the age of 30, and may include projects that are co-developed.
"Concept" refers to designs that are still at the early developmental stage. They can be just an idea or a prototype and will not be made available for the market within the next few months or years.
"Ready For Market" designs are almost or fully developed as a product or a service. They may have already been announced to the market but are not yet available for delivery to the market before 2 July 2026.
Competition Process
The competition process provides a timeline of what to expect while the award is open.
Submitting an Entry
An entry can be submitted to the award at three different phases, early, standard and late. You have the option to add supplementary materials to your entry. Provide a video and/or a prototype/model to add to your entry. The video and prototype/model are optional. Prototypes/models for the competition will only be received between 21 April and 4 May.
Notification of Results
All submissions will receive a result notification by email and the results will also be published in the participant portal.
Winning an Award
As a winner, you receive the Winner’s Package aimed at communicating your success to the world. You will need to login to the participant portal to complete the required online forms for the package. At this stage, fees are applicable for the Winner’s Package.
Awarding Ceremony
In October, the awarding ceremony will be held in Singapore
Submission Format
Format requirements for the presentation boards to be uploaded as a part of your entry, as well as requirements for optional materials. More information can be found in FAQs.
Within the entry form, provide a summary description (400 character limit), description (1500 character limit) in English.
Upload up to 5 images of the product or project.
File format: jpg
Maximum file size: 7Mb
Resolution: 300 dpi
For more information on how to “Prepare your entry”, visit our FAQs.
Video format requirements
- Maximum file size: 20Mb
- File format: mp4
- Duration: 3 minutes or less
Videos are to be uploaded at the time of submission.
Providing a video is optional.
Prototype/model of concept for competition
Please label the packaging as well as the prototype/model with your entry ID. An email will be sent to you with the label required to be attached to the prototype/model.
Sending a prototype or model is optional.
Intellectual Property Rights
Participating in the competition need not compromise your intellectual property rights of the submitted design concept. This is because:
- If the design concept does not win an award, it is not published and will remain unknown to the public.
- If the design concept wins an award, you will have sufficient time to file for protection with a lawyer, as there is at least 3 months between the notification of the result and the publication of the work.
- You may also apply not to publish your work even if you win an award. In this instance, only your name and the name of the work is published while all details of the design is kept secret. You will still be able to use the award label for publicity as a winner but you will not be able to take advantage of the yearbook, the exhibition at the museum or the potential media coverage.
Contact Us
For questions and remarks of the Red Dot Award: Design Concept, please feel free to contact us at award(at)red-dot.sg.
An overview of all contact persons of the Red Dot Design Award can be found here.