iF Design Award 2026 opens for entries

Promotion: designers and brands are encouraged to enter the 72nd annual iF Design Award, which has recognised outstanding projects across design and architecture since 1953.

The iF Design Award 2026 is calling for entries across 93 newly updated categories and nine design disciplines: product, packaging, branding and communication, service and systems, user interface (UI), user experience (UX), architecture, interior architecture and concepts.

For 2025, the iF Design Award received almost 11,000 entries from 70 countries and was judged by an international jury of over 130 experts, including Cheryl Durst from IIDA, Jasper Morrison, Nendo's Oki Sato, Cecilie Manz, Stefan Diez, Mattel's Chris Down and Rossana Hu of Neri&Hu.

The winning designs tackled a range of challenges, including adapting to the modern world by focusing on culture and inclusivity, technological advancements and environmental concerns. For example, how to immerse restaurant visitors in entertaining new ways, or make e-mobility options more efficient.

In the architecture category, this year's winning projects included the Polish Army Museum, an immersive space dedicated to Poland's military heritage, and World-Food Waste Teahouse by Mitsubishi Jisho Design, a teahouse presented at the European Cultural Centre in Venice, Italy, and during Dubai Design Week.

Notable interior architecture projects included the Sushi Miro restaurant in South Korea designed by Live Me, which presented an immersive labyrinth-like layout, and the Gilder Center for Science, Education and Innovation at New York City's Museum of Natural History designed by Ralph Appelbaum Associates.

In the product design and technology category, a mycelium-based leather called Well-planned, well-played Mushroom Leather by Taiwan Textile Research Institute (TTRI) won an award, alongside X Shore 1 by Swedish brand X Shore, an electric boat made from environmentally-friendly materials, including cork.

iF Design said that in particular, 2025 marked a record year for North American submissions, with the largest US participation to date, with winners including IBM, Apple, Harvard University and Harman.

"We are truly honoured to be recognised among such an outstanding group of peers," said Christian Schluender, vice president and general manager of global design of Harman. "This award means so much to us because of the calibre of the competition and the excellence it represents."

The high calibre of the award programme is perhaps best illustrated by the iF Design Lifetime Achievement Award, which recognises one visionary whose work has shaped the global design landscape.

This year, British architect Norman Foster was the recipient of the prestigious award, while last year's award went to industrial designer and long-time iF juror Dieter Rams.

The iF Design Award was launched in 1953 with a commitment to excellence, objectivity, transparency and impact through design. Since then, the award has continued to find and spotlight outstanding design projects worldwide.

iF Design also provides a barometer of wider cross-disciplinary trends within the industry, as chronicled in the annual iF Design Trend Report and Future of XYZ podcast.

Correspondingly, as of 2025, sustainability now represents one-fifth of the judging criteria across the award's categories, evaluated equally alongside idea, form, function and differentiation.

Hopefuls for the iF Design Award 2026 should submit their projects by 5 November. To receive the early bird discount, projects should be submitted by 27 June.

To learn more and register for the iF Design Award 2026, visit the organisation's website.

Partnership content

This article was written by Dezeen for iF Design Awards as part of a partnership. Find out more about Dezeen partnership content here.

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