A guide to entering architecture and design awards

Winning an architecture or design award isn’t just about a trophy or a night of celebration—it’s a smart business strategy. Awards provide a platform to showcase your work, gain industry recognition, and fuel business growth.

The award submission process itself offers tangible benefits, even if you don’t win first time around. It prompts your team to critically evaluate and document your best projects, often revealing strengths and innovative aspects you might have overlooked. This reflection can spark new ideas and refine your approach to future designs.

On top of this, studying past winners and current entries exposes you to cutting-edge trends and sets a benchmark for excellence in the field. At Bespoke Careers, we’ve attended, sponsored and judged numerous awards ceremony over the years. We’ve seen first-hand how participation—win or lose—can elevate a practice’s profile, attract top talent, and open doors to exciting new opportunities and collaborations.

In this guide, we’ll cover the benefits of entering awards, offer tips for maximizing your chances, plus a calendar you can use to plan ahead for the next architecture and design awards season.

Increased visibility and promotion benefits

Let’s start with a huge benefit that is difficult to overstate: Recognition from respected industry institutions can quickly lift awareness of your company’s brand and gain you exposure far beyond your existing client and supplier network.

Brand exposure can come from several angles, including plenty of coverage from industry press and on social media, which can cast a large spotlight on your business.

Accolades or nominations also make a great launching pad for organic marketing content in the form of social media posts, videos, blogs, podcasts – and anything else you could think of! Think of them as a storytelling device, where you can highlight how your team was inspired to innovate and overcome challenges. It’s the perfect material for tenders and in conversations your sales team have with potential clients.

When you do win or receive a nomination, you can also highlight this across assets such as social media banners, employee email signatures, brochures and the company websites, which are also effective promotion tools.

Affirm hard-working teams

An award win or nomination is an affirmation of the quality and creativity of your teams’ work, making it a powerful morale booster for architects and designers. Having impartial and esteemed industry figures judge your work to be excellent is one way to cement team cohesion and job satisfaction – which can in turn support more employee retention. Besides, it’s nice to attend an event and celebrate all that hard work!

Attract new talent

Architects and designers are likely to be drawn to working for a business that has been recognised for its creativity or social impact. Awards provide an independent seal of approval and a strong talking point in conversations with potential candidates.

Just as you would use an award to highlight your work to potential clients, you can refer to it in job adverts, on your company’s careers page and in interviews with candidates. Discussing with a candidate how a lauded project was delivered can help you articulate what makes your company special and a great place to work.

Awards are a learning experience

An arguably less celebrated benefit of entering awards programs is that it gives both companies and individuals opportunities to reflect on their work and benchmark it against industry peers.

Preparing an award submission ultimately involves much self-reflection, encouraging you to thoroughly review your work and processes – an effective way to help you identify strengths and areas for improvement.

Reviewing the submissions of other businesses can also give you insights into best practices and innovations that may have previously flown under your radar.

These lessons can arise from the event itself, too. Networking with other participants at award events can provide ample inspiration (or, at the very least, a bit of industry intel).

How to prepare for the next awards season

Here are five tips for preparing a submission for architecture and design awards:

1. Collect evidence throughout the year to avoid last-minute scrambles. Keep track of your project’s progress and successes as they happen—this will give you a solid foundation when it’s time to write your submission.
2. Make sure you fully understand the award criteria. It may seem obvious, but overlooking even small details can hurt your chances. Carefully read through the guidelines to ensure every point is covered.
3. Tell a clear and compelling story. Highlight the challenges you faced, the creative solutions you found, and the positive impact your work had. Keep the language simple and avoid unnecessary jargon to make your story easy to follow.
4. Strong visuals are essential. Invest in high-quality images, video, sketches, and other materials that showcase your project from all angles. Good photography can make a big difference in how your work is perceived.
5. Take time to edit and review. Whether it’s a solo or team effort, getting fresh eyes on your submission is critical. A thorough review will help catch errors and improve clarity, ensuring your submission is as strong as possible.

Your architecture and design awards calendar

Here is our list of notable architecture and design award events for your calendar:

Australia awards:

• Australian Urban Design Awards
• AIA’s National and State Architecture Awards
• Australia Interior Design Awards
• The AILA Landscape Architecture Awards (national award and also by state chapters)
• Eat Drink Design Awards

US awards:

• AIA various
• IAD Awards 
• IDA Design Awards 
• NY Architectural Design awards
• AIA Los Angeles Design Awards 
• AIA California
• Texas Society of Architects awards (various)

UK awards:

• Building Design’s Architect of the Year Awards
• Architect’s Journal AJ100 Awards 
• AJ Architecture Awards
• RIBA Stirling Prize
• New London Awards

Get more architecture and design recruitment tips and news

As passionate advocates for the industry, Bespoke Careers supports a number of awards globally, and we understand first-hand how much work goes into preparing and submitting entries. We also attend many architecture and design events and exhibitions, and we’d love for you to join us! Access our industry event resources for the UK, US and Australia.

For details on our networking events or to discuss your next career move or hiring needs in architecture or design, reach out to our team today.