3 Keys To Ace Your Next Design Competition by @josephlouistan

I called it the

3 Peas strategy

Purpose

Prepare Proposal

Purpose

Prepare Proposal

Purpose Why are you entering a design competition?

Winning should not the main goal. Solving a meaningful problem. For exposure and fun. In search for new challenges. To update my skills and abilities.

Purpose for entering design competitions

Winning should not the main goal.

That’s one of my many failed designs I did solely focused on winning a furniture design competition. Not pretty.

What’re all these about?

Well, these are some of the comments I got for my design…

Ouch!

Lesson learnt. Never focus on winning.

Solving a meaningful problem.

Here’s a packaging design competition that I entered during my university studies.

The usual design process…

Researching on the users’ problems, needs, wants, needs and desires.

My winning design!

Bad hair day hahaha!

Lesson learnt. Focus design solution for users. Discover their needs and sovle them. Sounds simple enough.

For exposure and fun.

Here’s another lightning design competition that I entered with one of my past designs I did in university.

So here’s my final design that I did for my studio project.

And then there was a lighting design competition whose design brief fits my design project I did previously, so I decided to give it a go!

And guess what? I won the competition!

Yay! So humbled to be recognised for my design :)

Sometimes you just never know what the future will hold, but if you try and give it your best, you may surprise yourself.

In search for new challenges.

For this furniture design, I decided to try a different design approach.

So I opted for an inspirational design influence approach

So here’s it!

Don’t leave me alone…

And so I participated in a couple of furniture design competitions and had opportunities to showcase my design at furniture fairs. Yay!

My first printed newspaper article feature!

One of my proudest moment to date! So just go for it, because you never know what will happen :)

To update your skills and abilities.

So the story goes… my friend and I decided to collaborate on a design project together during the school vacation.

We followed the design brief closely and created this!

Watch it grows!

In the end, we didn’t win anything, but we had gain so much more. Gained an opportunity to update our skills and a new design project to put in our portfolio.

Purpose

Prepare Proposal

Prepare How do you approach a design competition?

Brief. Theme. Requirement. Rules. Deadline. Prizes. FAQ. Brainstorm. Keywords. Expand. Ask Why. Ask Why Again. Research. Company. Brief. Jury. Past Winners. Future Trends.

Prepare for entering design competitions

Brief. Theme. Requirement. Rules. Deadline. Prizes. FAQ.

Read all of these information!

These information are critically useful for you in having an advantage in your entry.

Brainstorm. Keywords. Expand. Ask Why. Ask Why Again.

Do google about IDEO’s seven brainstorming guidelines to find out more. Great resource!

www.wordle.net

Another good resource to quickly identify keywords of the competition brief.

Credits: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7q89tdSjE-0

Research. Company. Brief. Jury. Past Winners. Future Trends.

Researching past winners is a fanastic way to gauge on the expected quality of entries.

Research and discover who the jurors are, their previous works and their design philosophies. It will you an insight into their minds, and may help you in crafting a better entry to suit their preferences.

www.awoltrends.com

Research on the latest trends in design as well, as this will help keep your designs relevant.

Purpose

Prepare Proposal

Proposal How to make a kick-ass competition entry?

Contents. Deliverables. Project Description. How it works. Communication. Spellcheck. Grammar. Clarity of Design. Presentation. Layout. Alignment. Individual Style. Fonts. Colours.

Proposal for entering design competitions

Contents. Deliverables. Project Description. How it works.

So here’s my entry for the packaging competition I talked about earlier.

Current Situation/ Problems

Description of Solution Make sure you explain

your design concisely.

Product Details

How it works

The jurors only have a few mintues to understand your design.

Communication. Spellcheck. Grammar. Clarity of Design.

Use these programs to spellcheck your work. It shows a lot about you as a designer if you mis-spell. FYI it is really bad.

Use arrows, cross sections, annotations and inspiration images to explain your designs if needed.

Use a human silouette to show the scale of your design.

Presentation. Layout. Alignment. Individual Style. Fonts. Colours.

Notice how the typography, colours, alignment and style are similar for all of my posters?

It helps a lot to make your entry looks and feels as a whole.

Same thinking for my other competition entries.

Purpose

Prepare Proposal

A quick re-cap!

Winning should not the main goal. Solving a meaningful problem. For exposure and fun. In search for new challenges. To update my skills and abilities.

Purpose for entering design competitions

Brief. Theme. Requirement. Rules. Deadline. Prizes. FAQ. Brainstorm. Keywords. Expand. Ask Why. Ask Why Again. Research. Company. Brief. Jury. Past Winners. Future Trends.

Prepare for entering design competitions

Contents. Deliverables. Project Description. How it works. Communication. Spellcheck. Grammar. Clarity of Design. Presentation. Layout. Alignment. Individual Style. Fonts. Colours.

Proposal for entering design competitions

All hyped up to start designing? Visit www.futuredesignstars.com

to search for your next design competition to participate!

Keep Calm And All The Best :) @josephlouistan Credits StockSnap - https://stocksnap.io/ Think Design - http://thinkdesignblog.com/