Our Vision
The Asia Design Prize (ADP) started to discover excellent Asia-based designs in 2016. 'DESIGNSORI’, the organizer and a design media of Korea, is making efforts to create the highest quality design prize in the world. Customer experience is one of the most important values we pursue. We are sincere from the first moment customers meet this prize, so that their last experience can be the culminating one. Our vision is to become the best design award in Asia.
Logo Design
The logo of the ADP was designed by 'VB Studio', a famous Korean graphic design agency. VB Studio is a visual communication design studio located in Hannam-dong, Yongsan-gu, Seoul. The ADP's logo symbolizes earth, human, and Asia. Based on the logo identity, the consistency of the brand is maximized with the application of various applications.
Custom Fonts
The ADP needed an exclusive dedicated font to build a consistent brand identity. Therefore, we have developed an exclusive typeface together with 'Fontrix', a representative Korean font developer company. This is a font that exhibits ADP’s reputation and prestige. It was made with the characteristics of the Humanist typeface that has a prominent influence of handwriting to be read well in various environments. Its usability is enhanced by three types of thicknesses for the global application. The clean and neat shape without serifs gives it a solid yet sophisticated look.
It has the stroke contrast by the thicker vertical stroke than the horizontal stroke. High-contrast texts are easy to read and visually stand out on printouts and screen. It has an asymmetric shape in the inner space of arcuate letters such as Alphabet lowercase ‘h’ and ‘n’ as one of the dynamic cursive features. The apex of the arch is on the right side of the center. It has a deep cut that is connected to the left stem (stroke) in arched letters. This steep curve distinguishes arched letters and rounded letters like the alphabet 'O', especially at small sizes. It has an open aperture. This gives an open feeling of space and helps to identify letters more easily. Ligature refers to the ability to change the shape of a character by given conditions. Because the center height of each letter of lowercase, uppercase and numbers is different, we added a ligature function to some symbols for a natural flow of lines. We have expanded the Latin character area to ensure usability. The expansion of the character area enables it to be used in most European languages.
Entry Process
1. Online application
2. 1st online screening
3. 2nd online screening
4. Finalist Announcement
5. Announcement of winners
6. Open an online exhibition
7. Holding Ceremony in seoul
8. Sending Winner Package
The Foreman of the Jury
2017 - Architect Tetsuya Matsumoto, Japan
2018 - Professor Yoshimaru Takahashi, Japan
2019 - Director Karim Rashid, USA
2020 - Professor Yoshimaru Takahashi, Japan
2021 - Director Karim Rashid, USA
2022 - Director Karim Rashid, USA
2023 - Professor Shingo Ando, Japan
2024 - Professor Shingo Ando, Japan
2025 - Professor Hyunsun Kim, Korea
Online Screening
The ADP considers 'fair screening' as the greatest value. We designed a system in which no one, including the jury chairman and the operation secretariat, can have an influence on judging, but the winner is decided only through three rounds of judging. We pursue the fairest screening system and operation in the world.
1. We conduct fair evaluation by completely separating the 1st and 2nd judges.
2. We conduct fair evaluation with thoroughly automatic allocation system of judges of each work.
3. We establish environment for more accurate screening with the screening result matching percentage system.
Winner Package
The ADP’s Winner Package is trying its best to impress many designers and award winners around the world with the highest quality package designs with a V-cut finish applied. Plus, over the past years, we have studied how to make an eco-friendlier package with 'Box Master'. We found out that a carton box that perfectly fits the winner package (higher strength) is safer than a bigger box with plenty of cushioning materials. In the ADP's Winner Package, the external carton boxes are made exclusively for the package. The Winner package is called the 'flower' of awards. It is the most important collection of all the winners and the ending point of the award brand experience. To impress customers, we use 'LIKE SKIN', the highest quality paper that resembles the texture of human skin, for the paper material of the Winner Package.
Winning Certificate
The Award Certificate of the ADP was designed by Professor Yoshimaru Takahashi, Osaka University of Arts, Japan. It pursues the highest level of graphic quality for the collectible value of the winners. One winner work is provided with only one certificate with no additional certificate to sell to protect environment, as the conservation of environment is one of our important values. Winners can download digital certificates of the exact same design.
Winning Yearbook
We consider ‘tone and manner’ as the most important design element. There should be reasons even when one line is drawn, and all organizations should be harmonious with consistency. The consistency should last for a long time. Our favorite case is 'Penguin Books' of UK. As a business that publishes collections each year, their sincerity in design for more people to read their books, the tradition for over 80 years, and the resulting productivity are very impressive. Therefore, we do not intend to change the cover design of Design Sori for the next 100 years. Like the inspiration of the consistent cover design and clear purpose of Penguin Books, the cover of the ADP's award-winning works has kept its originality that we pursue since it was first published.
We have thought a lot about how to upgrade the collections of award-winning works of the ADP. The ultimate solution seems to be the material. The previous pain point ‘weak’ material. As the catalogs are shipped throughout the world, there had to be small dents or scratches during the shipping and packaging process. The fundamental solution to this problem, we thought, is the material. We try our best to produce collections with better design in perfect condition.
Online Exhibition
Designsori, the organizer of the ADP, is one of Korea’s representative design media corporations. It is also one of the most recognized design award organizers in the Korean design scene. It has been interviewing designers’ stories for the last 15 years. The online exhibitions of the ADP have inspired designers of Asia together with YouTube channel (40,000 subscribers). We continue to discover valuable designs and spread them to the world via online exhibitions of the ADP.
Positive Comments
At the bottom of each award-winning work are profiles of judges who gave positive reviews. We regard ‘fairness’ as the most important value. By disclosing profiles of judges, we emphasize the transparency of evaluation process and system of the ADP. We do not reveal profiles of judges who gave negative reviews because we respect their decisions. We try to maximize the value of award-winning works by operating systemic, transparent and fair evaluation system.
Ceremony in Seoul
The Asia Design Prize Ceremony will be held in Seoul, Korea. We are preparing a pre-dinner standing wine party, steak course cooking and a design forum for the winners. All winning teams participating in the ceremony will receive a framed plaque for the ceremony and unique eco-bag goods. We aim for a global designer connection party where designers from all over the world, including China, Japan, and Korea, gather.
Winner Ranking
The top 100 companies and universities are automatically ranked and aggregated. By clicking on each list, you will be able to see all the previous works of winner, which will serve as a highly valuable portfolio pages for designers and businesses. Ranking points will be reflected after each online exhibition is released.
1. Team of the Year: 500 points
2. Grand Prize: 350 points
3. Gold Winner: 250 points
4. Winner: 100 points
Use of the ADP Mark
The ADP Award Mark symbolizes excellence in design. Winners can use the ADP Award Mark without restrictions. Feel free to use ADP marks on goods such as homepages, product packaging, exhibition banners, and eco bags. (The awardees are not allowed to arbitrarily delete or change the year of the mark.)
Logo Promotion System
The Logo Promotion System of the ADP automatically synthesizes ADP award-winning logos based on the first submitted image. Winners can download the synthesized image in the compressed file by clicking on the link of their work. It is finalized in the posting sizes of Facebook, WeChat, Twitter, Pinterest, and Instagram, which are leading social media channels with the greatest number of users. The layouts are designed for details of winning logo’s size, color and interval with the application of golden ratio and grid system. The Logo Promotion System of the ADP will display an excellent effect on virality of the global designer community.
Previous Year Statistics
1. Number of entries: 1,601 works
2. Number of Awards: 248
3. Number of designers: 1,263
4. Number of countries: 25
5. Entry rate from countries other than Korea: 75%
6. Judges: 35 people from 7 countries
Award Partners
We have established official partnerships with Asia's leading design media corporations to promote award-winning works throughout the world. Media partners share the annual ADP schedules and encourage their clients to participate. In addition, a number of design media companies around the world introduce ADP's award-winning works to the media every year. Brand companies and universities expose the ADP mark via their website, maximizing the promotional effect.
1. TGDA
2. PUXIANG
3. DECO TV
4. DESIGNER
5. FUNDESIGN
6. DESIGN BOX
7. VISIONUNION
8. DESIGN EPOCH
9. CREATIVE MANILA
10. DESIGNSORI
11. K-DESIGN AWARD