< K-Design Award 2026 Online Exhibition Opens: 1 KUDOS TO THE BEST / 12 GRAND PRIZE / 32 GOLD / 289 WINNER >

The K-Design Award has officially opened its 2026 Online Exhibition, bringing this year’s award-winning works from around the world together in one place. Featuring outstanding projects across categories including space, product, and communication design, the exhibition serves as a global showcase that goes beyond the moment of recognition to continuously share the value and stories behind each winning design with audiences worldwide. The online exhibition is open to everyone through the EXHIBITION section of the official K-Design Award website. Visitors can explore images and project descriptions alongside key information such as award level, designer, and affiliation, offering a comprehensive overview of the design trends and creative achievements shaping 2026.

< K-Design Award 2026 KUDOS TO THE BEST Winner – LIGHT WAVE >

Discover the Designs Defining 2026

The first project featured in the online exhibition is LIGHT WAVE from Japan, winner of KUDOS TO THE BEST, the highest honor at the K-Design Award 2026. The project begins with the idea that simply repairing and preserving historic architecture can ultimately leave it frozen in time. Instead, it boldly introduces a futuristic element, a "light wave," into a monumental space layered with traces of the past. Old and new collide and merge, generating a new kind of energy. Rather than treating history as a relic of the past, the project seeks to breathe contemporary life into it and transform it into a living asset that continues into the future. As waves of light illuminate the walls of the old warehouse, visitors are invited to rediscover the significance of its history through an entirely new perspective.

Alongside LIGHT WAVE, the online exhibition presents a diverse collection of award winning projects shaped by different countries, cultures, and industries. Rather than proposing a single answer or aesthetic, the exhibition offers an opportunity to compare how designers identify the challenges of our time and respond to them through their own distinctive approaches.

An Online Archive Connecting Award-Winning Designs from Around the World

The significance of the online exhibition goes beyond simply displaying winning projects on a website. It creates an ongoing point of discovery and connection, allowing award-winning designs to be seen and shared beyond the specific time and physical location of an awards ceremony. For designers, an award-winning project is both an achievement and a lasting record of their capabilities. For companies and brands, it becomes an asset of trust that demonstrates their design competitiveness. The online exhibition extends these achievements beyond a one-time announcement, creating opportunities for them to continuously reach design professionals, companies, and potential partners around the world.

Experiencing projects from different countries and disciplines together also provides a broader perspective on where contemporary design is heading. Design today extends far beyond visual beauty and the refinement of products. Its scope increasingly encompasses user experience, brand identity, sustainability, the relationship between technology and space, and the historical and cultural contexts of specific regions.

< Awards Ceremony: SIGNIEL SEOUL Grand Ballroom >

From the Online Exhibition to the Awards Ceremony at SIGNIEL SEOUL

The K-Design Award 2026 Awards Ceremony will take place at 5:00 PM on October 16, 2026, at the Grand Ballroom of SIGNIEL SEOUL. The ceremony goes beyond simply presenting trophies and celebrating achievements. It will also feature a series of design conferences with internationally renowned designers and experts, giving attendees an opportunity to experience the latest developments and insights from the global design industry while exchanging ideas with one another. If the online exhibition is a space for discovering award-winning designs from around the world, the ceremony at SIGNIEL SEOUL is where the people behind those designs come together in person to celebrate their achievements and build new connections. The journey that begins online will reach its most memorable moment in Seoul this October.

Beyond Achievement, Proving the Value of Design

Under the slogan “KUDOS FOR YOUR DESIGN,” the K-Design Award has consistently sought to evaluate designers’ achievements and efforts fairly and recognize them with distinction. At the same time, it has focused on extending an award beyond a single achievement, transforming it into an asset that can demonstrate a designer’s global career credentials and a brand’s value. From this perspective, the online exhibition is an important platform that embodies the K-Design Award’s direction of “Beyond Achievement, Proving Value.” It records designs selected through a rigorous judging process, presents them to a global audience, and ensures that they can continue to be discovered over time.

Founded in 2012, the K-Design Award has grown into an international design award built on fairness and transparency. Today, it is looking beyond the prestige of winning itself to the value created after the award, expanding opportunities for designers and brands to demonstrate their competitiveness in the global market. The K-Design Award 2026 Online Exhibition is now open on the official website. Beginning with LIGHT WAVE, winner of the highest honor, KUDOS TO THE BEST, visitors can explore a diverse collection of projects created by designers from around the world and discover what contemporary design is questioning, addressing, and moving toward.

Beyond the moment of recognition, design meets the world.

A new journey for the K-Design Award 2026 has begun.

K-Design Award Online Exhibition