ASID Illinois Design Excellence Awards

Call for Entries 2026

Registration Open From:

May 1, 2026 12:00AM - July 10, 2026 11:59PM

Early Bird Pricing Ends May 29, 2025

Q & A Video

Important Dates, Entrance Eligibility, and General Conditions

Eligible Entrants

ASID members in good standing at all professional levels (Professional, Allied, Associate, Student, and Industry Partner) may enter. Affiliate Members can enter under the product category
IIDA members in good standing at all professional levels (Professional, Associate, and Affiliate) may enter.
Non-members of ASID / IIDA who are Registered Interior Designers in the State of Illinois may enter.
New this year: ASID / IIDA members of any regional chapter will be allowed to enter

Eligible Entries

Up to eight separate projects can be entered per firm. The primary designer(s) for the project must meet one of the above criteria to qualify.
Each singular project may only be entered in one category. Submitting a project in more than one category may result in disqualification.
A project that has been previously entered into an ASID awards competition MAY be re-entered as long as it did NOT previously win an ASID Illinois Design Excellence Award.
It is the entrant's responsibility to ensure that the materials submitted, as well as the project being considered, meet the rules, regulations, category, and eligibility requirements.

Entry Requirements, Deadlines, and Conditions

Deadline for entrance and submissions is Friday, July 10, 2026 at 11:59 PM Central Time.
Late entries will not be accepted, no exceptions.
All contest entries must adhere to exact entry requirements and judging criteria. Failure to comply with these specifications will result in disqualification of entry and forfeiture of the entry fees.
Completed Contest Entry Form, including Client and Photographer Release Affidavits, and four (4) anonymous Design Statements:
- A Design Concept Statement of 250 words or less, to include the project design issues and solutions provided by the Designer(s). If there were restrictions on budget, time constraints or special circumstances, this should be noted. The design statement must include a brief explanation of the actual or intended impact of the completed project or product on the life, health, and/or well-being of the client or end user. This will be part of the judging criteria. Projects not including this in the Design Statement will be disqualified.
- A Consolidated Design Concept Statement of 50 words or less, in PDF format, to be read by the Master of Ceremonies at the Design Excellence Awards in September.
- Client Goals which includes a brief description of client’s reason(s) for undertaking the design project (e.g., consolidating offices, home remodel, relocation, etc.) and expectations of how the new design will achieve organizational goals. (100 words or less).
- Client Description which includes a brief description of the client or organization including other relevant information. Note: Be careful not to include your firm name or client’s name. Do include type of project, where project is located, scope of work, and time frame.
No identifying information for clients, designer(s) or other involved parties should appear on either Design Statement, Floorplans or image files; they are reviewed by the judges and need to maintain the anonymity of the entrant. Projects that do not maintain anonymity will be disqualified.
Complete anonymous project floor plan(s) to scale showing placement of furnishings and location of all architectural features. Square footage is based on residential livable space or commercial usable space and should be calculated based on the plans provided to meet category criteria. Project drawings that do not maintain anonymity will be disqualified.
In the product categories, provide scaled design/schematic drawings and optional sketches/renderings.
Images should be less than 6 MB each and of high resolution (600 ppi). This is the optimal resolution for printed images of winning projects. If photos are not of professional quality the project may not be used for promotional purposes. Must be submitted via JPG images. Before and After images are encouraged but not required. Please label the before photos and utilize the text boxes under each photo upload to tell more of the story that didn't fit into the client goals, description and concept statement sections.
Photos should include vertical and horizontal shots. If you are a winner and a member, we could select our Impact Magazine cover, directory, and additional Modern Luxury Ad placement from the winning photos. Sometimes we cannot use a project due to limited image sizes.
Projects can not be older than 3 years old. Student projects should be within your time spent as a student.
Photos of less than 300 ppi will not be accepted.
Floor plans, Elevations or drawings are required to be submitted and must not have any identifying company information and should be submitted via pdf format.
Entrants are encouraged to provide anonymous before photos (of any resolution) which do not have to be of professional quality. The before photos should be from the relatively same vantage points as the after.
Ensure that all images are free of any watermarks, titles or descriptions that identify the Designer(s) or client(s). An exception to this rule would be projects that include a corporate brand or company name/logo as part of the design, but that do not identify/feature individuals. Project images that do not maintain anonymity will be disqualified.
Designer(s) may volunteer additional information about the trades, vendors, showrooms, manufacturers, and other parties/sources utilized for the submitted project. This information will not be visible to the judges.
Entrants agree to follow publicity guidelines as established by ASID Illinois and authorize ASID Illinois to use any and all materials submitted for marketing and publicity purposes in perpetuity.
IMPORTANT NOTICE: If you win and would like a duplicate award, the charge is $200.00. Please fill out the Winner form and alert us that you would like a second award. An invoice will be sent to you after the awards program as the frame will be ready at the event. Please make sure you check this ONLY if you want a second award.

Judging Criteria

A panel of independent, distinguished interior design professionals from other ASID Chapters throughout the United States will review the entries anonymously and select category winners on the basis of the actual or intended impact of the completed project or product on the life, health, and/or well-being of the client or end user as stated in the project design statement. Additional criteria includes design creativity, function, solutions appropriate to the design challenges, scale and proportion, color and composition, lighting, materials and patterns. All entries will be judged by the highest standards of our profession on their own and comparatively with other entries in that category. ASID Illinois reserves the right to not award a category if the projects submitted do not meet the high standards of the independent judging panel. If the jury sees a code violation on an entry, the entry may be rejected and not awarded. ASID Illinois reserves the right not to award a winner in any category.

Scores are based on a scale of 1-10 or 1-20 per category. 25 is the highest with an overall score for all of the scoring criteria with one exception. The Impact criteria awards 30 points maximum with a total of 150 being the best score for the designer awards.

Judging Criteria

ALL COMMERCIAL & RESIDENTIAL CATEGORIES

Color and composition 20
Overall Design Meets Stated Goals and Challenges 20
Creative use of materials 20
Effective use of the scale and proportion 20
Effective explanation of design criteria and goals 10
Effective use of Lighting 10
Uniqueness and creativity of the design 10
Solutions appropriate to the stated design statement 10
Overall quality and clarity of presentation 10
ASID believes Design Impacts Lives. How successful was the designer in creating a project that impacted the lives of the client. Please use the Client Description, Client Goals and Design Concept to judge this category as a whole. 20

TOTAL AVAILABLE SCORE 150

ALL PRODUCT CATEGORIES

Innovative Use of Materials 25
Overall visual impact 25
Effectiveness and Functionality of the product 25
Creativity 25
Craftsmanship 25

TOTAL AVAILABLE SCORE 125

Students Portfolio

Color and composition 20
Creative use of materials 20
Effective use of the scale and proportion 20
Effective explanation of design criteria and goals 20
Overall quality and clarity of presentation 20
Technical Expertise 20
Originality 25

TOTAL AVAILABLE 125

Residential Categories

R01 - Kitchen
R02 - Kitchen by Small Firm (3 employees or fewer)
R03 - Bath
R04 - Bath by Small Firm (3 employees or fewer)
R05 - Powder Room
R06 - Residence Under 3,000 SF
R07 - Residence Over 3,000 SF
R08 - Design for Individual with Specific needs/ Aging in Place/ Universal Design
R09 - Showcase Space - A space designed and implemented in a showhouse (ex. Lake Forest Showhouse, Dreaming of Design, RNDD Gallery Walk)
R10 - Outdoor Space
R11 - Living Room / Family Room Design / Dining Design
R12 - Bedroom Design
R13 - Millwork / Built-ins

Commercial Categories

C01 - Contract Under 5,000 SF
C02 - Contract Over 5,000 SF
C03 - Healthcare
C04 - Hospitality/ Restaurant / Cocktail Lounge / Bar

Specialty

S01 - Historic Restoration: Contract or Residential
S02 - Specialty Spaces (Stairs, Elevator Lobby, Coffee Bar, Transportation, Home Office, Kids Playroom, Retro Design 20+yrs)
S03 - The Mart Emerging Designer Award

Designers and Industry Partners: Product Design

P01 - Furnishings - Upholstery and/or Casegoods
P02 - Custom Textile: Rugs/ Fabrics/ Wallcoverings/ Bedding

Interior Design Student Award

D01 - Interior Design Student Category - Portfolio - This award category is open only to ASID Illinois Student Members in good standing. All project submissions are to be completed as part of an Interior Design curriculum (non-built, non-photographed).

ASID Illinois

ASID Illinois Design Excellence Awards 2026

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Awards Program Dates

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