iF DESIGN AWARD 2025 Jury begins in early December

With the newly formed Sustainability Working Group, iF Design is strengthening the focus on sustainability in the jury process - Lisa Gralnek, iF Design USA, is appointed Global Head of Sustainability and Impact

The first round of the two-stage jury process for the iF DESIGN AWARD 2025, the Online Preselection, will run from 2 to 5 December 2024. 131 jurors from 23 nations have the task of evaluating the almost 11,000 submissions for the iF DESIGN AWARD 2025 in nine disciplines: product-, packaging-, service-, communication design, architecture and interior design, professional concept, user experience and user interface. The best 50 percent of the entries will then go on to the iF Final Jury. The iF DESIGN AWARDs and the 75 Gold Awards will be presented at this physical jury round in Hamburg, Germany in February 2025.

Uwe Cremering, CEO of iF Design, is more than satisfied with this year’s result: “We are very proud that almost 11,000 designs from all over the world have once again been submitted for the iF DESIGN AWARD 2025. We are particularly pleased with the growing response from Germany and other European countries, Japan and the USA, where we have been represented by a branch since last year. The high number of submissions continues to give us a tailwind and is an indication of the power that design has in the most diverse areas of life. We are particularly looking forward to the expert and intensive discussions of this year’s jury, which once again consists of many design experts from all over the world.”

The iF Jury 2025: About the 131 design experts

Focus on sustainability in the award strengthened and anchored in personnel

iF Design is increasing its focus on the topic of sustainability - which was previously already part of the “Impact” evaluation criterion. Now it is an equally important criterion alongside the evaluation criteria of idea, form, function and differentiation and accounts for 1/5 of the overall evaluation.

The aim of iF Design is to promote sustainable design, take into account the expectations of consumers and designers and thus contribute to positive change in the industry and society.

With more than 15 years of experience in social and environmental issues in various industries and regions, Lisa Gralnek has helped initiate this change as Managing Director of iF Design USA and now also as the newly appointed Head of Sustainability and Impact: “We no longer live in a world where we can relegate sustainable design to its own category and evaluate it separately,” says Lisa Gralnek. “Great design - be it a product, packaging or a platform - should be sustainable. I believe in the power of design to move our world forward. And if we, as one of the largest and most prestigious design awards in the world, don’t take this step, who will?”

Gralnek initiated the “Sustainability Working Group”, consisting of seven interdisciplinary, international experts, which helps to prioritize topics and define specific questions to which each submission must provide an answer. The sustainability experts will be on hand to advise the jurors in each jury phase. Also new, when submitting entries, participants will be able to indicate whether their design is accredited by one of the 75 internationally recognized social or environmental certifications included in the 2025 list.

More about the Sustainability Working Group