About
A regional award with its workings on the outside
Gridliners exists to put design work from this region in front of the people who should see it, and to say plainly how it is judged.
The awards, and who stands behind them
One cycle a year. Work is entered in a category, verified against the tier it was entered in, scored by an assigned jury against published criteria, and then ranked by public vote inside its own group.
The programme is run by the association that convenes the jury and holds the criteria. It is not a magazine list and not a paid placement: every entry goes through the same six phases, and every rule that decides a result is written down before entries open.
Association membership and the academy programme sit outside this site.
What we are for
Mission
To judge design work in this region against stated criteria, in the entrant's own tier, and to publish the result with the reasoning attached.
Vision
An archive the region's designers use as a reference: who was working, on what, and what was held up as good in any given year.
Who runs it
A small team runs the cycle, briefs the jury and produces the ceremony.
Layla Haddad
Programme Director
Runs the cycle end to end and chairs the jury briefing.
Omar Nasser
Head of Judging
Assembles the panel, assigns categories and holds the criteria.
Rana Khalil
Entries and Verification
Checks declared tiers against proofs before judging opens.
Yusuf Amari
Partnerships
Works with the partners and sponsors who fund the cycle.
Dina Saab
Ceremony and Production
Plans the annual ceremony and the winners' materials.
Karim Fahmy
Communications
Publishes the cycle: announcements, news and the archive.
The ceremony
Every cycle closes with a ceremony, held in a different city in the region. Winners collect their award in person and the work goes up on the wall.
Dubai
Venue to be announced
2026
Amman
Venue to be announced
2025
Cairo
Venue to be announced
2024
Questions people ask
The short answers. How to Enter carries the detail, and the terms carry the rest.
Enter, or ask us something
Entries open once a year. Anything the answers above did not cover, put to us directly.