Article
The most avoidable loss is the wrong group
The group decides which criteria carry weight. Read it before the deadline.
2 min read
Article · January 29, 2026
Strong work loses every cycle because it was entered where its strengths do not count. The sub-category description is short, it is published months ahead, and it governs the score.
What an entry has to prove
The entry form asks for the brief as it was given, not as it is remembered. Jurors read the constraint first, because a piece that solved a hard problem modestly is a different achievement from one that solved an easy problem beautifully.
Credits belong to the people who did the work. A studio may enter, but the record carries the names of the practitioners, which is what makes the archive useful to somebody hiring three years from now.
Entering as a small studio
The tiers exist so that a two-person studio is not asked to look like a network agency. Freelancers compete with freelancers, students with students, and the same four criteria are applied inside each.
The most common avoidable loss is a strong project entered in the wrong group. Read the sub-category description before the deadline, not after: the group sets which criteria carry weight.
Read this next
The criteria, the tiers and the six phases are set out in full under Awards. If a point here matters to an entry you are preparing, that is the page that governs it - this one only explains it.
