UCDA Design Awards

UCDA Design Awards

The UCDA Design Awards recognizes the best of the exceptional design and creative work done by communication professionals to promote educational institutions (secondary, vocational, or higher education) and supports the exchange of ideas and information relating to the unique role of these creatives.

Enter your portfolio pieces in the prestigious UCDA Design Awards. These annual awards honor the best work in educational design—in print, digital, illustration, photography, and student competitions. These coveted awards are judged by a hand-picked panel of peer jurors composed of designersdesign educators, photographers, and illustrators working in or doing a significant portion of their work for educational institutions—they understand the environments in which you create.

Winning entries of these four competitions will be part of the UCDA Design Show on display during the 50th annual UCDA Design Conference. The conference provides you an opportunity to get an in-depth look at the issues facing designers and communication professionals, both in and out of educational institutions, and gain inspiration for better collaboration. Scheduled for October 10-13, 2020, in Atlanta, Georgia.

Due to the COVID-19 health crisis, two important changes have been made:
1. We will be judging all categories in all four competitions based on the image/digital file provided in the submission process. You do not have to send in a printed copy to enter. However, winners in the Print Competition will be required to send a sample and duplicate copy to the UCDA Home Office at a later time for inclusion in the UCDA Design Awards Show at the conference and as part of the UCDA Design Collection archives..
We’ve held out on making these decisions as long as we can as we truly value the tangible and tactile nature of print, and hate to lose that interaction for our judges, but understand these are unusual times and call for creative solutions.
2. We have extended standard and late deadlines for the Photography, Illustration, and Student Competitions—those deadlines for all competitions are now the same (see deadlines here).
For more information, visit the UCDA Design Awards page