EVALUATION CRITERIA

Every entry to the GRANSHAN Bloom Award is judged with care and curiosity – by experts who value both bold ideas and flawless execution. Our criteria reflect the balance between concept, craft, and cultural relevance, ensuring that outstanding work is recognised in all its dimensions.

• Concept & Innovation – Ideas that surprise, inspire, and push the discipline forward.

• Communication & Clarity – Design that speaks with precision and purpose.

• Visual & Aesthetic Quality – Beauty, balance, and detail in perfect harmony.

• Typographic Excellence – Mastery of letterforms and the scripts they belong to.

• Craftsmanship & Execution – Impeccable finish with every element purposefully placed.

• Usability & Functionality – Works seamlessly in both form and function.

• Cultural & Social Relevance – Design that resonates with its time, place, and audience.

While all criteria are important, three stand at the very core of our mission – and will each carry double weight in the jury’s evaluation: Concept & Innovation, Typographic Excellence, and Cultural & Social Relevance. Together, they form the living triad of the GRANSHAN Bloom Award: the spark of a bold idea, the mastery of the script in every curve and counter, and the deep resonance of a design rooted in its cultural soil. It is where vision meets craft, and where both find their true meaning in the stories, symbols, and communities they serve.

JURY PROCESS & AWARDS

The GRANSHAN Bloom Award follows a three-stage jury process designed to recognise excellence at every step – and to ensure that every winning project receives meaningful, visible recognition.

All entries are presented to the jury in an anonymised format. Each project is accompanied by the descriptive texts from the entry form (with no identifying details) and, wherever available, by animated or motion-based representations. This ensures that jurors can assess not only the visual quality of the design, but also how it performs in its intended, dynamic context.

What You Can Win

Each winning work receives the hallmark of the GRANSHAN Bloom Award. All awards are equal in status; there are no gold, silver, or bronze rankings.

From these winners, the international Grand Jury selects up to 50 Best of the Best – the highest distinction in the competition.

In addition, we plan to present a range of special awards in collaboration with partner organisations and institutions. These may highlight projects that, for example, explore experimental tools and emerging technologies, engage deeply with typographic culture and heritage, or demonstrate design’s capacity to create social impact. The exact special awards will be announced once partnerships are confirmed.

Supporting Foundries’ Choice Award 

In addition to the main jury prizes, each of our Supporting Foundries may present a special recognition: the Foundry’s Choice. After the official jury decisions, every Foundry may select one of the awarded projects in which their own typefaces have been used with particular creativity and impact.

These projects will be spotlighted twice – first by the Foundry itself on its own channels, and again through GRANSHAN’s global platforms – giving the selected works an extra layer of visibility, credibility, and promotion within the international design community.

For entrants, this means another chance to win: beyond the GRANSHAN Bloom Award, your project could be chosen by a leading, globally active type foundry as their highlight – directly connecting your work to some of today’s most influential independent font publishers.

All entries to the GRANSHAN Bloom Award are submitted through our dedicated submission tool, developed in collaboration with a specialist for competition platforms. This system allows you to upload your work in the required digital formats and guides you step-by-step through the process. You can revise and update your entry at any point until you make the final »Submit« – so feel free to start early and refine as you go.

For physical or printed works, high-quality digital documentation is essential – photographs, scans, or video recordings that present the work clearly. For example, a magazine can be uploaded both as a browsable PDF and as a short video flipping through the pages, alongside individual high-resolution page images to show typographic detail.

The submission tool is designed to collect not only your project files but also the information needed for jury evaluation and, in the case of an award, for immediate use in our online exhibition, printed catalogue, and physical displays. You will be asked to provide:

• Entrant and contact details

• Photos, PDFs, Videos

• A concise project description

• Credits for all contributors, with short biography

All materials should be prepared so that, if your work is awarded, they can be used without further editing for digital projection, large-format printing, or online presentation. The same platform will also be used by the jury to review and evaluate your work in the first round of judging. Please note: an entry will only be forwarded to the jury once the participation fee has been paid.

To ensure a fair evaluation, all projects are presented to the jury anonymously. Descriptive texts provided in the entry form will accompany the work, but must not include any information that reveals the entrant’s identity. Whenever possible, submissions should include animated or motion-based material (video, GIF, or equivalent) so that the jury can experience the work in its intended dynamic form.