Today we presented the winners of the 2018 Melbourne Design Awards. It is a pleasure to recognise 166 projects across 63 awarded categories. This evening we were incredibly pleased to announce our best design studios and the Melbourne Design Champion for 2018...

Best Studio - Small

Northmost

Best Studio - Medium

Evolution 7

Best Studio - Large

Cornwell Design

Design Champion

Department of Veteran Affairs

BETTER FUTURE is about celebrating the courage of project commissioners and creators, recognising the diversity and excellence across Australia’s most diverse awards program.

Over the past few months, I have met with Jury members in Hong Kong, London, Berlin, Reykjavik and New York – the feedback has been “what an incredible set of projects, not only large budget high impact but also small scale high impact”.

Since last year's awards, I have also met with past winners and discussed how to improve the awards evenings. There were three items that came up: a VIP reception, a keepsake for clients and team members, and enhanced presentation format (basically less clapping). I took this feedback on board and added two new components to our awards night:

The VIP Design Executive Club Reception starts 60 minutes prior to the main event. An opportunity for Design Executives to meet, discuss the winning projects and network before re-joining their team to celebrate the winning projects.

Award Annuals are the second new element for 2018 – each winning project receives a 1/3 of a page listing. Unlike other global award programs, we don’t ask you to pay licensing fees or buy mandatory advertising packages. We have included the option to boost the project listing to a 2/3 or whole page and also offer advertising opportunities to cover the production costs of the annuals. You can view a digital copy of the Melbourne annual here or order hard copies here - additional gold and silver trophies are also available for order here.

This year we celebrated the 9th Melbourne Design Awards, where our awarded projects now represent $18.2 billion of economic activity! This evening focussed on a conversation with the commissioners of design projects in recognition of their role in sustaining this strong and growing industry.

Our continued global growth and development indicates that we’re on the right track. The Melbourne Design Awards model is now rolled out in Sydney, Hong Kong, Berlin, London, New York, Chicago & San Francisco. 

This doesn’t happen in a vacuum. I’d especially like to thank the Design Executives Club, Global Jury, supporting studios, corporates and our industry association partners. Without their input, support and efforts this global design community wouldn’t exist.

Thanks to the whole community, it's amazing what we've created, it humbles me.

Mark Bergin
Founder & Chair
BETTER FUTURE