Korea Institute of Design Promotion Accepting Entries for the 61st Korea Design Exhibition

Submissions Accepted Until June 30

The Korea Institute of Design Promotion announced on May 13 that it will accept submissions for the 61st Korea Design Exhibition until the end of next month.

The Korea Design Exhibition is the nation’s longest-running design competition, held in accordance with the Industrial Design Promotion Act. As a state-led contest, it aims to discover creative design concepts that will lead the future of industry and nurture the next generation of global designers, serving as a major gateway in the design field.

There are three main submission categories: General (professionals and university/graduate students), Youth (elementary, middle, and high school students), and Invited/Recommended Designers. The design divisions eligible for entry include a total of seven areas: Product; Visual/Information; Digital Media/Content; Space/Environment; Fashion/Textile; Service/Experience; and Industrial Crafts.

The final winners will be selected through multiple rounds of evaluation and verification, including a first-round online document review, a second-round physical judging, a third-round public verification, public participation review, and a presentation review. Notably, this year’s competition has streamlined the process for the youth division by eliminating the physical judging stage, and for high school student candidates for the Bronze Prize and above, the public presentation review has been expanded to enhance the fairness of the evaluation.

The total prize pool amounts to 77.5 million won. One Grand Prize-winning entry in the General category will receive the Presidential Award and a prize of 30 million won. In the Youth category, one Grand Prize-winning entry each from elementary, middle, and high school will receive the Prime Minister’s Award and a prize of 1 million won.

Entries that achieve at least Honorable Mention status will receive a range of practical, step-by-step benefits, such as: participation in educational programs; exemption from the first round of judging and review fees for the Excellent Design Product Selection; a 2-point bonus when applying for prototype production support projects; and access to programs related to intellectual property and design, including the D2B Design Fair and legal education.

General awardees will be offered additional benefits such as opportunities for online and offline exhibition and exemption from document screening for the Global Design Internship. Youth division awardees will receive practical benefits including opportunities for online and offline exhibition, scholarships or participation in experiential programs, and eligibility or bonus points for university admission through special talent selection processes.

The winning works are scheduled to be showcased and officially announced at 'Design Korea 2026,' the nation’s largest design industry expo, which will be held at COEX in November.

Kang Yoonjoo, President of the Korea Institute of Design Promotion, stated, "Celebrating its 61st year, the Korea Design Exhibition is the country’s premier design competition, leading the future of K-Design. We will spare no effort in providing systematic support so that the creative talents discovered through the exhibition can shine on the global stage."