The AD Challenge arises within the scope of the Associative Design project for design
professionals with the purpose of promoting the creation and development of new
products for the home space.
Objetive
The creation of the award aims to challenge professionals to contribute to the development
of new furniture pieces by encouraging them to create a new trend for the sector. Projects
that present innovative concepts with different applications of raw materials, taking into
account the predicted scarcity in the future, will be valued.
The sustainability of the project, both in production and in the final design, and the
creativity invested in the proposal based on solutions that aim to solve household
problems, whether in the present or the future, are other key aspects of this challenge.
Considering that the square meters per dwelling are increasingly limited and there are
furniture pieces that continue to be essential for a habitable space.
The AD Challenge’21-23 is a way to encourage creative professionals in the industry to
think “outside the box” and create products for the future, taking into account various
socioeconomic factors and consumer trends for the future.
The challenge of AD Challenge’21-23 is to design for tomorrow!
APPLICATIONS
Applications are individual and are free of charge.
CONTEST PARTICIPANTS
Proposals for this contest can be submitted by Design professionals or companies in
the field of Design;
The candidate, as the project’s author, can only submit a single proposal, choosing
either individual participation or participation through a company;
Applicants must be 18 years of age or older;
Applicants can be of Portuguese nationality or foreigners with tax residence in
Portugal;
Members of the jury or their immediate family members are not allowed to participate.
PROPOSAL REQUIREMENTS
The submitted proposals must meet the following minimum requirements:
• The proposals must be furniture projects for use in the interior of a living space, which
may include a blend of the following areas: lighting, ceramics, upholstery, textiles, or
glass, provided that wood predominates in the final result of the proposal, accounting
for approximately 60%.
• The proposals must have a clear and objective descriptive report.
The proposals must also meet the following additional requirements:
Creativity, Innovation, and Sustainability
The proposals must be useful, aesthetically appealing, durable, creative, innovative,
and sustainable;
Authorship
The proposals must be unpublished and authored by the candidate, and must not
violate the rights of third parties, including intellectual property rights;
Professional activity
In the case of a proposal submitted as part of professional work, the candidate must
obtain all necessary authorizations in advance to ensure that the intellectual property
and promotion rights arising from the selected proposal are assigned to the Promoter.
Personal Data
The proposals must not contain identifiable personal data or elements of the candidate
or third parties;
Legality
The proposals must not be or contain illegal, false, misleading, racially, ethically, or
morally condemnable, harmful, or offensive elements that compromise the dignity and
image of individuals, including.
The Promoter reserves the right to exclude proposals that do not comply with the
provisions of this Regulation if they are deemed to violate the rights of third parties,
particularly intellectual property rights, and/or in the event of an administrative or judicial
decision.
APPLICATION SUBMISSION
The Candidate must submit the following elements for the competition:
• Descriptive Memo of the Proposal, in .DOC format;
• Technical Drawings, with respective views and dimensions, in .PDF format;
• High-resolution (300dpi) 3D images of the piece, in .JPG or .TIFF format;
• Presentation poster of the project (maximum of two posters in A1 format, with a
resolution of 300dpi), in .PDF, .JPG, or .TIFF format.
The candidate can submit one proposal per category in the competition, and it is
necessary to include the respective reference in the Dropbox file name (e.g. ADC21/23_
projectname).
Proposals must not contain the name of the candidate(s) or any other element that could
identify them, such as signatures, initials, or logos, under penalty of disqualification.
Applications and submission of proposals must be sent by 23:59 GMT on July 20,
2023.
After submitting and validating the application, each participant will receive an email
to the email address provided in the registration form, in which the contest promoter will
communicate whether the application has been successfully submitted.
The project must be kept confidential until the contest results are published.
Participants may not disclose the project or submit the proposal to any other competition.
The candidates’ email addresses must remain active and updated throughout the
Contest. Any changes to the addresses provided by the candidates in their respective
Application Form will only take effect after the promoter has received their communication.
By submitting the Proposal, the candidate accepts and binds themselves to the
terms of this Contest, and cannot, without the promoter’s permission, withdraw their
application or terminate their participation in it.
The promoter will not be responsible for any problems with the receipt of applications
caused by interruptions or network failures on the website created for this purpose or
the candidate’s email.
SELECTION AND EXCLUSION OF APPLICATIONS
The Promoter undertakes, in accordance with this Regulation, to perform the following tasks:
• Receipt of applications and confirmation of their online validation;
• Verification of the compliance of applications, according to the provisions of the
Regulation;
• Communication to the Candidates of relevant information related to this contest.
The tasks mentioned in the previous number will be ensured by the Secretariat.
If the Secretariat verifies that the applications do not comply, at the time of
submission and during the course of this Contest, with the provisions of this Regulation,
it may, depending on the nature and severity of the non-compliance, either refuse the
application outright or request that the candidate correct the non-conformities within a
specified period and under the conditions communicated by the Secretariat.
The promoter may also exclude an application at any time if they consider that
the candidate has attempted to harm the Contest, particularly by providing misleading
information or acting abusively, with the intention of harming the other candidates.
EVALUATION AND ANALYSIS OF APPLICATIONS
The evaluation of applications will be carried out as follows:
• On July 31, 2023, the submitted projects will be evaluated;
• The projects that will proceed to the prototyping phase will be selected.
The applications will be evaluated based on the following assessment criteria:
• Degree of innovation;
• Degree of environmental impact;
• Aesthetics;
• Functionality;
• Economic feasibility of production.
Requirements for the selection of applications for the proposal submission phase:
When submitting the project for final evaluation, the candidate must provide the
following information, marked in the form, as a condition of eligibility for the proposal to
be evaluated by the jury.
The Secretariat will contact each candidate if any anomalies are found in the provided
information.
• Confirmation of Registration duly filled out and updated in all fields;
• Full Name;
• Citizen card number or other identification document of the candidates;
• Personal Tax Identification Number (NIF) or Corporate Tax Identification Number;
• Mobile contact;
• Email contact;
• If requested, selected candidates must submit a signed declaration stating that they
grant the Promoter the rights to disclose the project, namely for prototype production,
project disclosure, and communication in the competition;
• In the event that any of the selected Proposals do not meet the requirements of the
Competition or the access conditions thereto, or if the candidate fails to submit the
aforementioned documentation, the Proposal will be excluded from the Competition,
and the Jury may select another Proposal in its place.
JURY ORGANIZATION AND OPERATION
The Jury shall consist of 5 (five) members appointed by the Promoter, one of whom
shall be the President.
Decisions of the Jury are made by an absolute majority of votes, are final, and not
subject to appeal.
The Jury reserves the right to request information and/or clarifications from the
candidate or their representative, as appropriate, about the projects presented if it
deems it necessary for their proper evaluation.
The Jury also reserves the right not to select any Proposal submitted in all or some
of the Categories if they do not meet the minimum quality requirements desired.
ANNOUNCEMENT OF WINNERS
The announcement of the prize winners will be made as indicated in the Competition
schedule.
The Promoter will contact the winners by telephone and/or email for the purposes
set out in the preceding paragraph.
PRIZES
The winning applications will be entitled to the following prizes:
Monetary Prizes:
• 1st Place – 2.500€ (two thousand and five hundred euros)
• 2nd Place – 1.250€ (one thousand two hundred and fifty euros)
• 3rd Place – 750€ (seven hundred and fifty euros)
Honorable Mention:
• 500€ (five hundred euros)
Honorable mentions may be awarded to projects that the jury deems valid and meet
the conditions for their award.
TIMELINE
Opening of Registrations and Proposal Submission: 1st June 2023 to 20th July 2023
Jury Evaluation: 31st July 2023
Announcement of Winners and Award Ceremony: End of 2nd semester 2023
The contest is exclusive to Portugal and the islands.
For any additional clarifications, candidates should send an email to:
[email protected]