identity is excited to announce its annual identity Design Awards 2025 for the 12th year running. Submissions open by the first week of August and we are excited to receive submissions from design and architecture firms locally, in the GCC, and from across the globe with projects in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region.

Timeline

Key dates

August – Submissions open; table sales open

September – Submissions closed

1st week of October – Shortlist & judges announced

Mid to end of October – Voting opens and closes

November – Awards gala night

Categories

Please find the categories here and get your projects ready to submit. We have 27 categories this year; ranging from commercial to residential, and even product design.

What’s New

• Interior Design: Fit-out — Commercial
• Interior Design: Fit-out — Residential
• Interior Design – Best Use of Art
• Innovations in Design – Installations and Pop-Ups

Criteria for submissions

• Projects need to be based in the MENA region
• The project should be 100% completed by the closing deadline for nominations (ie. between 1 August 2025 to 1 August 2026).
• Submissions need to include actual photos and not renders, unless you are applying for the project of the future category.
• The project needs to be at the 100% completion stage, unless you are applying for the ‘Project of the Future award’, which needs to be at the under construction stage.
• We are accepting projects that have been completed at any point in time between 1 August 2025 and 1 August 2026.
• We will only accept projects that have real images. Renders / AI-generated images will not be considered, unless you are applying for the project of the future award.
• There are no limits to the number of submissions a firm can submit across categories.
• Please avoid duplication of submissions in the same category.

Submissions checklist

Here is what you need to know before you submit. Please ensure you read the below thoroughly and have the below collateral handy to ensure a smooth submission process:

1. Review the list of categories that your firm wants to apply for here. We have a total of 27 categories this year across architecture and interior design. We also will have submissions open for product design and emerging interior designer of the year.
2. Prepare the key information ready, such as name of the project, date of completion, size of the project, and project type.
3. Prepare the project photos in a Dropbox or Google drive shareable link (real, high-resolution images only that are preferably minimum 3000 px in width) If you are nominating a person for the emerging interior designer of the year, you will need to have their photo ready as well. All of the images should be downloadable and have public view permissions.
4. A presentation in the form of a .pdf document that explains the concept of the project and why you think this project should win. The overall presentation should not exceed 10 slides. The maximum size of file allowed is 10 MB.

Now you have all you need to get your submissions ready. The nominations are open and free for all to enter, and each submission in a different category requires a fresh entry.

What you need to know

• To enter your projects, please visit the identity Design Awards website. Submissions open during the first week of August 2026.
• The submissions are open and free for all to enter.

Contact us

You can contact Sharmine Khan ([email protected]) for any awards-related queries or table bookings. For queries regarding the submissions process, you may contact Aneesha Rai ([email protected]).

Over the coming months, we’ll be announcing our jury and revealing which nominations made the shortlist. Please subscribe for our daily newsletter and follow us on social media, (if you haven’t already) to keep up with the updates.