Kyoorius unveils its jury for the Design Awards 2014

Kyoorius, in association with D&AD, completed India’s largest design awards with 468 entries judged across 9 categories, ranging from Branding & Identity, Design for Communication, Packaging, Space, Books to Writing and Editorial.

The Kyoorius Design Awards offer a diverse range of categories that recognize both comprehensive design projects as well as individual components. To this end, the Design Craft jury is dedicated to illustration, typography, graphic design and photography.

The Design for Good jury reflects design’s ability to build awareness, promote a good cause or social welfare. Works must demonstrate positive social impact, the capacity to change behaviour and a sensitivity to sustainability issues.

Kyoorius Awards have no winning tier structure – no gold, silver or bronze, and it is the jury’s prerogative to award one or multiple Blue Elephants in one category, whereas none in another, if entries are not up to the mark. A mix of the top international, regional, and Indian creative minds have been selected to ensure that work is compared against industry best practices, while keeping the Indian context in mind.

The Kyoorius Design Awards jury includes Jury Foreman Michael Johnson – Creative Director & Principal, Johnson Banks, Felix Ng – Creative Director, Anonymous, Alok Nanda – Founder & CEO, Alok Nanda & Company, Anthony Lopez – CEO & Principal, Lopez Design and Ram Sinam – Co-Founder, Trapeze.

All jury members gathered in Pune at the sprawling campus at DSK International Campus, one of the only institutions of its kind in India, offering professional courses in Animation, Game Design and Industrial Design, over a three day window to review, discuss and elect the best of the best over an intensive three-day session. All voting is private, never by a show of hands.

Kyoorius and D&AD aim to create a truly neutral and ethical platform that recognises the best of Indian creativity. Kyoorius will once again open its doors to the public as it had done for the Advertising Awards jury sessions in Mumbai. The last day of judging, 25th June will be open to press and professionals and students from Pune’s creative community. Visitors will have the opportunity to view the best in Indian design, understand the judging process and watch jury members debate entries.

Winners of Blue and Black Elephants will be awarded at Kyoorius Designyatra, the annual creativity and innovation conference held in Goa from 11th to 13th September 2014. In-book winners, also considered nominees for Blue Elephants, will be announced in August. Alongside winners, nominees will be featured in the Kyoorius Design Awards Annual, an annual publication that is distributed to over 5000 corporates in India.

Funds raised from the Kyoorius Awards are funneled back in to the Indian creative industry through programmes such as FYIdays. In conjunction with the jury sessions, Kyoorius will host a FYIday with branding guru Michael Johnson on 24th June in Pune at Sumant Moolgaokar Auditorium, and on 26th June in Mumbai at ISDI Parsons Mumbai.

Speaking at the judging event – Rajesh Kejriwal – Founder CEO of Kyoorius said “Design is at the root of creativity. Over the last 5 yeats we have seen the role of design change in India – from being a non-essential to a critical tool for business development and growth. We’ve seen significant growth in participation both at the awards and at designyatra not only from designer and studios but from clients themselves.”