About ADEX

ADEX stands for Awards for Design Excellence and is the largest and most prestigious awards program for product design of furniture, fixtures and finishes marketed to the design trade. Design Journal, the international trade publication for interior designers, architects and facility managers is the proud sponsor of the ADEX Awards.

Design Journal as a way of recognizing superior product design introduced the Awards for Design Excellence (ADEX) in 1994. Response from manufacturers was immediate as over 100 companies participated in the inaugural event. The 2010-11 ADEX Awards will attract upwards of 500 companies submitting approximately two thousand of innovative new products.

An anonymous panel of professionals representing a cross section of the design industry conducts all voting for the ADEX Awards. ADEX judges are among the ablest in their respective areas of expertise and so the ADEX Award represents the best product designs of the year in the opinion of those who themselves reside at the top of their specialty. Specifiers who specialize in office design judge the contract entries, lighting specialists judge lighting, flooring specifiers judge flooring and so on.

Each category has potential for three award levels of platinum, gold or silver. Judges award points in several categories for each entry. Total points earned determine each product’s score. Minimum scores are needed to qualify for awards. Winners are published each April in Design Journal. In their first year, the ADEX Awards were presented in a modest four-page section in Design Journal. The 2010-11 ADEX Awards will take up the entire ADEX issue.