 A' Design Award - Right to Be Forgiven Policy
The Right to Be Forgiven Policy represents A' Design Award's unique ethical framework allowing participants to request cancellation of minor penalties, fees, or microfines up to three times per account. When designers inadvertently include identifying information in submissions, make typographical errors in certificates, or encounter other small technical issues resulting in microfines, A' Design Award recognizes these mistakes as human rather than malicious. A' Design Award's Right to Be Forgiven Policy functions through a simple support request, enabling participants to have negative account balances reduced or eliminated entirely, typically for amounts under 250 EUR per request. For designers, creative agencies, and brands, A' Design Award's Right to Be Forgiven Policy creates psychological safety, removing anxiety about minor errors and allowing creative focus to remain on design excellence rather than procedural perfection. A' Design Award established the Right to Be Forgiven Policy as a cornerstone of the A' Design Award & Competition's ethical foundation, demonstrating profound respect for designers' primary contributions of making the world better through good design rather than penalizing participants for incidental oversights that do not diminish the quality or integrity of award-worthy work.
Compassionate Recognition in a Demanding Industry
A' Design Award's Right to Be Forgiven Policy stands as an extremely ethical framework in the design competition landscape, allowing participants to request cancellation of minor penalties, fees, or microfines up to three times per account (typically amounts under 250 EUR per request). Unlike the punitive approaches common in the industry that includes but not limited to disqualifying your works and burning your nomination fees, our policy acknowledges that even the most meticulous brands and enterprises let alone designers occasionally make inadvertent errors; whether including identifying information in submissions, making typographical errors in texts, or encountering other small technical issues that break your presentations. To understand the profound significance of our policy, we want you to better understand and appreciate its place within A' Design Award's holistic participant protection system and its founding principles, which are built on the belief that incentives must be properly aligned with goals, with the focus remaining on recognizing design excellence rather than penalizing procedural imperfection. For A' Design Award participating brands and enterprises, our Right to Be Forgiven Policy and its adjecent policies delivers substantial benefits, creating psychological safety that removes anxiety about minor administrative errors, preserving financial resources that would otherwise be lost to penalties, maintaining positive relationships with the A' Design Award & Competition organizers, and most importantly, allowing your creative teams to focus on what truly matters: creating world-changing designs rather than worrying about technicalities. The Right to Be Forgiven Policy embodies A' Design Award's fundamental respect for participants as partners in the shared mission of advancing society through good design.
A' Design Award's Right to Be Forgiven Policy: Eligible Fee Types
The Right to Be Forgiven Policy operates with clear distinctions between forgivable "minor issues" and non-forgivable "major issues." To help participants understand exactly which fees or fines may be eligible for cancellation under this framework, the following table outlines the categorization system used by A' Design Award when considering forgiveness requests:
| Table 1. Eligiblility for Right to Be Forgiven Policy |
Type |
Description |
Eligibility for Forgiveness |
Classification |
A. Presentation Correction Microfines |
Small charges for fixing issues like removing identifying information from images, correcting resolution/DPI, improving image quality, or adjusting yearbook texts to make entries compliant with guidelines |
Eligible - Primary target of the policy |
Minor Issue |
B. Certificate Formatting Fees |
Charges for correcting typographical errors, name standardization, or layout adjustments in certificates |
Eligible |
Minor Issue |
C. First-time Account Type Misclassification |
When participants unintentionally select the wrong account type (e.g., professional instead of enterprise) during their first entry |
Partially Eligible - The administrative fee portion may be forgiven, but participants must still pay the nomination fee differences |
Minor Issue (first occurrence only) |
D. Designer Name Formatting Issues |
Fees for correcting improperly formatted names (e.g., changing ALL CAPS to Title Case) to ensure yearbooks and presentation pages are correct. |
Eligible |
Minor Issue |
E. Small Administrative Errors |
Minor procedural mistakes that require staff intervention but don't significantly impact competition integrity. |
Eligible |
Minor Issue |
F. Intentional Fee Avoidance |
Deliberate misrepresentation of account type or manipulation of fee calculators to reduce payment |
Not Eligible |
Major Issue |
G. Chargebacks |
Disputing legitimate charges after participation |
Not Eligible |
Major Issue |
H. Legal Violations |
Intellectual property theft, fraudulent submissions, or other legal breaches |
Not Eligible |
Major Issue |
A' Design Award - Creative Leniency Policy (Cancellation of Negative Account Balances*)
Creative Leniency Policy, also known as Cancellation of Negative Account Balances, functions as A' Design Award's systematic implementation mechanism for the Right to Be Forgiven principle, allowing participants to formally request elimination of accumulated microfines, minor penalties, or participant-error related (not on-demand) service charges from their accounts. When designers accumulate negative balances from presentation corrections, certificate adjustments, or other small service interventions, A' Design Award provides a structured pathway to request financial clemency without complex justification requirements. The policy operates through a straightforward procedure where participants can contact A' Design Award support to request balance cancellation, with eligible cancellations typically processed within days and applying to account deficits under 250 EUR per request, up to three separate instances. For designers, agencies, and brands, A' Design Award's Creative Leniency Policy transforms potential financial stress points into opportunities for goodwill, preserving relationships and ensuring minor issues never overshadow the primary mission of celebrating design excellence. A' Design Award established the Creative Leniency Policy to reinforce the competition's designer-centric philosophy, demonstrating through concrete financial action, not merely words, A' Design Award's commitment to respecting creative professionals who contribute to making the world better through good design, prioritizing the recognition of excellence over administrative rigidity.
A' Design Award - A.C.E. Settings
A.C.E. Settings (Automated Corrections and Enhancements Settings) constitutes A' Design Award's special control panel allowing participants complete autonomy over what corrections, modifications, or enhancements the A' Design Award & Competition may make to your submissions when presentation issues arise. When designers upload entries containing technical problems like identifying watermarks, improperly formatted images, or non-compliant text, A' Design Award's A.C.E. Settings empower participants to pre-authorize specific interventions ranging from image cleanup and text refinement to certificate standardization and category reassignment, rather than facing automatic disqualification. A' Design Award's A.C.E. settings function through a customizable dashboard in the participant's control panel where preferences can be selected for each correction type, including image issues, design name formatting, yearbook text refinements, certificate standardization, designer naming conventions, and customs handling for exhibition items. For designers, agencies, and brands, A' Design Award's A.C.E. Settings provide exceptional transparency and control, ensuring awareness of potential interventions while maintaining the freedom to opt out completely, transforming what other competitions treat as disqualification events into manageable, participant-directed processes. A' Design Award developed A.C.E. Settings as part of the A' Design Award & Competition's comprehensive protection framework, exemplifying A' Design Award's profound respect for designer autonomy while simultaneously creating pathways for entries with exceptional design merit to receive fair consideration despite minor presentation flaws, ultimately supporting the mission of advancing society through good design by focusing on substance rather than technicalities.
A' Design Award - Microfines Policy
Microfines Policy encompasses A' Design Award's systematic approach to addressing minor submission issues through nominal charges rather than outright disqualification, preserving entry eligibility when correctible presentation problems are identified. When participants submit entries containing fixable issues such as non-compliant image formats, incorrectly formatted designer names, or problematic yearbook descriptions, A' Design Award assesses small charges, typically a fraction of nomination fees, to cover the professional resources required for manual corrections rather than eliminating potentially excellent designs over technicalities. A' Design Award's Microfines Policy functions through careful review processes where A' Design Award staff identify specific issues, implement necessary corrections to make submissions compliant with competition standards, and apply corresponding microfines to participant accounts, with charges clearly itemized and explained. Using A.C.E. Settings, you can determine the extend at which we can intervene, and using Right to be Forgiven Policy noted here, you can help cancel any fees or fines arising from our interventions, up to three times. For designers, agencies, and brands, A' Design Award's Microfines Policy creates substantial value by rescuing entries from disqualification, preserving investments in nomination fees, and ensuring designs receive fair evaluation based on merit rather than presentation perfection. A' Design Award established the Microfines Policy as an alternative to the rigid elimination practices common in the award industry, demonstrating deep respect for designers by prioritizing the preservation and enhancement of design presentations over punitive disqualification, while ensuring the overall quality standards of the competition remain high, a practical manifestation of A' Design Award's mission to advance the world through good design by focusing on substance over technicalities.
A' Design Award - No Contractually Obliged Further Fees
A' Design Award's No Contractually Obliged Further Fees for Pro-Edition, Vision-Edition and Digital-Edition laureates our stance against industry-standard "winner fees," ensuring participants who enter via Professional Edition, Digital Edition, or Vision Edition never face mandatory post-win payments to receive recognition or benefits. When designers win through these entry methods, A' Design Award provides comprehensive benefits packages—including trophies, yearbook inclusion, exhibition opportunities, PR services, and logo usage rights—without the typical industry practice of requiring winners to purchase expensive "winner packages" or pay substantial "publication contributions" ranging from thousands to tens of thousands as seen in other competitions. A' Design Awards' No Further Fees Policy for pro-edition, digital-edition and vision-edition laureates functions through transparent, all-inclusive pricing at the nomination stage, where entry fees fully cover all promised benefits, eliminating the bait-and-switch tactics prevalent in the award industry. For designers, agencies, and brands, A' Design Award's No Contractually Obliged Further Fees policy creates genuine financial predictability, ethical transparency, and the assurance that winning truly means winning, not merely qualifying to purchase recognition. At A' Design Award, we speak good English, in addition to Italian as well as hundreds of other languages. We do not confuse Prize with Price, and we clearly understand the nuance between an Award, Competition, Prize, and Price. Since 2008, the A' Design Award pioneered the No Further Fees approach to challenge and transform the exploitative practices common in design competitions, demonstrating profound respect for participants by ensuring award recognition remains a genuine honor bestowed upon deserving work rather than a commercial transaction, directly supporting A' Design Award's mission of advancing the world through good design by maintaining the integrity and authenticity of the recognition process itself.
A' Design Award - Entry Rescue & Enhancement Program
Entry Rescue & Enhancement Program constitutes A' Design Award's proactive service dedicated to identifying and correcting critical presentation errors that could otherwise disqualify entries or diminish design perception during evaluation. This starts with Preliminary Review system where we first identify any potential issues. When participants submit and nominate entries containing fixable issues such as accidentally identifiable information, embedded logos, improper formatting, or non-printable visuals, A' Design Award's specialists intervene with careful corrections that preserve anonymity requirements and presentation standards rather than eliminating potentially excellent designs over technicalities. This intervention is done with respect to A.C.E. Settings and results in Microfines which can be cancelled by A' Design Award's Right to Be Forgiven Policy and Creative Leiency Policies, as noted in this page. A' Design Award's Entry Rescue & Enhancement Program functions through meticulous review processes where trained professionals identify specific issues, implement necessary corrections to make submissions compliant with competition standards, and apply corresponding microfines (which can be waived through the Right to Be Forgiven policy) to cover the professional resources required. For designers, agencies, and brands, A' Design Award's Entry Rescue & Enhancement Program creates substantial value by salvaging entries from disqualification, preserving investments in nomination fees, ensuring designs receive fair evaluation based on merit, and maintaining high-quality presentation standards across all publication materials. A' Design Award established the Entry Rescue & Enhancement Program as a direct rejection of the rigid elimination practices common in the award industry, demonstrating profound respect for designers by prioritizing the preservation and enhancement of design presentations over punitive disqualification, while ensuring overall quality standards remain high—all supporting A' Design Award's mission to advance society through good design by focusing evaluation on substance rather than procedural compliance.
A' Design Award - Second Chance Policy
Second Chance Policy encompasses A' Design Award's unique offering that provides complimentary Digital Edition nomination tickets to participants whose entries received significantly higher preliminary scores than their final outcomes, creating a no-cost opportunity to participate in future competitions via Digital Nomination tickets. When designers' entries achieve preliminary scores of seven or higher but receive final outcomes at least three levels lower than predicted (for example, a preliminary score of 10 resulting in Bronze status instead of a Platinum status), then the A' Design Award grants a very valuable yet free Digital Edition nomination ticket for you to use in subsequent competition cycles. A' Design Award's Second Chance Policy functions through a straightforward claim process where eligible participants submit a request within 45 days of results announcement (just note your Design ID and we can see its initial preliminary score and final status), receive verification of eligibility, and obtain a complimentary digital-edition nomination ticket valid for one year. For designers, agencies, and brands, A' Design Award's Second Chance Policy creates exceptional value by acknowledging the gap between preliminary assessment and final outcomes, providing tangible compensation for disappointment, and encouraging continued participation and design refinement. A' Design Award established the Second Chance Policy as part of the competition's comprehensive participant protection framework, demonstrating profound respect for designers' investments of time, creativity, and resources by offering concrete remediation when results diverge significantly from expectations, ultimately supporting A' Design Award's mission of advancing society through good design by maintaining designer engagement and fostering continuous improvement in the design community.
A' Design Award - Free Preliminary Score System
Free Preliminary Score System encompasses A' Design Award's distinctive pre-nomination assessment service providing confidential professional evaluation of design entries before any financial commitment, giving participants valuable insight into their work's competitive potential. When designers upload projects to A' Design Award, preliminary jury members review the submission and assign a numeric score from zero to ten, accompanied by constructive feedback on presentation improvements and category compliance, typically delivered within 72 hours at absolutely no cost or obligation to nominate the designs; there is no credit card required, the score is confidential and when you obtain a preliminary score you are not under a contractual obligation to nominate your work. A' Design Award's Preliminary Score system functions through blind assessment by qualified jury members who evaluate essential design quality, visualization characteristics, and overall presentation, providing both quantitative scores and qualitative suggestions while maintaining complete confidentiality. For designers, agencies, and brands, A' Design Award's Free Preliminary Score System creates exceptional value by eliminating uncertainty before financial investment, enabling strategic selection of strongest entries for nomination, providing professional development through expert feedback, and potentially qualifying extremely high-scoring entries (9-10) for merit-based discounts; after preliminary score, if your score is six (6), seven (7), eight (8), nine (9) or ten (10) we truly recommend you to nominate your work, as any score of 6+ is truly good. A' Design Award established the Free Preliminary Score System as part of the A' Design Award & Competition's commitment to accessibility and transparency, demonstrating profound respect for designers' economic considerations and creative development needs, while supporting A' Design Award's mission of advancing society through good design by ensuring participants can make fully informed decisions about which projects to advance for consideration, ultimately elevating the overall quality of competition entries.
Founding Principles Behind A' Design Award's Right to Be Forgiven Policy
At A' Design Award, we believe in the power of good design, for us a system only works if the incentives are aligned correctly, and therefore we are vehemently against penalizing our users, by any means including but not limited to imposing fines or fees. However, sometimes we find ourselves at situations where participants, may occasionally take the liberties A’ Design Award grants to them to a level that passes a threshold; such as meddling with payment forms (by changing fee or discount variables – note that we verify these so when people do it we see it), interfering with existing systems (for example by means of inspecting page source via web browser, making changes and sending us these as information), and exploit systems (for examples we make discounts for nomination of young designers, and sometimes billion dollar companies choose “young” account type to reduce fees – which is of course very distasteful to say the least), and of course occasional attempts at cheating (including but not limited to alleged intellectual property theft) or cases where we actually find entrants cheating the systems (in many creatives, for example uploading an amazing design to get a high preliminary score and then replacing with the design they actually nominate and then applying for Second Chance policy among others) with many ways (even when they have signed paperwork declarations and licenses), including but not limited to bad faith jurors (even if we identify, vet and make juror’s sign declarations and agreements, some jurors try to vote favorably on certain designs; we have algorithms that detect unusual behavior, and then we inspect these manually), and of course there are always possibilities for credit card or payment disputes of loser entrants (since nomination fees are non-refundable some loser entrants open disputes, which creates problem for us because we always have to initiate legal proceedings to protect interests, and this costs time and resources, but we have to retaliate, as we think this creates a long term deterrent), and in general revenge or anger of non-winners which may take many levels (including but not limited to hate mails, threats, bad reviews), as well as very few outlier cases of simply rude and entitled people (who may create problems in our events, stir issues or simply conduct hate speech, racism, sexism among others which we do not tolerate) and no matter what we do, what we will do, as long as there is genetic and intellectual variation of entrants, we will always have problems, and this is life; however what we do is to create a deterrent strategies to avoid this; this includes taking legal actions against the entrants as well as imposing fees or fines for unacceptable behavior. Within this scope, we categorize issues as minor and major. Minor issues are what we think are honest mistakes; (A) Account Type and Fee Calculation Errors: you choose wrong account type for the first time and miscalculated the nomination fee for example; it is a minor issue and we can just ask you to pay the nomination fee differences (technically we can fine you for cheating but, when you do it for the first time, why not forgive you? In the end our goal is not to fine you so unless there is proof otherwise that points you are doing it on purpose (how can someone for the first time pay wrong amount? It is simple; they create new account and say oh it was our first time, and point to this policy framework) then we would be soft on these, but if it is intentional then this would no longer be a minor issue). Likewise you may obtain a preliminary ticket with discount, by indicating a higher preliminary score (we provide discounts to nomination tickets if you have a really high score – sometimes entrants who did not actually obtain this score may cheat the fee calculator, and in general if we caught them, then depending on situation we may consider this a minor or major issue; in any case we would ask them to pay the difference plus a small fee for covering overheads and updating databases), then of course there could be issues for calculating fees where the entry fees may not be correct (early tickets costs less but for example if you are in the late deadline period, you are not supposed to buy and use the early tickets; you can buy them but use for next edition, if you buy early ticket (discounted) and use in late entry period, that’s cheating, and if that happens, if it is first time would generally be kind and ask you to pay difference plus some fee, but we charge the additional fee even small because we want to mark you in the system that you partake in such behavior, we want to note. Then there is the case that we may have a campaign for a discounted or special benefit entry that you may not be eligible to, and again in such cases, we would make you pay the difference and note some minor administrative fee. So our approach is; if it is first time you make a mistake we would make you pay the difference for the amount you cheated us; and impose a minor administrative fee (it can be a major fee if the situation is serious and has resulted in potential litigation, legal consequences or reputation loss). Now, as you would notice this kind of issue has two parts: 1. The amount you cheated (fee differences). 2. The minor administrative fee, which can of course be interpreted as a fine (let’s call this a microfine as the amounts are usually really low). (B) There could also be fees or fines due to chargebacks, as well as depositing wrong or incomplete amounts. Again, if there is a chargeback this would be considered a major issue and not a minor issue, and that’s relevant because when we talk about forgiveness, we are not talking about major issues. On the other hand, if nomination fee does not match for example wire-transfer account, we may generally just ask you to pay the difference if it is low (because we understand bank may have a commission which you were supposed to cover, so we know miscalculations can happen and we don’t judge you on that but would still ask you to pay the difference by adding negative account credits in our system – this is not a fine; it is the amount you did not pay). (C) There could be legal fees and costs; for example; if you initiate a chargeback we may have to take you to court, then this is of course a major issue. Likewise; if you engaged in fraudulent behavior and cheating, be it for jury membership, fees, but most importantly for intellectual property theft; we do not forgive you; we want to distance ourselves from you if you engage in intellectual property theft, and if we get a legal letter because of your misbehavior, we would reply to such legal letters from our own advocates, and charge you for the problems you are causing, this is a major issue for us that we are not willing to let go. (D) Then again, if you break terms and conditions on purpose, depending on the situation it could be a major or minor issue. (E) And if you break jury agreement, we generally consider this as a major issue. (F) Then there is of course the microfines; basically when you make a mistake in your presentation, let’s imagine you forgot to remove your name (but the competition rules requires entries to be voted anonymously; so if you leave your name in images that is ground for disqualification – but what if we can just use image editor and delete your name (when we can – sometimes is not so easy) – then of course it makes sense to take this action as it would benefit you right?) then to remove your name (instead of disqualifying you) we would charge what we call a microfine, it is a minor issue, a minor very small fee charged to you, so that your nomination is not burned (nomination fee is generally magnitude higher than such microfines) which means we would charge you small amount to help you save big by salvaging your nomination, that’s microfine and here our policy is to cancel any such fines up to three (3) times – but it is good idea to accumulate them (not so much – but some and ask once at the end) because a design can get microfined more than two times; for example if one of your images were not having correct resolution we would have to fix its resolution DPI, and if your image has some other problem that make it incompliant with submission guidelines we would intervene, if you make a mistake in product name or your name (sometimes entrants may make a typo even for their own brand name and instead of just being evil and publishing your name wrong on the book or certificates, we would just fix them and charge you instead (so instead of malicious compliance we would intervene, this leads to elimination of counterproductive outcomes – and on this subject you will be happy to learn that we give control to you, using A.C.E. Settings you can actually decide when, where and to which extend we can intervene, this helps you have complete control over the outcomes) – which is a minor issue, which within this framework you can ask for forgiveness for. (H) So, big problems you cause, at our sole discretion, we consider major issues; small issues you create, we consider minor issues. – The whole premise of our Right to Be Forgiven Policy is about forgiving your minor issues, fees and fines that we ourselves imposed but it is not about forgiving your fee differences or cancelling costs that you make us incur, in general the essence is this, now the reason we note it is so that you can use these transparency framework to your advantage; basically we want you be educated and know your rights, because we give your rights for a reason; it is our deep respect, love and appreciation for designers; we love you, we love your good design, and the last thing we want is to punish you, on the contrary, we are all about rewarding you, and your good design, which aligns with core mission of the A' Design Award, that is to help make the world a better place with good design. Therefore, A' Design Award has created its Right to Be Forgiven Policy to create a safer environment for you to compete, knowing that your small and minor mistakes would not hold you back. Within the scope of the Right to Be Forgiven Policy, you can request us to cancel three times in a row, or within lifetime, the cancellation of your negative account balance. So the “Right to Request Cancellation of Negative Account Balance” is a sub procedure of our “Right to Be Forgiven Policy”. Now, you should always request us cancellation of your account balance before it goes too much negative. In general up to 250 EUR per request we could potentially cancel, and up to three times means we could theoretically speaking cancel up to 750 EUR worth of fees, fines, microfees that we ourselves imposed (again excludes your account fee differences), and at our sole discretion, we do not promise to, but we may decide to cancel even other fees if they are really low; however of course if we already invoiced you for say 100 and you paid 85, from a legal perspective, we indeed need you to pay the 15 difference so that the account balances would hold; so we cannot cancel nomination fee differences within this framework in general it is for microfines and small issues, minor issues; so that you do not worry about it – and just to be clear, the major issues are generally really bad stuff like intentional cheating, design theft, outright fraud etc. as a normal entrant, these are not normal things that you would be doing, and in general you do not need to worry about them much because these major problems are in most cases are not caused by normal people, at least that’s our general perspective, so just know that if you make a small mistake, we will be there for you at A' Design Awards. We will intervene to ensure your work does not get eliminated and charge you microfines and then give you the love right that is “Right to Request Cancellation of Negative Account Balance” within our Right to Be Forgiven Policy, so that you know, we care, you know, you are safer, and you know we would cancel microfines up to three times, so you know you are respected. Indeed the Right to Be Forgiven Policy is not a standalone policy, combining with the Right to Request Cancellation of Negative Account Balance, A.C.E. Settings, Microfines Policy, No Contractually Obliged Further Fees (Applied to Pro-Edition, Digital-Edition, Vision-Edition entries) as well as A’ Design Awards’ Entry Rescue & Enhancement Program, Second Chance Policy and Free Preliminary Score System all work in a holistic manner to protect your interests, time, energy, resources, and money, because we truly respect your existence as an entity that helps the world become a better place with superior products and projects that benefit society, advance technology, and improve condition of all sentient beings, and we rather you focus on your good design than some small minor inconvenience fees or microfines.
Did you get microfined? Happens to the best of us, simply contact our support now, remind them politely about “Right to Request Cancellation of Negative Account Balance” within the scope of “Right to Be Forgiven Policy” and also send them this link that says we would cancel Negative Account Balance coming from microfines and minor issue fees up to three times, for up to 250 EUR each, for a max of 750 EURs. We note these clearly here so you know your rights. Just be polite and ask nicely and we will help if the Account Balance is negative due to microfines (and not other issues), and even if you have microfines and some other fees, we may at our sole discretion, reduce your balance, as long as we constructively work together.
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