Second-Chance Policy

Executive Summary
A' Design Award and Competition offers Entry Insurance Service which is an added service that provides you with a matching nomination ticket if your nominated entry is not a winner. With Entry Insurance Service, you get a Pro Nomination Ticket if you made a Pro Entry and you get a Digi Nomination Ticket if you made a Digital Entry. Entry Insurance Service is subject to a variable fee based on your Preliminary Score. Second-Chance Policy, is a free of charge service, where we provide you with a complimentary Digital Edition Nomination Ticket that you could use to make a digital entry free of charge for the next edition of the competition and you could get a free digital ticket if and only if you nominated a design, and if your Preliminary Score (PS) is higher than or equal to Seven (7), and if your Preliminary Score (PS) and Final Outcome Level (L) has at least 3 levels of difference. You are not eligible for Second-Chance Policy complimentary ticket if you got a lower Preliminary Score but got a higher Final Outcome Level, and if your entry was disqualified or forced withdrawn, or if your design had a "Rejected" Status or if your design is not compliant with presentation guidelines. The service is not actively provided and you must request and claim any eventual complimentary digital edition ticket within 45 Days of Results Announcement. If you request this service, we will not cancel your any existing award status however you cannot re-nominate the same design next year; you must use your complimentary digital edition ticket for nominating a new design for next year. The digital edition ticket will be valid for 365 days. For the scope of Second-Chance Policy, your latest and final Preliminary Score, based on your latest and final presentation is considered, and any prior score is not considered.

Why do we have the Second-Chance Policy?
A' Design Award provides Free Preliminary Checks to all entries. Entries are given a Free Preliminary Score from zero (0) to ten (10) and are provided free consultancy and feedbacks on their presentation. This passive service is made available to all entrants without any fees, costs or obligations to nominate a work and in overall creates exceptional value. Unfortunately, we annually get contacted by a very small number of frustrated participants who got lower final outcomes compared to their preliminary scores, variation and derivation is indeed very expected as it is impossible to guess which design would get exactly which score as decided by the grand award jury; some designs will definitely get higher final outcomes and some would get definitely lower final outcomes compared to their preliminary scores. On one hand, we understand the frustration of the small percentage of participants who might got high preliminary scores and high hopes and who might have made their decision to join competition based on their preliminary scores, and on the other hand we also have a reality check and facts that state that the preliminary scores are not prophecies or guarantees; upon reading Preliminary Checks Service Description Page, Design Award Participation Terms and the FAQ, it is clearly stated and understood that (1) Free Preliminary Scores are not visible to Grand Jury Panel and do not effect final outcomes; Preliminary Score do not create an anchor effect or peer pressure on jury panel members. (2) Free Preliminary Scores do never guarantee any final outcome and indeed an expected final outcome distribution chart and table is provided where it is clearly understood that even the highest preliminary score could result in participant status while even the lowest preliminary score could result in a winner status, all depending on final jury voting, (3) Preliminary Score is subject to personal subjectivity and variation; the exact design could get different Preliminary Scores by different Preliminary Jury Members who might have different opinions and ideas on how good a design is, or if the entry is submitted or considered for different categories, of if the same Preliminary Jury member decides to control and check the entry in more detail, (4) Preliminary Scores could be lowered or increased if further reviewed by preliminary jurors in detail, with or without changes to design. (5) We provide Professional Preliminary Judging service on demand that could be ordered for a better review and (7) We provide Entry Insurance Service which could be ordered if any risk reduction is sought. (8) Preliminary Scores, complimentary consultancy and feedback on presentations are provided free of charge in order to create value for our community, without any costs or obligations on part of the participants. (8) Final Outcome Level, i.e. the results depends on Grand Jury voting, not on preliminary score, and the decision of the grand jury is final and non-disputable. (9) Furthermore, the variety and competitiveness of entries for the new competition edition could result in a variation from past preliminary score insights; if for example in a given year entries are more competitive, then prior preliminary scores would be overestimated, while if in a given year entries are less competitive, then prior preliminary scores could be underestimated, likewise jurors could be more strict with votes one year, and less strict in another year; plus trends and fashion can chance year to year; i.e. level of works, quantity of works, current trends and the jury panels’ approach could also have an effect which we cannot foresee. – Regardless of the facts and considerations, in the end we value our participants and do wish to create value for the community, and therefore we created the Second-Chance Policy. Second-Chance Policy allows us to demonstrate our absolute goodwill and create additional value for the community, where we provide a free digital entry ticket to entrants who got a preliminary score that significantly overestimated their design potential. We provide the Second-Chance Policy to be more ethical and fair to the participants who take their time and efforts to make the world a better place with their designs. Publishing and promoting Second-Chance Policy, as part of our Methodology, allow us to become more transparent and also gives equal rights and opportunities to all participants. Another reason why we created and made publicly available the Second-Chance Policy is because we want value-creating policies to apply to all participants without any individual or subjective decision or bias in provision of any such services; we want value-creating policies to be part of our institutional mind, and we want value-creating policies to benefit all our audience.

Arithmetic and Eligibility
For Second-Chance Policy Complimentary Digital Edition Ticket Eligibility, your Preliminary Score (PS) must be 3 levels higher than your Final Outcome Level (L). The formula is simple and should satisfy the following condition: PS – L ≥ 3. Where PS is the Preliminary Score (PS) and L is the Final Outcome Level (L). For calculation, Final Outcome Levels (L) to consider are as follows: L.10: Platinum, L.9: Gold, L.8: Silver, L.7: Bronze, L.6: Iron, L.5: Runner-Up, L.4: Participant. Important: Disqualified, Eliminated, Removed, Cancelled, Withdrawn or Forced Withdrawn Status are not eligible. Furthermore, your design must be nominated and your design should not have a "Rejected" Status i.e. your design must be fully compliant with presentation guidelines, entries that do not comply with presentation guidelines are not eligible.

How to Claim
If your design fulfils our eligibility conditions, please download and fill “Second-Chance Policy – Complimentary Digital Edition Nomination Ticket Request Form” and send us the filled and signed form by electronic mail. Before filling your form, please do refer to the eligibility matrix to see if you would be eligible to claim a free digital edition nomination ticket in the scope of Second-Chance Policy.

Examples
I. If you got a Preliminary Score (PS) of 10, and get a Bronze Status (7), the Degree of Separation (DS) is: 10 (PS) – 7 (L) = 3. Since 3 is greater than or equal to 3, you are eligible to get a free digital edition nomination ticket.
II. If you got a Preliminary Score (PS) of 7, and get a Runner-Up Status (5), the Degree of Separation (DS) is: 7 (PS) – 5 (L) = 2. Since 2 is not greater than or equal to 3, you are not eligible to get a free digital edition nomination ticket.
III. If you got a Preliminary Score (PS) of 8, and get a Participant Status (4), the Degree of Separation (DS) is: 8 (PS) – 4 (L) = 4. Since 4 is greater than or equal to 3, you are eligible to get a free digital edition nomination ticket.
IV. If you got a Preliminary Score (PS) of 10, and get a Silver Status (8), the Degree of Separation (DS) is: 10 (PS) – 8 (L) = 2. Since 2 is not greater than or equal to 3, you are not eligible to get a free digital edition nomination ticket.

For young designers, we are keen to provide them with a second chance whenever possible, with an opportunity to have a digital nomination ticket in cases where they obtained a preliminary score of 7 but did not achieve a winner status and case when they had a preliminary score of 6 but did not obtain a runner-up status, and moreover as indicated above in Orange color, just once, we would further allow young designers to have a replacement ticket for the specific case when they obtained a preliminary score of 6 but did not achieve a winner status. This helps us support young designers, in the end our aim is to see them grow. This applies to entrants with Young, Academic and Academic Collaboration Account Types.

Learn more about Platinum-Edition entry.

Are You Eligible?
Please contact our support team to review your case, and if you meet our program conditions, we will provide you with a complimentary digital nomination. This allows you to submit your latest creations and continue to showcase your design talent. We are eagerly looking forward to recognizing your future works and seeing your design prowess grow. We are rooting for your success!

A' Design Award and Competition aims to create highest value for its participants via transparency, documentation and advanced methodology.