2023 Illumination Awards

IES Illumination AwardsThe Illumination Awards program recognizes individuals for professionalism, ingenuity, and originality in lighting design based on individual merit of each entry.

Submissions for 2023 open Jan 4, 2023. 

The IES Illumination Awards (IA) program recognizes individuals for professionalism, ingenuity and originality in lighting design based on the individual merit of each entry. Judges are selected from a broad professional spectrum representing knowledge of lighting and design excellence. The judging system is entirely based on how well the lighting design meets the program criteria. The Illumination Awards program is not a competition. The IES Illumination Awards will be presented as the opening session to kick-off the 2023 Annual Conference.

Check out the Illumination Awards webpage for more information.

Projects previously submitted to the IES Illumination Awards are not eligible.

  • Anyone (except manufacturers); IES members or nonmembers (with the exclusion of IES staff and IES Board of Directors), may enter a project for an Illumination Award. Agents may also submit.
  • Registration fees are non-refundable.
  • Early Submission: January 4th – 31st 11:59PM EST (Fee: $200)
  • Regular Submission: February 1st -17th 11:59PM EST (Fee: $250)
  • The installation must have been completed during the 24 months preceding the January program date listed.
  • Projects may be entered only once using the IA portal. If there is no active IES section in your area, your project will still be accepted and entered for judging. All judging is conducted ‘blind’ or anonymously; judges do not know any project details at any stage of judging. The nominator must check with all parties to eliminate duplicate entries. All entries previously judged will be rejected.
  • Different areas of the same project may be submitted as separate lighting or controls project entries. Each of these entries must have its own distinguishable title and additional entry fee. Each of these entries will be judged separately.
  • Lead Lighting Designer must inform the owner and all others involved or associated in the project design, of participation in the program and that the entry may be published in LD+A. The owner’s name and location may be withheld for privacy reasons.