Out of 6,500 submissions from 50 countries, Kairos Design has been awarded the prestigious Gold Award for the 2023 MUSE Creative Awards competition. The firm received this recognition for their submission in the Brand Identity Category for Astéri.
For this competitive season, Kairos Studio walks away victorious with the Brand Identity Category, Gold award to their name. The work that earned them this landmark victory was created by Sean Kim for Astéri.
“I am deeply honored to accept this Gold Award for Brand Identity on behalf of our team.” said creative director Sean Kim. “Our dedication to crafting a unique and compelling brand identity for our client has truly paid off, and we look forward to continuing to innovate in the world of design and branding.”
The MUSE Awards is made up of a series of competitions organized to honor excellence in various fields and industries. In order to guarantee recognition only goes to those who truly deserve it regardless of class or background, IAA ensures that these competitions are kept accessible and fair.
“This season’s works took the team by surprise with the level of quality they were at. The entrants certainly deserve the recognition for all the efforts they had put in,” Thomas Brandt, spokesperson of IAA elaborated. He continued, “these professionals and creatives demonstrate how those who pursue excellence will always thrive, regardless of the changes their industries go through.”
Judging was done by a jury panel which was composed of industry professionals. Thanks to their efforts, IAA was successful in upholding impartiality and implementing industry-relevant assessment criteria. The jury was tasked with identifying companies or individuals whose works exemplified excellence and that had pushed their respective industries forward.
Grand Jury Panel The awards received jury nominations from 17 countries and ended up with 60 jurors. These professionals are held in high regard in their respective industries and are tied to renowned organizations in the creative and design industries. For example, Lead Consultant at Coldharbour Communications – Jon Meakin, Founder/CCO of Cutwater – Chuck McBride, VP, Brand & Creative Services of PubMatic, Inc. – Imelda Suriato, Associate Creative Director at McCann NY – Alexandre Kazuo Kubo, Group Creative Director at Ogilvy NY – Mohamed DiaaEldin Osman, Principal Architect and Landscape Architect at Studio Arth LLC – Rituparna Simlai, Senior Architect at Tiago do Vale Architects – Tiago do Vale, Director of DesignAware – Takbir Fatima, Founder, hcreates interior design – Hannah Churchill, Founder and Creative Director of IN.X Design – Wu Wei, to name a few.
On top of having industry-relevant standards in the judging process, impartiality was further enforced by using the blind judging method. Effectively, each entry was evaluated by multiple judges without being compared to other submissions. In this scenario, every work could only win based on their own merits.
Participation of International Brands
Thanks to IAA’s global presence, the MUSE Creative and Design Awards received entries that included names of globally prominent organizations. Some submissions were made directly by said companies, while others were submitted by entrants who had produced work for them. For direct submissions, familiar names such as Paramount Global, Mastercard, Explainly, Savannah College of Art and Design, T Brand Studio/New York Times Advertising, United Nations Peacekeeping, International Monetary Fund, NORC at the University of Chicago, VICE Media Group, Leroy & Rose, Leo Burnett Malaysia, The Narrative Group, Vanpin Design, Guangzhou S.P.I Design, Archer Aviation, Natuzzi Italia, Kao (China) Research & Development Center Co., Ltd., Hugo Eccles, China University of Technology/ShiuanYuan Group, M&A Creative Agency, and Zippo (China) Outdoor Products Co., Ltd. were present; whereas indirect submissions included The Walt Disney Company (Southeast Asia), Uber Eats, KFC Canada, Funcom, Unilever, SIEMENS Mobility GmbH, General Motors, AstraZeneca, AT&T, Mars Wrigley, McDonald’s (China), Hartness Holdings, CHAGEE, vivo, Rosewood Hotels & Resorts, Da Long Yi, and China Railway Engineering Corporation.
“The winners of this season are undoubtedly some of the best talents the industries have to offer and it makes us proud to be able to honor these people for all their hard work,” Thomas said. “As they continue to express themselves in their works and push forward in excellence, we will certainly remain here to be a platform to spotlight their talents.”
This is not the first time Kairos Design has been honored with this prestigious award. The agency won a Gold Award in 2018 for their work with The Macula Foundation, another Gold Award in 2019 for their work with VRMNY, another Gold Award in 2020 for their work with MEK Review and another Gold Award in 2021 for OE Acronyms.