Introducing the European Design Agencies League

This year marks the 20th edition of the European Design Awards. It is a moment of reflection, celebration, and, more than anything, evolution. Over the past two decades, we’ve recognised some of the finest work in European communication design, from cutting-edge branding and immersive spatial design to remarkable editorial layouts and powerful digital experiences.

To mark this milestone, we are proud to introduce a new initiative: the ED-Awards Agencies League.

The Agencies League is not a competition in itself. Rather, it is an evolving platform. A permanent archive and ranking system that highlights the creative studios and agencies that have consistently stood out in the European Design Awards over time. It celebrates not just moments of brilliance, but sustained excellence.

What is the Agencies League?

The Agencies League is a data-driven ranking and archive system designed to recognise the most awarded design studios in Europe. It is a living index that captures both historic achievement and current momentum.

This new platform allows you to explore rankings:
• By official ranking — a weighted points-based score reflecting the last five years of results (2021–2025), which is our primary ranking system.
• By total awards — an all-time list of total ED-Awards distinctions won since the beginning of the programme in 2007.
• By discipline — identifying the top studios in fields such as Branding, Packaging, Typography, Illustration, Digital Design, and more.
• By country — allowing anyone to quickly find the most awarded studios in each European country.

Whether you’re a designer seeking inspiration, a client searching for creative talent, or simply curious about the evolution of our field, the Agencies League offers a structured way to explore the rich landscape of European design.

How does it work?

The official ranking (the one that determines the top 100 studios across Europe) is based on a transparent, fair, and consistent methodology:

• Each distinction (Gold, Silver, Bronze, Finalist) is awarded ranking points based on both its level and the number of submissions in its category. This ensures that awards earned in more competitive fields carry more weight.

• Gold: 3x the number of submissions in the category
• Silver: 2x
• Bronze: 1x

• We also reward consistency over time. If a studio has received distinctions in multiple different years (across the past five editions), they receive a percentage bonus to their total score:

• 2 years: +10%
• 3 years: +20%
• 4 years: +30%
• 5 years: +40%

This system ensures that both creative quality and long-term commitment are reflected in the rankings.
In parallel, we provide:
• Total Awards lists that show cumulative results over all years (2007–2025)
• Top studios per discipline, showing expertise in Branding, Packaging, Digital, Editorial, Typography, Illustration, Promotional, and Spatial Design
• Top studios per country, with filters for national performance and regional excellence

The data is updated annually following each edition of the ED-Awards. The Rankings are publicly available and searchable on our website.

Why we created it

We created the Agencies League because we believe in context.
Over the years, thousands of agencies, studios, and individual designers have participated in the European Design Awards. Each year brought new voices, new work, and new winners. But until now, there was no simple way to look back and see the bigger picture: to trace patterns of excellence, to celebrate longevity, or to identify emerging creative leaders by discipline or region.

The Agencies League serves multiple purposes:
• It is a public archive of achievement — providing visibility to studios of all sizes and from all parts of Europe.
• It is a historical reference point — helping capture the evolution of European communication design over time.
• It is a tool for clients, institutions, and peers — enabling anyone to quickly identify top performers in specific fields or countries.
• It is a celebration of the design community itself — recognising not just individual projects but the people and practices behind them.

In that sense, it goes beyond awards. It contributes to the infrastructure of the European design field.

Who is it for?

The Agencies League is open and accessible to all:
• Design studios and agencies can use it to benchmark themselves, celebrate their progress, and showcase their achievements with official digital badges.
• Clients and government institutions can use it to discover creative talent, particularly in specific disciplines or countries.
• Students, researchers, and journalists can use it to trace the history and geography of design success across Europe.

And of course, it’s for anyone who cares about design and wants to explore the landscape of creative excellence that the ED-Awards has helped document over the past 20 years.

What comes next

The Agencies League will continue to evolve. We intend to expand its filters, visualisations, and editorial content in the months ahead. We’re working on profile pages for top studios, interviews, trend reports, and interactive data tools that make this not just a ranking list, but a growing resource for the design community.

The 20th edition of the ED-Awards gave us the perfect occasion to launch this initiative. But it is designed to live on and grow well beyond that, helping us all look back, look around, and look ahead.

Explore the rankings now at europeandesign.org/rankings