Ukrainian agencies decline Red Dot Awards worth €24k to donate this money to UNITED24

This year Ukrainian creative agencies Bickerstaff.734, Taktika Agency, IAMIDEA agency, fedoriv, Grape, and MOZGI GROUP refused to pay for Red Dot international design festival awards in order to donate this money to Ukraine’s defenders.

By the end of 2022, the agencies will transfer €23,687 to the Ukrainian presidential charity fund UNITED24. 

“Instead of trophies and diplomas, this amount of money will be spent on drones for the defenders of our country,” 

Bickerstaff.734 commented its decision. 

Red Dot Award VS drones for the Armed Forces of Ukraine

To become a winner of the Red Dot Award is not cheap. Unlike other design and creative festivals, where participants need to pay only for submissions, this one requires the redeeming of the award in the case of victory. The submission at Red Dot starts at €200 and can be up to €500. There are three stages of selection, so the agencies have to pay around €1,000 only for participation. This year, due to the full-scale war Russia launched against Ukraine, the Red Dot committee granted all Ukrainian agencies with free submissions, but did not cancel the winning fee. It is about so-called Winner Package that costs from €1,700 to €6,000 depending on the level of the award.

So the winners from Ukraine decided to decline the Red Dot awards and donate the money to the Ukrainian Army instead.

“We appreciate Red Dot committee’s recognition and their decision to give us three free submissions to the festival this year. But since free submissions do not cover the Winner Packages we can’t redeem them. It seems inappropriate to invest the funds needed by the country at war even in awards. Even the prestigious ones,” 

stays in the statement.

The agencies have already informed the Red Dot organizers about their decision with the following joint letter: 

“Red Dot, thanks and see you after the victory. The most important victory for us now”,

the Ukrainians said, meaning the victory of Ukraine in the war against Russia.

Check out the winning cases of the agencies on this landing. Support Ukraine and it’s creative people. Donate to UNITED24.