Why Awards Don’t Matter (As Much as You Think)
Awards may define our industry, but genuine design impact reaches far beyond trophies.
In this piece Clint Nagata explores why awards can be meaningful, but why they should never become the reason we design. And why some of our proudest moments have nothing to do with trophies at all.
There’s a certain rhythm to awards season in our industry. You submit your best work, your PR team sharpens the pitch, and if all goes well, your name gets called out at a glittering ceremony. There’s champagne, applause, a trophy…and for a moment, it feels like a win.
But I’ve come to realise that what feels like success isn’t always what defines it.
We’ve been fortunate at BLINK; we’ve won our fair share of awards. But those trophies aren’t what drive us. They don’t shape our process, and they certainly don’t validate our purpose.
The truth is, many of the projects we’re proudest of weren’t designed to win anything at all.
What Awards Really Mean
There’s a danger in giving awards too much weight. They create a kind of illusion: that success can be quantified, polished, ranked.
But design isn’t a competition. It’s not objective and it’s not a product of popularity or clever submissions. Some of the most extraordinary spaces I’ve seen haven’t won a thing; not because they weren’t worthy, but because they weren’t chasing recognition.
At BLINK, we’re not against awards: we enter the ones that align with our values, and we celebrate when our team is recognised. But we never let them become the reason we do the work, because when you design for juries, you lose sight of the guest.
Clients Don’t Hire Awards
This might surprise some people, but most clients don’t choose us because we’ve won awards.
They choose us because we listen. Because we help them shape their vision. Because we don’t show up with a style to impose, we show up with curiosity, and a willingness to understand what matters to them and how they want their guests to feel.
That’s what we’re hired for: insight, intuition, and integrity. Not accolades.
We’ve even had projects where the client has explicitly said, “We’re not trying to win awards here.” They’re trying to build something that reflects who they are. Something that feels authentic and personal.
And that’s the work we’re proudest of.
What Awards Don’t Capture
Awards rarely account for what happens behind the scenes.
They don’t see the challenges you overcame. The compromises made. The months spent refining a material palette to suit a climate or a budget. They don’t see the value of choosing what not to do.
Some of our best design decisions are invisible. They live in the guest journey. In the way the light hits the room in the morning. In the feeling of walking barefoot across a floor you chose for texture, not trend.
That’s not the kind of thing a jury scores, but it’s the kind of thing that builds loyalty, brand identity, and emotional resonance.
Designing for Awards is Dangerous
Here’s the risk: when you start designing for recognition, you start designing for the wrong audience: you make louder choices, push for novelty over nuance. You prioritise what looks good in a photograph over what feels good in person.
And in doing that, you lose the essence of why the project exists.
Good design isn’t always dramatic. Sometimes it’s quiet. Thoughtful. Grounded. It often takes restraint…and that’s hard to explain in a 200-word awards summary.
Good design is also what endures.
What We Really Value
The moments I remember most aren’t awards nights.
They’re the dinners with clients after site visits. The call when they tell us the hotel is fully booked, or that guests are asking about the story behind the design. The time a family told us we’d captured the essence of their heritage in a way they couldn’t have articulated themselves. Those are the moments that stay with me, and that’s why we do this.
We’re not above awards. But we are deliberate about them.
We enter select programmes where the jury reflects the kind of thoughtfulness we value. Where the criteria go beyond aesthetics and recognise narrative, place, and purpose. Even then, we enter to share, not to show off.
We also recognise that awards have their value: for visibility, for new markets, and for younger team members who deserve that affirmations. Yes, awards have their place, just not a central one.
Designing for meaning, not medals
If we never won another award, nothing about the way we work would change, because we measure success differently.
We measure it in trust, in return clients, in a portfolio that evolves because we’ve evolved with it. In design that stand the test of time, not just taste.
So, while we’ll happily raise a glass when we win, we’ll never design just to get there. At BLINK, we’re not chasing trophies; we’re creating places that last.