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.

Any permanent lighting installation can be submitted to the Illumination Awards. The installation must have been completed during the 24 months preceding the January program date listed.

Fees can be found at the following link https://ia.ies.org/submittal-procedures/. Submission fees are non-refundable.

Submitters should submit their project to the Section of the lead designer. If there is no active Section, the project should be submitted to the Section closest to the location of the lead designer.

If there is no active IES Section in your area, your project will still be accepted and entered for judging.

Once the submission has been finalized and payment is made, submitters will no longer have access to their submission. Submitters should save their submission as a file document to access for future reference. Submitters can save their submission by clicking on “in-progress” or “in cart” in their Dashboard. There will be an option to save the submission as a pdf document. This can only be done before submitting the payment for the submission.

The editing phase has been eliminated from the submission process. Once a project has been processed, modifications can no longer be made.

During checkout, submitters will be prompted to complete the submission or start a new one. Different areas of the same project may be submitted as separate project entries (i.e., outdoor lighting, interior lighting, lighting controls, environmental & energy). Each of these entries must have their own distinguishable title and additional entry fee. Each of these entries will be judged separately. The Illumination Awards Section Chair will check with all parties to eliminate duplicate entries entered to the same category. Projects may not be reentered from a previous year, but a different area of the project may be entered as long as it was completed during the 24 months preceding the January program date listed. All entries previously judged will be rejected.

Interior design is for any interior project—commercial or residential—anything that is inside.

All judging is conducted ‘blind’ or anonymously using the program score sheets. Judges do not know any project details at any stage of judging.

Although IES cannot provide details about why you did not receive an award, please refer to the submission tutorial and score sheets. Try to talk to your local IA Chair about how you can improve your submission.

IES will provide the conference registration and award recipient letter to assist with visa arrangements. Unfortunately, this is the only form of assistance the IES will provide. IES is not responsible for completing any forms issued through the U.S. Department of State or Customs.

IES may use the projects submitted to promote the Society’s programs and services. All entry materials including photos and narratives, can be used without restriction by LD+A, the magazine of the IES. The LD+A magazine will have reproduction privileges of photographs and scripts without charge to the Society. IES must inform the owner and all others involved or associated in the project design of participation in the Illumination Awards program and that the submission may be published in the LD+A magazine. The owner’s name and location may be withheld for privacy reasons.

Anyone may purchase a duplicate certificate. You may send your request to Michael Austerlitz, [email protected].