After a successful inaugural launch last year, Core77, the world's first online design resource, is now accepting entries for the Core77 2012 Design Awards. With progressive categories, professional and student entry fields, globally distributed juries, in-depth video testimonials, live jury announcements and a unique trophy that honors teamwork, the Core77 Design Awards continues to be the most inclusive, transparent and web-savvy award platform in the design industry. Adding to the wide breadth of categories, this year's awards will feature two new areas, Food Design and Writing & Commentary, plus a new jury of leading design minds from around the world. 

According to Allan Chochinov, Partner and Editor-In-Chief of Core77, "We created the Core77 Design Awards to reflect the diversity of design practice today and to offer more opportunities to honor design enterprise in all forms." Jacqueline Khiu, Director of the Core77 Design Awards adds, "One of the interesting points of departure with this program is the greater transparency it brings to the process of entering and judging awards. It provides faces and voices to makers and jurors, and creates a more revealing and rewarding platform to participate in." 

Open for entry starting January 17, the Core77 2012 Design Awards features 17 categories ranging from established fields to new emerging practices. Of these, 15 categories offer separate entry fields for professionals and students. Entrants are also encouraged to upload video to accompany their submission, providing a personal testimony about their entry to the jury. In addition to the sliding scale of entry fees, Core77 is offering a 20% Earlybird discount to people who enter by March 13. The final deadline for entries is April 10, 2012.

The Core77 Design Award's unique judging process combines global perspectives with local expertise. For each category, Core77 handpicked Jury Captains from 13 cities and 8 countries and invited them to choose their own jury from local experts in their field. The results will be broadcast live from the home cities of each jury team, revealing their choices via online video announcements.

Winners in each category will be awarded a trophy created by the New York design studio Rich Brilliant Willing. Recognizing design as a team sport, the trophy is a metallic mold that allows multiples to be produced, allowing contributors and clients to share in the glory.

The full list of categories, Jury Captains and judging locations for the Core77 2012 Design Awards includes:

CONSUMER PRODUCTS
Products designed for personal use (home, work, leisure, health, sports, etc.). Examples include electronics and accessories, household goods and appliances, tabletop and personal care.
Jury Captain: Nicolas Roope
Founder and Owner of HULGER / PLUMEN 
Founder and Owner of Poke
Judging Location: London, United Kingdom

EQUIPMENT
Equipment and systems designed for public, commercial, industrial, medical and scientific use. Examples include machinery, medical instruments and devices, construction tools, transaction kiosks and weather instruments.
Jury Captain: Renke He 
Dean and Professor at School of Design at Hunan University 
Judging Location: Changsha City, China

SOFT GOODS
Apparel and products made from soft materials for personal, recreational, outdoor or work use. Examples include clothing, shoes, bags, backpacks, hats, uniforms, sleeping bags, tents and textiles.
Jury Captain: Michael DiTullo 
Creative Director of frog design 
Judging Location: San Francisco, CA, USA

FURNITURE & LIGHTING
Furniture and lighting products or systems for private, public, commercial or industrial use. Examples include home or public seating, office systems, lighting, street lighting and workstations.
Jury Captain: Zoë Ryan 
Chair and Curator of Architecture & Design at the Art Institute of Chicago 
Judging Location: Chicago, IL, USA

INTERIORS & EXHIBITIONS
Spatial design as it relates to physical interiors, exhibitions or installations, either permanent or temporary, and to any context (private, commercial, public or institutional). Examples include public installations, restaurant/hospitality interiors, office or medical interiors, set designs, retail displays and exhibition booths.
Jury Captain: TBD 

VISUAL COMMUNICATION
All graphic design, branding and identity projects for print, online or physical environments. Examples include logos and identity systems, environmental graphics and signage, typefaces, infographics, motion graphics, print design and advertising.
Jury Co-Captains: Min and Sulki Choi 
Co-Directors of Sulki and Min
Professors at University of Seoul and Kaywon School of Art & Design
Judging Location: Seoul, South Korea

PACKAGING
All graphic design, branding and structural designs related to the packaging of products. Examples include primary or secondary packaging for FMCG (Fast Moving Consumer Goods) or premium brands, promotional packaging and gifting programs, and limited editions.
Jury Captain: Laurent Hainaut 
Co-Founder and Partner of Raison Pure Design Group 
Founder, President and CEO of Raison Pure NYC 
Judging Location: Paris, France

INTERACTION
Interactive multimedia and user interface design for websites, mobile devices and experiential installations. Examples include software, mobile apps, interactive projections, animations, simulations, and robotics.
Jury Co-Captains: Matt Webb, 
CEO and Principal of BERG 
Jack Schulze and Matt Jones 
Principals of BERG 
Judging Location: London, United Kingdom 

SERVICE
All projects entailing the organization of users, communications, transactions, infrastructure, institutions and service. Examples include distribution or delivery systems, ways of connecting people or enabling transactions, funding platforms and web-based communities.
Jury Captain: Panthea Lee 
Co-Founder and Principal of Reboot 
Judging Location: New York, NY, USA

TRANSPORTATION
Vehicles or modes of transportation used to get people or objects from one place to another, in any context (private, public, commercial or industrial use). Examples include planes, trains, automobiles, bikes, boats, mass transit systems and transportation infrastructure.
Jury Captain: Jay Rogers 
President, CEO and Co-Founder of Local Motors, Inc. 
Judging Location: Chandler, AZ, USA

SOCIAL IMPACT
Projects specifically designed to directly benefit social, humanitarian, community or environmental causes. Examples include community or environmental impact initiatives, products for underrepresented communities, distribution systems and disaster relief toolkits.
Jury Captain: Tasos Calantzis 
CEO of Terrestrial 
Judging Location: Pretoria, South Africa

EDUCATIONAL INITIATIVES
Any educational class project, curriculum or institutional level program or tool that furthers the practice of design education or education about design. Examples include curricula, class programs, teaching systems or toolkits, and mobile educational platforms.
Jury Captain: Mariana Amatullo 
Founder of Designmatters at Art Center College of Design 
Judging Location: Pasadena, CA, USA

STRATEGY & RESEARCH
Design projects that predominantly utilize research or strategy in their product or project. Examples include brand strategies, product and project strategies, research methodologies such as surveys, interviews, studies, observations and varied research throughout projects.
Jury Captain: Lorraine Justice 
Dean of College of Imaging Arts and Sciences at Rochester Institute of Technology 
Judging Location: Rochester, NY, USA

WRITING & COMMENTARY (new!)
Writing and critical commentary about designed objects, spaces or systems. Examples include reviews, essays, profiles, articles, columns, blog posts and manifestos.
Jury Captain: Alice Twemlow 
Chair of MFA in Design Criticism at School of Visual Arts 
Judging Location: New York, NY, USA

SPECULATIVE
Projects that are pure concepts or proposals, whether self-initiated for fiction, discourse, intervention or exploration, or created as exploratory/speculative designs for a client or educational institution. Examples include future scenarios, design explorations, provocations and visionary concepts.
Jury Captain: Bruce Sterling 
Author of ?Beyond the Beyond? at Wired 
Judging Location: TBD

DIY
Any personal project that is self-directed, self-produced and self-funded, whether it's the modification of an existing system or artifact or the creation of something new
Examples include hacks, mods, upcycles, recycles, crafts and digital fabs.
Jury Captain: Becky Stern 
Founder of Sternlab 
Judging Location: Brooklyn, NY, USA

FOOD DESIGN (new!)
Design at the service of eating, cooking, serving, distributing or experiencing food. Examples include edible materials, culinary design, delivery systems or architectures, urban gardening, educational programs, multi-sensory gastronomic experiences, kitchens and food trucks.
Jury Captain: Marc Brétillot 
Food Designer 
Judging Location: Paris, France

For more information about the Core77 2012 Design Awards or to register for the free 2012 Call for Entries poster, visit www.core77designawards.com/. For constant news updates, follow them on Twitter @Core77Awards or Facebook at www.facebook.com/Core77DesignAwards.

Identity and Poster Design: Studio Lin http://studiolin.org/
Website Design: Studio Mercury http://www.smny.us/
Trophy Design: Rich Brilliant Willing http://www.richbrilliantwilling.com/
Awards Video: Virtual Beauty http://www.vbnyc.com/