4th June 2019 | IN DESIGN EVENTS | BY SBID ShareTweetPinterestLinkedInThe SBID Awards 2019 is officially open for submissions. Paving the way for a new wave of innovative and exciting project entries across the industry; from Healthcare and Hotel Public Space to Retail Design and Residential, designers and design practices world-wide will once again compete for the chance to claim a prestigious SBID Award and receive global recognition in a ceremony that is set to be bigger and better than ever before. We caught up with Firas Alsahin, Design Director for 4Space Interior Design, the Dubai-based interior design and architecture firm – and not to mention last year’s esteemed Overall Winner for the SBID Awards 2018. Find out what he had to say about his experience receiving the highest accolade in not only the SBID Awards, but the wider interior design industry for their project, VR Park Dubai Mall. What does it mean for you to have been named the ‘Overall Winner’ at the SBID International Design Awards? It was truly an honour to be named as the Overall Winner at the SBID Awards. It gave us leverage in getting new, potential clients. It widened our network and gave us the chance to promote our name internationally. The team’s hard work finally paid off! How did you find the entry process when submitting your project for an SBID Award? It was easy and very straightforward. The SBID team helped us in every step. Emails and notifications were received to ensure that we were updated throughout the process. They even called us to check the status of our submission and give different options. SBID has an excellent team indeed! Did you expect to be announced as SBID’s ‘Overall Winner’ for 2018? We expected to win on a category level as we were confident about the project we submitted, but announcing to be the SBID Awards Overall Winner was very overwhelming. Our team was shocked and speechless when we heard 4Space – it took time for it to totally sink in! Has winning the Overall Winner Award resulted in any additional interest / project enquiries for your practice? Yes, definitely! It gave us this position in the market where we are now recognised widely in the design industry. It opened a lot of opportunities locally and abroad because of the additional media coverage. The network became huge for us as a lot of big names and companies in the industry gave us the limelight. The results were, and still continue to be amazing. Do you have any exciting projects you are working on / have completed since last year’s Awards that you’d like to enter this year? Oh yes! We have around 3-5 projects that we will be submitting to the SBID Awards this year. We are very excited and will be looking forward to the next event. What advice would you give to any designers or design studios who are considering entering for an SBID Award? Focus on the entire submission process. Details are very important – from the sketch to renderings, up to the final photos (professional and high quality). A great story of the design is a must! We started as being shortlisted. Every time we submit an entry, we are always confident that we will win. But regardless of the result, what’s important is that you believe in your team and that you appreciate their hard work. The event itself makes you a winner already. From the venue to the management, everything is perfectly planned. Public voting and social media give each entry a chance to be exposed worldwide. SBID offers a great opportunity to all designers or design studios (big or small) to showcase their skills. The deadline for entries into the SBID Awards 2019 is Monday 8th July. To see more SBID Award winners from 2018, click here. For more information about how to enter, visit www.sbidawards.com