The main goal of the festival awards is to seek, present and award the most creative ideas in the field of public communication, created by young authors. The competition for the festival awards - Golden & Silver Bras and the big Magdalena award - is open to individuals of 30 years or less. An international jury selects winners in individual categories, awarded with Golden Bras, and the overall (Magdalena prize) winner based on the most creative idea. Entry fees are symbolical so that the competition is accessible to most young people all over the world.

The first edition of the Istanbul Design Biennial will be held from 13 October to 12 December 2012 by the Istanbul Foundation for Culture and Arts (IKSV) under the co sponsorship of Eren Holding, Koray Group of Companies, Vestel and VitrA. The deadline for submissions for the two exhibitions, which will be independently curated by the biennial’s curators, Emre Arolat and Joseph Grima within the framework of the biennial theme ‘Imperfection’ (Kusurluluk) is 2 June 2012.