Entries for the 2019 Eat Drink Design Awards will close on 26 July.

The awards recognise excellence and innovation in the design of cafés, restaurants, bars, nightclubs, temporary venues, and retail spaces across Australia and New Zealand.

This year will see the expansion of the awards program to include a half-day hospitality design talk series featuring some of the most recognisable names in Australian architecture and hospitality. The Eat Drink Design Awards hosts says the talks will celebrate and explore the unique process behind hospitality design, with more details to be released soon.

Entry is open to design professionals for projects completed between 1 July 2017 and 30 June 2019.

Award categories for 2019 include Best Café Design, Best Restaurant Design, Best Bar Design, Best Hotel Design, Best Installation Design, Best Retail Design, and Best Identity Design.

Entries are carefully considered, shortlisted, and awarded by a jury of industry leaders from the hospitality and design sectors. The 2019 jury consists of Besha Rodell. Restaurant Critic, New York Times; Nathan Toleman, CEO and Founder, The Mulberry Group; Graham Charbonneau, Architect and Founder, Studio-Gram; Phillip Schemnitz, Architect, Phillip Schemnitz Architects; and Cassie Hansen, Editor, Artichoke.

Designers will join their hospitality and retail clients for the awards announcement celebration, to be held at the Metropolis in Melbourne on 12 November. Each category winner will receive a $1500 cash prize from a total prize pool of $10,500.

Entries are encouraged from practices of all scales, specialisations and locations.

To register of for more information, visit www.eat-drink-design.com