DE. Aaron Leppanen (Expert B-Rank)

How are the Designer Titles Granted?
Designer Ratings and Designer Titles are based on the quality and quantity of, international juried awards based on blind peer-review processes and criteria based evaluation mechanisms, won in design, engineering, art, architecture disciplines and other creative domains. Designer Titles are algorithmically decided based on success to ensure that all titles are granted purely on merits and design capabilities. Everyone, who demonstrate consistent good design skills and tenets will be able to obtain their matching Designer Title, without application or approval; Titles are automatically assigned each year after consolidated and aggregated score calculations.

Can the Designer Titles be used as honorofics?
World Design Ratings lists individual designers, design agencies and design teams of large enterprises. World Design Rating's Designer Titles may be used as honorifics to be used in addressing or referring to the rated and listed individual designers but should preferably be not used as a honorific for design teams or agencies, yet the honorofic usage is ultimately allowed for both cases.

How long does the Designer Titles are valid for?
Once awarded, the Designer Titles are held for life. However, depending on circumstances, Designer Titles could be revoked or taken away such as in cases of award disqualification. Furthermore, Designer Titles are updated at regular intervals and may be upgraded in future based on new score calculations or algorithm changes, but the chances of these both happening are very slim; in general you should consider that these are lifetime achievements and therefore the titles may be held for lif.

How can I move to higher Design Title tiers?
Movement within the title groups and tiers, such as from Master to Grand Master requires designers to prove their capabilities multiple times by obtaining highest achievements consistently; this is to ensure that a designer with a single successful, which while is being a significant achievement on its own still not enough to prove that the designer has the ability to consistently delivery good design work, would not obtain a Master or Grand Master titles. To move forward in Design Title tiers you need to aim for winning higher award-status achievements, for moving higher within your tier, you may look to obtain more number of awards but after a point, it does not matter how many awards you have won; the quality is taken into consideration to pass within the tiers; aim for quality.

How do World Design Consortium WDC-Rank and World Design Ratings WDR-Title differ?
They are similar, but their purposes are different. World Design Consortium has 7 tiers that are S (Highest), followed by A, B, C, D, E and F (Lowest) and are designed to help design buyers, clients and consumers choose a designer, brand or agency as the WDC-Ranks are mainly designed to express design capabilities; to make it easier for clients to choose designers to work with; that's why they are simplified with only 7 tiers. World Design Ratings, has 64 different titles organized under Grand Master, Master, Expert, Professional, Associate, Practitioner, Novitiate groups, and their purpose is to help designers establish a hierarchy within their ranks as well as to create an incentive and drive for designers to improve their work, they too can be used by clients when selecting a designer to work with and indeed since WDC Titles have more tiers, they are often used by clients for picking up the very best designers within the tiers. WDC Ranks are calculated based on a complex algorithm, that mainly divides the designers into tiers based on their capability to create consistent quality of good designs. WDR Titles are based on prestige accumulated over the years, and this too is algorithmically decided based on the quality and quantity of awards won. Designers may use both their WDC Rank and the WDR Titles as part of their presentation. In general, they are quite similar with WDR Titles being more detailed and have more tiers in between and are more preferrable by designers during their presentations.

How do R+ Designer Rankings R+ Rating differ from World Designer Ratings L-Score?
They are significantly different. R+ Rating communicates a contemporary assessment of the designers’ capabilities; with a more focus on recent work and more value on higher achievements while the L-Score is about lifetime achievements for the designers. R+ Rating takes time into consideration during score calculation, while L-Score does not take time in score calculation. R+ Ratings are subject to computational decay over time; L-Scores do not decay over time and on the contrary L-Scores could increase annually. L-Score uses linear arithmetic while R+ Rating processes a cubic exponential algorithm for score calculation based on award status; higher award status are granted even higher R+ Rating, and the R+ Rating provided by an award-winning design is subject to a computational decay over the years and the decay rate is different for distinct achievements; higher award status such as Platinum, Gold and Silver have a computational decay at much lower rate than lesser status such as Iron and Bronze. Platinum status has the least computational decay; furthermore for R+ Rating calculation, the computational decay rate increases over the years and reaches maximum amount in eight (8) years, eight years was selected as the capping element for decay as this duration represents an industry accepted product cycle as well as a socio-economic generational cycle where trends and preferences are updated.

How do I, as a designer, agency or company get listed in World Design Ratings?
You need to be a multiple winner of highly prominent, prestigious, influential and acclaimed international juried design awards and competitions that grants awards based on blind peer-review processes and criteria based evaluation mechanisms, such as the world-famous A' Design Award & Competition. It is easy to have a starting title if you have good design, yet to achieve exalted title tiers you will need to have higher and higher award statuses; for example, to obtain a Grand Master status, you need not only be winner of A’ Design Award but should be awarded with multiple platinum level achievements, and this is quite difficult, but as proven by many, it is achievable if you have great design capabilities. There is no application procedure for Designer Honorific titles, the very best designers are granted the titles annually, without any application or fee required. The designer honorific title recipients are selected among top award-winning designers. The honorifics are granted as lifetime achievements. If you wish to be considered for a title, the most straightforward way is to win a very prestigious design award, such as the A’ Design Award & Competition; the higher your success such as Platinum or Gold award status, would ensure your consideration for a title.

Who issues the designer titles and honorifics?
World Design Ratings is managed by the World Design Consortium, in collaboration with A’ Design Award & Competition. World Design Consortium issues, proclaims, grants and awards the lifetime honorific designer titles for the multi-award-winning designers, artists, architects, engineers and creatives solely based on their creative design talents and merits, without regards to any race, sex, origins, political opinions or personalities to ensure that the designer titles, without any bias, communicates the design skill levels excellently and transparently.

How much does it cost to obtain a designer honorific title?
Honorific titles for the designers are granted and awarded without any costs by the World Design Consortium. There are no any fees, payments, subscriptions, costs or dues of any kind to be granted a title; it is completely free for World Design Consortium members to obtain their titles. World Design Consortium membership is also free of charge, however not everyone is accepted; there are eligibility conditions such as being winner of prestigious design awards and similar.

What does WDC S-Rank mean?
The designer has extremely strong technical, aesthetic, innovative, emotional and creative capacity to meet requirements to complete design development commitments. If you work with a WDC S-Rank Designer, the expectation is as follows: If a work is commissioned to a WDC S-Rank designer, the resulting design work are expected to be exceedingly exceptional, excellent, outstanding, genius, artistic, imaginative, visionary, effective and amazing. WDC S-Rank is the highest and most important achievement status that could be obtained by the very best, world-class designers with unmatched creativity, professionalism and genius. WDC S-Rank is matched to Grand Master (GM) honorific title.

What does WDC A-Rank mean?
The designer has very strong technical, aesthetic, innovative and creative capacity to meet requirements to complete design development commitments. If you work with a WDC A-Rank Designer, the expectation is as follows: If a work is commissioned to a WDC A-Rank designer, the resulting design work are expected to be highly exceptional, outstanding, genius, artistic, imaginative, visionary, effective and amazing. WDC A-Rank is a very high and very important achievement status that could be obtained by top designers with outstanding and excellent creative and professional skills. WDC A-Rank is matched to Master (DM) honorific title.

What does WDC B-Rank mean?
The designer has strong technical, aesthetic, innovative and creative capacity to meet requirements to complete design development commitments. If you work with a WDC B-Rank Designer, the expectation is as follows: If a work is commissioned to a WDC B-Rank designer, the resulting design work are expected to be exceptional, outstanding, genius, artistic, imaginative, visionary, effective and amazing. WDC B-Rank is the a high and important achievement status that could be obtained by outstandingly creative, highly professional and exceptionally creative designers. WDC B-Rank is matched to Expert (DE) honorific title.

What does WDC C-Rank mean?
The designer has good technical, aesthetic and creative capacity to meet requirements complete design development commitments. If you work with a WDC C-Rank Designer, the expectation is as follows: If a work is commissioned to a WDC C-Rank designer, the resulting design work are expected to be highly good, functional, professional and useful. WDC C-Rank is the a very good and relevant achievement status that could be obtained by professional, creative and experienced designers. WDC C-Rank is matched to Professional (DP) honorific title.

What does WDC D-Rank mean?
The designer has adequate technical and creative capacity to meet requirements to complete design development commitments. If you work with a WDC D-Rank Designer, the expectation is as follows: If a work is commissioned to a WDC D-Rank designer, the resulting design work are expected to be functional, professional and useful. WDC D-Rank is a good achievement status that could be obtained by professional and creative designers. WDC D-Rank is matched to Associate (AD) honorific title.

What does WDC E-Rank mean?
The designer has necessary technical capacity to meet requirements to complete design development commitments. If you work with a WDC E-Rank Designer, the expectation is as follows: If a work is commissioned to a WDC E-Rank designer, the resulting design work are expected to be functional and professional. WDC E-Rank is a starting, positive achievement status that could be obtained by professional designers that demonstrate very high potential for further growth and success. WDC E-Rank is matched to Practitioner (PR) honorific title.

What does WDC F-Rank mean?
The designer has not been assigned a rating due to insufficient information on which to base a rating. If you work with a WDC F-Rank Designer, the expectation is as follows: If a work is commissioned to a WDC F-Rank designer, resulting design work would warry depending on the scenario. WDC F-Rank is a positive status that indicates potential for growth and success. WDC F-Rank is matched to Novitiate (ND) honorific title.

What are the abbreviation noted next to the designers names? What are the Italian texts?
The abbreviations noted next to the designers names are shorthands for the honorific Designer Titles granted to the designers. They are GM : GM stands for Grand Master / Gran Maestro, DM : DM stands for Master / Maestro, DE : DE stands for Expert / Esperto, DP : DP stands for Professional / Professionale, AD : AD stands for Associate / Collega, PR : PR stands for Practitioner / Praticante, ND : ND stands for Novitiate / Noviziato, and you will also notice that these are also the title tier names. The Italian Title equivalents are noted since until 2009, the titles were granted only in Italian, however from 2010, WDR in collaboration with WDC decided to grant titles in English for true international understanding.

Is this the whole list of WDR Title Holders?
This is not the whole list, first of all F-Rank designers are not listed. F-Rank designers are not listed for the following reason; while the F-Rank is indeed a highly positive rank that demonstrates past success and future growth possibilities, with all F-Rank designers are also being award-winning designers and/or professional creatives, there are simply too many F-Rank designers to list and therefore they are not included in the main listing, however their profiles are accessible from unique identification links and URLs provided to the designers themselves. Furthermore, only a certain number of top entries are displayed due to technical requirements and limitations.

What is the purpose of World Design Ratings and the Honorific Designer Titles?
The World Design Ratings and the honorific designer titles are granted part of a worldwide initiative from World Design Consortium to recognize the true pillars of our society; designers, artists, creators, engineers, innovators and architects who dedicate and devote their life for creating good designs, art and artefacts that help make the World a better place. It is our deepest and most sincere desire to create global awareness and appreciation for these important good designers and their exceptional works. Furthermore, for prospective clients and consumers, the World Design Consortium Ranks provide an easy assessment of how good a designer, architect or creative agency is. World Design Ratings establishes and officially recognizes the good design capacity of the awarded designers based on their cumulative success.