The DIELINE Awards 2027 publishes ten entry deadlines across the season. Six of them still lie ahead. Every one is a separate pricing window, published in advance, and the price only ever moves in one direction.
Fall Entry is the window you are in. It closes September 30 at 23:59 GMT, and it is the last time this season a Professional entry costs $385.
What the ladder looks like from here
On October 1 the Pre-Holiday window opens at $415 for Professional, $300 for Independent, and $160 for Concept, Student and Design for Good. That window runs to October 31, and then it moves again.
Carry it all the way to the end and a Professional entry at the final February 27 deadline costs $545. Independent goes to $425. Concept and Student to $215. The full table is on the rates page.
So the September 30 decision is worth $160 per Professional entry measured against that last window, $150 per Independent entry, and $70 per Concept or Student entry. Across five projects, that is real money.
There are no flash sales
This is worth saying plainly, because plenty of competitions do not work this way. We do not discount between windows. There is no surprise code in the last forty-eight hours, no quiet extension, and no better rate for whoever complains loudest. The published table is the whole story.
The ladder only works if it is honest. Studios that entered at $295 in the Early Bird window did the right thing, and they should not be undercut in September by someone who waited.
What you are buying at any rate
An entry is judged on the work, not on when it arrived. It also puts the project in front of DIELINE’s editorial team for feature consideration whether it wins or not — which is worth stating, because it is the part people most often miss.
And entries stay editable until the window closes. Submitting on the 20th does not lock the work. It locks the price.
Fall Entry closes September 30 at 23:59 GMT. Professional $385, Independent $275, Concept and Student $145. Enter the DIELINE Awards 2027.
