Does the inspirational couple or guest judge determine the challenge winner?
No. The winners of all of our competitions are chosen democratically by the thousands of members of our community. The judge’s primary role is to excite and enliven the design community. We try to pick judges that are either editors, bloggers, or other influentials who will hopefully garner exposure for our designers or else people who are experts in their field and can speak to relevant current trends. Sometimes we offer their work or aesthetic itself as a source of inspiration so designers don’t have to start with a completely blank slate. Our real life individual or couple inspirations are, again, just there to give you a starting point and to help you connect with what a real consumer is looking for. We hear constantly that our designers want more feedback on their work and our judges and real-life inspirations offer just that in their final selections, as well as in the interviews we try to do frequently with them on our blog.
