The Duo Awards Trophy Design
The Duo Awards is an annual recognition program created by Duolingo's marketing team to celebrate and honor the global agency partners we collaborated with. Each year, the marketing team votes to select five winners across different categories, recognizing the most outstanding creative agencies and campaigns from the year. These awards shine a green spotlight on creativity, speed, virality, experimentation, and even noble failures. We want these awards to be a source of inspiration and motivation for our partners.

As part of this initiative, I designed the five physical trophies presented to the winners. Inspired by Duolingo app icons, the design translates the 2D app icon Duo art into tangible 3D sculptural objects. Each of the five cubes corresponds to one award category, reusing existing Duo character art in a way that feels cohesive with the category.

The cubes are designed to stack like Lego blocks. Agencies that win multiple awards build a growing physical collection over time.
Credits
Amo Zhou (Art Direction, Design, Photography)
Brian Reneski (Production Partner)
Duolingo Design Studio (Illustration)
Rebeca Ricoy Paramo, James Kuczynski (Project Lead)