After spending five days last week in the company of thousands of design projects, we came away with some broad observations about the scope of work. As judges Debbie Millman, John Foster and Nathan Hendricks paced among the tables of entries, scoring pens in hand, we asked them to keep track of what they saw.

Generally, some of the trends we've seen repeatedly in recent years seem to be on the wane: tiny patterns, cute wildlife, palettes of brown matched with spring green or pale blue, prettiness. The work that rose to the top was a bit sharper, grittier.

The handmade aesthetic is still strong, but it's rougher in a deliberate way. The judges noted that they could imagine a designer sketching an image on paper and then, instead of bringing that sketch into Illustrator for refinement, deciding that the sketch itself was appropriate for the project. No need to sand off the rough edges.

As in all competitions, the judges bemoaned inconsistency: a dynamite book cover whose lackluster interior pages shot the project all to hell, good ideas poorly executed, great executions of crappy ideas, well-designed annual reports with rotten photography, huge budgets that allowed for reckless production values with no meaningful payoff.

Foster especially noted challenges with printing and paper:

"The printing gap has widened severely. It seems as if you either have a massive budget and you throw tons of bells and whistles at a piece, or folks are legging it out, digitally printing parts like a belly band or even running stuff off their color laser. On both counts I just caution to never let the printing get in the way of the design. If it's overly extravagant with no purpose other than to spend money it becomes a turnoff, and while I appreciate the ingenuity of using economical resources I hate to hold a piece in my hands and think it feels cheap and thrown-together.

"Paper choices are still amazing to me. I would say a tenth of the work turned me off the minute I felt the gross stock the designer had chosen. Get samples and 'touch' your work beforehand."

We'll publish the results of the trio's deliberation in HOW's March/April International Design Annual. Meanwhile, if you're looking for inspiration, check out the gallery of past HOW winners.