Judges
Lucas Silva
David Miami
Shira Inbar
Afritina Coker
Lauren Hodges
Chobani
Dylan Mulvaney
Gretel
Trevor Basset
Senior Designer, Starbucks
Devin O’Bryan
Design Lead, Watson Studio
Krista McCrimmon
Creative Director/Writer, Johnson & Sekin
Christina Childress
Photographer
Laura Freeman
Illustrator
Tadd Myers
Owner and Photographer of Tadd Myers Photography
Lily Smith-Kirkley
Natasha Brito
Creative Director of Sony Music Entertainment
Jeff Rogers
Designer, Illustrator of Howdy Jeff
Zipeng Zhu
Founder and Creative Director of Zazzle
Jennifer Morla
President and Creative Director - Morla Design
Husani S. Oakley
SVP, Director of Tech at Deutsch
Marc English
Graphic Designer
Stewart Cohen
Ownder/Photographyer, Stewart Cohen Pictures
Molly Dickson
Photographer
Karen Kurycki
CMYKaren Designer Illustrator
Frances Yllana
CD lmaginuity
John Custer
Founder & Principal of Dandy, Designer Illustrator
Oen Michael Hammonds
Head of Talent Enablement Experiences, IBM Studios
Leo Santos
Senior Creative Director
Cardon Webb
Designer
Josh Boston
Graphic Designer
Susan Crawford
Illustrator
Sebron Snyder
Photographer
Shelby Miller
Partner, MHI Co-Founder, Vinyl Thoughts
James Lacey
Partner, Dennardlacey
Ryan Martindale
Partner /Executive Creative Director, Super Top Secret
Samantha Reitmayer Sano
Owner/Principal Creative Director, Swoon the Studio
Dana Tanamachi
Owner, Tanamachi Studio
Jimmy Ball
Director of UX @siriusXM & former @aigaDFW president
Garrett Owen
RMBB / Richards
Ben Barry
reelance Designer, formerly of Facebook
Matt George
Creative Director, Tractorbeam
Jennifer Singer
Art Director, UT Austin & Co-Founder of The National Student Show
Shay Ometz
Senior Art Director, Fossil/ Owner, bee things
Geoff German
Squires & Company
Kelli Anderson
Designer/ This Book is a Planetarium
David Eastman
creative group head at The Richards Group
Christopher Simmons
CD and principle of MINE
Stephen Zhang
Vice President and Image Director at Fossil
Jim Olvera
Photographer
Michael Osborne
Founder, Creative Director
Eleanor Grosch
designer and illustrator
Barton Darner
Creative Director, Motion Designer and Founder of alreadybeenchewed
Marc Burcheardt
Lauren Ranke
Wieden+Kenedy
Chris Bettin
TM Advertising
Yvette Wheeler
RBMM
Fredrik Broden
Photographer
Jessica Hische
Freelance Lettering Artist
Chris Korbey
Chuck Schiller
David Kampa
Jeff Barfoot
Principle, RBMM
Stephanie Lee
Willoughby
Wyatt McSpadden
McSpadden Photography
Peter Wood
Exec. Creative Director, Slingshot
Robyn Eden
Art Director & Photographer, T3
Liz Burnett
Principal, Matchbox Studio
Holly Lindem
Photographer
Joel Templin
Creative Director, Templin Brink Design
Brandon Murphy
Caliber Creative
Tamara Smallwood
Creative Director, Salt Industries
James Bland
James Bland Photography
Duane King
focus2
Bryan Hynacek
Ignition
Eric Moncaleano
Publicis
Michael Newhouse
Newhouse Design
D.J. Stout
Pentagram
Jack Summerford
Summerford Design
Steve Gibbs
RBMM
Entry Qualifications
Only Student Work Is Eligible
All entries submitted to the National Student Show (NSS) must have been produced by a student currently pursuing an undergraduate degree at an accredited college, university, or art school. Graduate work is not accepted.
All entries must have been produced between January 2025–December 2025 as part of a school’s curriculum, with the exception of entries submitted to portfolio categories. Work produced outside of a school’s curriculum is not permitted (e.g. personal, freelance, or work produced at an internship).
Enter Only Your Own Work
Do not plagiarize. The National Student Show defines plagiarism (as found on ethicsingraphicdesign.org) as the unauthorized use or close imitation of existing work and the representation of it as wholly one’s own original work.
Any entries found by the National Student Show or the judges to be plagiarized will not only be immediately disqualified but the professor or school of the errant entrant will also be notified. Additional academic consequences may follow according to the school’s code of ethics.
Submit As Many Entries As You See Fit
There is no limit to the number of entries allowed per student or per school.
You may also submit the same work into multiple categories as applicable (e.g. Ice Cream Shop Rebranding Project may have assets that could be entered individually into categories like Logos, Packaging, Branding Campaign, etc.).
Group Projects Are Eligible in Select Categories
The National Student Show defines group projects as any entry where 2–4 students were specifically assigned a project with the express direction to work together to create an end product.
Pay close attention to group eligibility in the Advertising, Interactive Design, and Motion Design categories. If the category description does not specify group projects, only single-student submissions are accepted.
Awards for winning entries are given to the submitting student. NSS encourages the submitting student to alert their group members of the award recognition and leaves any sharing of the award money to the winner’s discretion.
Properly Credit Coauthors and Assets Used
Unless all assets in a submitted entry have been created only by the single submitting student, proper credits must be provided in the online entry form’s Credits field at the time of submission. Any assets not created by the submitting student that are used for the submitted entry must include proper credits (e.g. “Art Direction: Submitting Student, Illustration: Artist’s Name, Typography: Artist’s Name”).
The National Student Show recognizes that students may be tasked to use non-student-produced assets to create layouts or designs.
However, the following limitations apply:
Any usage of non-student-produced assets (e.g. stock photography or stock illustration) must be credited in the online entry form’s Credits field (e.g. “Image(s) courtesy of istockphoto.com”).
Any non-student-produced assets must have been significantly altered from the original asset (e.g. multiple stock photos combined to create a new image).
If your artwork uses images for collage manipulation or for editorial work that falls under the Fair Use provisions of the Copyright Act, please clearly state this in the online entry form’s Credits field.
Submission Guidelines
Pricing and Online Submission for Judging
EARLY BIRD PRICING: $40 per entry through January 12, 2026.
REGULAR PRICING: $50 per entry through February 14, 2026.
All entries should be submitted digitally by 11:59 P.M. CST on February 14, 2026. No physical entries will be accepted for judging. No late entries will be accepted. Please follow the submission guidelines for each category carefully as these vary. Entries submitted incorrectly will be disqualified.
All entries require a title, short description of the project’s parameters, and a current professor’s name and email. For select scholarship categories, NSS requires additional paperwork from you and your professor that will be requested by email (as noted in the category submission details).
Submit Your Best Work
You may submit up to 5 images per entry unless otherwise stated in the category submission details. If submitting multiple images, upload “les in the order in which you’d like them viewed during judging. For additional security, you are welcome to include an order reference in the bottom right corner of each image (e.g. 1 of 5, 2 of 5, etc.)
All images will be printed on 11” x 17” paper at the largest possible orientation for judging. Please consider what view makes the most sense per category (e.g. a small grid of Logo variations, a mockup of a Brochure showing both the closed cover and open interior, etc.). Each image can be designed as you would a single page in your student portfolio.
Some categories allow up to 3 URL submissions (e.g. Advertising, Motion Design, etc.). For website submissions, NSS also requires a single, project-related image will also be required to serve as the project’s reference thumbnail image during judging.
Work Should Not Be Openly Attributed
Do NOT include your name or the name of your school in the online entry form’s Title or Description fields. Do NOT display your name or the name of your school in your work unless it is part of the design (e.g. senior exit show poster or self-branding). This helps ensure that our judges have an unbiased opinion when reviewing your work.
Future Submission for the Show
If your work is selected for the Show gallery, you may be notified with a request and specifications for a physical art submission or alternate digital format.
All physical submissions are printed, prepared, and delivered to the Show at the student’s expense.
Categories
Advertising
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Print
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Art Direction
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Copywriting
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Audio
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Video
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Out-of-home
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Interactive
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Experiential
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Direct
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Integrated Campaign
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Public Service (PSA)
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General Design
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Logos
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Wearables
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Stationary Package
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Posters
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Environmental
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Typeface & Hand Lettering
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Infographics
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Branding Campaign
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Special Event Materials
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Illustration
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Illustration (single)
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Illustration (series/collection)
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Memorial Illustration Scholarship
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Interactive Design
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Website Home Page Design (non-interactive)
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Website Prototype or Programmed
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Website Integration or Feature
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Mobile App Visual Design
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Mobile App Prototype or Programmed
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Motion Design
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Animated Short
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Short Film
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Motion Graphics
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Photography
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Photography (single)
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Photography (series/collection)
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Richard Patrick Memorial Scholarship
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Portfolio
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Senior Portfolio
For students with more than 90 hours of credits. (gold, silver & bronze awards)
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Dick Sloan Scholarship For Best Junior Portfolio
For students with more than 60 and less that 90 hours of credits
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Dick Sloan Scholarship For Best Sophomore Portfolio
For student with less than 60 hours of credits
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Publication
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Book Covers
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Magazine & Periodical Covers
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Editorial Spread or Feature Design
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Zines
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Annual Reports, Brochures & Catalogs
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Retail
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Packaging
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Retail Design
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Point of Purchase
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