Houston Aquarium

General Design — Branding Campaign

The Houston Aquarium is Houston’s number one underwater adventure destination and learning center. The proposed branding identity positions the Houston Aquarium as a sophisticated learning center dedicated to empowering and educating Houston’s communities.

Student

Colin Morris

Professor

Genaro Rivero-Solis

School

Texas State University

Designer

Colin Morris

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

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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Menus

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Illustration

Illustration (single)

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Illustration (series/collection)

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Memorial Illustration Scholarship

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Interactive Design

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

Animated Short

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Short Film

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Motion Graphics

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Photography

Photography (single)

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Photography (series/collection)

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Richard Patrick Memorial Scholarship

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Portfolio

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

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

Packaging

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Retail Design

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Point of Purchase

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