The Northern Design Competition rewards talented students in Northern England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales for their work in the creative arts. There are five short-listed finalists in each of the categories who will be invited to attend a special awards dinner to receive their prize.

The Northern Design Competition provides entrants with a real opportunity to showcase their work in a competitive environment. Because the competition is at the heart of a new network in the North, it is judged by professionals and the winning work is exhibited to potential employers. It provides greater access to communication between the existing and future leaders of creative arts outside of London and opens up new and vital collaborative opportunities between business, education and the wider community.

The photography category invites submissions in digital or print photography. Entrants are welcome to submit a photographic sequence or a single image and entries will be graded based on the student’s use of technique and skill as well as the purpose and meaning of the picture(s).

Polaroid’s, high resolution prints or slides are welcome as well as digital images but all submissions must be made online so hard copies will need to scanned and submitted over the web.

Judges will be looking in equal measure at image content as well as craft.

Prize: Five finalists will be selected from all of the entries in this category. The finalists will be invited to an awards dinner where the winner will be announced.

The winner will receive a £1000 cash prize and a chance to become the Maurice Miller Design Champion. Second prize will be awarded £100 and third prize will receive £50.

If you are aged 16-18 your entry will automatically be entered into the Young Northern Designer award. Five finalists from across all of the competition categories will be invited to the awards dinner where the winner will be announced. The winner will each receive a £500 prize and a further £250 will be awarded to their school, college or university. The remaining runners-up will each receive £50.

Criteria: Entrants can submit a series of images or one single image in this category. Images must be submitted in RGB format and be at a high enough resolution to be judged properly.

Important: As part of the entry process, entrants will be asked to submit a rationale (description) for their project. This should be prepared in advance and pasted in to the appropriate box during the submission process. The rationale should include details of the original brief, the process undertaken, the tools and techniques used and a personal reflection on any learning outcomes.

By submitting a well constructed and thorough description of their work, students are likely to do better in the competition because the judges will be able to better understand the purpose of the piece and the student’s interpretation of the original brief. Because of the professional nature of the competition, the judges are likely to favour entries with good use of language and grammar for the project and the rationale.