Research Task: Competition Briefs

For this research task, I had to explore several competitions for illustrators and artists a like, and gain an understanding of approaching a brief or working alongside other artists.

Moving through this task, I explored the variety of competition sites and narrowed down which appealed to me more, choosing them based of what I am working towards in a career.

The common theme running through them all is that it involves some element of storytelling, whether its telling a children's story, making a graphic novel or creating an illustration based off of a previously created traditional story.

Once I narrowed it down, I went even further to break down which competition best suits me, the fee of the competitions to me, should be as cheap as possible since money is tight. I'm also an unpublished artist with little experience-- which crossed at a few more; and since it's the end of the year many of the competitions have finished now, so I had to choose ones that were still open.

After that it was narrowed down to two competitions, the Post Wave Prize (MoMa illustration) and The Batsford Prize. The Post Wave Prize theme was 'Time for Tea', which immediately made me think of my previous assignment (below); the submission must be a book cover and one double page spread of full colour art for an illustrated children's book. The prize itself is £3,000 with the opportunity to have their work considered for publication, and a fully funded trip to China.

The deadline for it is the 7th January 2026, so not a huge amount of time.

Assignment: 'Lift-the-flap' Children's book. Watercolour, Ink.

Because of that thought, I turned to the other option, 'The Batsford Prize', this competition is specifically for undergraduates and postgraduates which is good for me, and there are four different categories you can enter in: Applied Art and Textiles, Fine Art, Book Illustration, and The Geoffry Powell Award for Architecture.

The theme of this one is 'Connection' and must show innovative and well-crafted interpretations of the theme. You need to present using up to 7 images of the work, or a digital version of a picture-book/graphic novel, or a video; it should also include a supporting statement explaining your work. The prize is £300 cash prize for the winner of each category, £100 worth of Batsford books for the winners and £300 worth of books for their college, and £50 worth of books for two runners up in each category.

The deadline for this competition is 22 March 2026.

In this instance, I would choose The Batsford Prize, I love books and allowing the opportunity for undergraduates and postgraduates to show their work seems really appealing to me.

Looking at previous winners and their work, I worry that my work as an illustrator isn't up to a standard that the winners are showing. The artworks have a lot of feeling to them, a lot of emotions; the designs feel complete; the work feels intentional. Their work has style that is their own, whereas I'm not sure I have a style at the moment.

Because they have all things and more such as these, my work needs to have a purpose and stick to it, avoid deviations and lack of planning; and if I create something I have to completely understand who it's for and what it's about. For example, my last assignment I created an artbook showing life, but who would read that, look at it?

I question to myself as I reach this point of the course and this stage of my creative development, with even more questions, can my work target the people I want? Do I need a consistent style? Will what I say and feel reflect in my work? What do I want to do for future projects?

Coming to the end of this research task, I feel a little conflicted, after figuring out what I want/could to produce and for who, I realise just how unprepared I am in my artistic side of my mind. There is so much out there I just want to make, and it's not realistic.