*Advertising, Book, Institutional, and Editorial entries must be published or commissioned projects. You will be asked to provide the name of an art director and client.

*Surface Design, Product Design, Animation, and Uncommissioned are the only categories that accept works that were NOT commissioned or paid for by a company or agency.

The Jury for each category is composed of nine judges, with the exception of the Animation category. Judges are specialists in the category they review and include Art Directors, Educators, Designers, and other industry professionals. The jury is nominated by The Chair and changes with each competition. The Co-Chair will chair the following year’s competition. While we used to review works in-person, the process has been entirely remote since 2020, allowing us to welcome more international participants!

2026 Chair: Ellen Weinstein | Co-Chair: David Elmo Cooper | Poster by Sally Deng

• Book: Cátia Chien, Elizabeth B. Parisi, Esther Sarah Kim, R. Kikuo Johnson, Rovina Cai, Shawn Martinbrough, Vashti Harrison, Selina Alko, Sophia Schoepfer
• Editorial: Edel Rodriguez, Julie Benbassat, Millie von Platen, John Goecke, Akshita Chandra, André Carrilho, Dominic Bodden, Grace J. Kim, Davian-Lynn Hopkins
• Uncommissioned: Anita Kunz, Ivan Canu, Rahele Jomepour Bell, Esmé Shapiro, SooJin Buzelli, Cozbi A. Cabrera, Jacob Covey, Suzanne Dean, James E. Ransome
• Surface/Product Design: Olimpia Zagnoli, Joana Avillez, Jason Raish, Katri Haycock, Raxenne Maniquiz, Sarah Dickinson, Ishita Jain, Katty Huertas, Alyah Holmes
• Advertising & Institutional: María Jesús Contreras, Rob Wilson, Antonio Alcalá, Claudio Marcelo Reis, Deb JJ Lee, Victoria Tentler-Krylov, Scot Bendal, Andrew Hickox, Wenjing Yang
• Animation: Henri Campeã, Morgan Schweitzer, Ru Kuwahata, Max Porter, Roche

Preparing Your Submission Files

• JPEG or GIF files should be (1mb – 10mb max)
• Please note: we will not be accepting PDFs for this competition!
• Animations will require a thumbnail image and a public link such as Vimeo or Youtube

If you are submitting a singular standalone piece of artwork for consideration, select SINGLE IMAGE, otherwise please submit a SERIES of images to convey one project or a cohesive body of work.

INSTRUCTIONAL WALKTHROUGH

1. Go to competitions.societyillustrators.org and click “Register” or “Enter” to login or create a new account
2. Input your email and solve the Captcha math problem
3. By logging in or creating an account you will automatically be sent to your Dashboard and receive an email with a temporary password that can be updated at a later time.

Entering Your Submission and required fields

1. Within your Dashboard you will see that the Annual Show is open for entries.
2. Illustrators submitting their own work, please select Individual in the drop down. If you are submitting on someone else’s behalf please select Art Director/Rep/Agent.
3. You will be asked for the title of your art, the illustrator’s name, the medium, art director, client, description. If there is no art director or client please indicate by writing N/A.
4. The Contact Info section of the entry identifies who should be the primary contact regarding the entry status. Please make sure this information is up to date so you can be reached if your entry is accepted!
5. Click “Submit Entry”
6. Once all required fields are completed, the work will show in the In-Progress tab. Entries will remain in the In Progress tab until they are added to your cart and paid! Submissions are filled out one at a time, though multiple entries will display in the In Progress tab and can be paid once added to the cart in the top right.
7. You will see a box with a thumbnail image of the artwork you uploaded. This means that the site accepted the file. If you wish to enter another submission, you may do so on this page now by selecting “Add New Entry” There is also the Trash and Edit option.
8. Once all your entries are added to the cart, you can Proceed to Checkout. Your entry is not submitted until your order is complete! You MUST proceed to the cart to complete payment.

Payment Options

• A Single Image entry is $40, a Series is $80 for five images ($5 per additional image, a series of 10 images = $105)
• SI Members: $20 per Single Image, $50 for a Series of five images
•  Members must be in Good Standing and are encouraged to contact us in-advance to receive approval for discounted pricing. Interested in becoming a member? Reach out melissa@societyillustrators.org! to get discounts on entry fees for all competitions!
• Donate to the SI Giveback Fund here to waive someone’s entry fees. Please include “Annual Fund” in the donation description.

Payments can be made via Stripe with a debit or credit card. The Billing Address can reflect a Company/School on the receipt. There is also the option to add a Customer Note, which is also added to the receipt. Your entry will appear in the COMPLETED tab, confirming that it has been successfully submitted. You will receive an email receipt once your order has been successfully processed.

POST-ACCEPTANCE

In early December, accepted works will appear in the In-Show tab with a red border and an email will also be sent out confirming your entry status! There will be an in-show badge for social media use as well. Works that are unfortunately not selected will appear in the Completed tab without a border (see below). Rejection letters will also be sent via email.

Works accepted into the exhibition will be subjected to a Hanging Fee Payment of $95 per accepted entry. SI Members pay $80 per accepted entry. A Series counts as one entry. This payment is required for display in the exhibition, reproduction in the book, and inclusion in the online gallery. The entrant is also responsible for sending a hang-ready framed artwork for the exhibition. Single Image entries are represented by one frame while a Series can be multiple framed works. The Society will not cover any fees related to framing or shipment.

The Reception and Award Ceremony will take place Spring 2027.