‘My Home’ – a visual expression of home through typography & colour.

Open to all tertiary design students in New Zealand, this is an exceptional opportunity to practice your design skills in real life – following a job from brief through to print. This year’s theme revolves around typography and colour.

Steps:

1. 1. Think about what ‘your home’ means to you. Your home could be your house, your street, your town, region or country. What does it look like? What is it known for? What are the identifying characteristics? What does it feel like? It could also be your favourite place, food or music and how it reminds you of ‘home’.
   2. Create a 2–5 word saying about ‘your home’ – examples: By the sea, Walk in the sand, Warm Chocolate chip cookies, Blue skies and green fields,… Please avoid using established ‘place’ brand messages (example: ‘The City of Sails’ or ‘The Garden City’).
   3. Create a visual expression of your saying that represents this, combining type, colour and other created graphics (the wording must appear in full). You can use chosen typefaces, hacked type, or create your own lettering.
   4. The image must be typographic based – but can also use illustration or photography – providing this material is YOUR CREATION. No stock or AI-generated imagery is allowed. If you use photography/raster-based images, please ensure these have a (minimum) effective resolution of 300ppi at the required physical size (see below Mechanical Requirements).
   5. Lastly, choose a BJ Ball paper stock, from the swatch provided, that enhances your design.

Paper Choice:

Choose a BJ Ball paper stock from the list below that you feel enhances your design.

As paper companies, we want you to tell us what paper type will match your design – they aren’t all white! Chat with your tutor to see samples. The options are:

BJ Ball – New Zealand – Sumo Gloss 200gsm / Silk Matt 256gsm / Advance Laser 240gsm / Trophee 240gsm (all colours – see here for the range), Knight Smooth 300gsm / Knight Linen 350gsm / ECO100 250gsm / Via Felt Cream White 216gsm / Mohawk Superfine Eggshell Ultra White 270gsm / Mohawk Superfine Smooth Ultra White 270gsm.

Winning Entries:

The contest is open to all graphic design students currently studying in New Zealand.

Twelve students will be selected for their artwork as winners of the 2025 BJ Ball Student Design Contest.

The twelve winners’ artwork will feature in the BJ Ball 2026 calendar.

The 12 winners will each receive a $150 gift card, as well as artist profiles on various social media channels, and in our bi-annual GSM magazine.

Judging:

All entries will be judged by a panel of 3 judges, chosen for their industry experience. Judging will be based on the following criteria:

• Concept and idea – how the meaning of the words is expressed visually through the use of type, imagery and colour.
• Visual appeal.
• Adherence to the mechanical requirements (below).
• The effectiveness of the paper choice relative to the design

This year’s Judges are:

Important Dates:

Entries close: Sunday 28 September 2025 @ 11.59pm

Winners notified: Friday 10^th October 2025

File Requirements:

• Required size: Landscape orientation 380mm x 260mm (at a minimum effective resolution of 300ppi for photographic/raster-based entries).
• PDF, no bleed.
• CMYK Colour Mode only (NO RGB material please).
• ALL FONTS need to be CONVERTED TO OUTLINES (if you do not know how to do this – ask your tutor!).
• The Calendar is Offset printed in CMYK – please do not include any print embellishments (such as foiling or embossing) or Pantone Spot Colours.
• Design suits the paper choice, as per the supplied paper swatch.
• Artwork can be illustration, photography, graphic design, or a mix of all three.
• File size is capped at 10Mb.
• Please check the T&Cs to ensure your design does not breach copyright rules.