Art competition for students – The XP Awards

XP awards logo

Win Internships and monetary prizes.

Are you a student in the UK with dreams of a career in art or design? We have an amazing opportunity for you to show off your skills, display your art, win cash prizes and bag yourself an internship. This is the XP Awards, a unique art/design competition for UK students.

We’re so excited to announce the first of the prize internships: Framestore! Across film, TV and advertising, they bring extraordinary ideas to life through craft, imagination and technology. And you could bag a placement there!

To enter, create an art piece based on your favourite video game(s) and submit on our website. From the stunning landscape of your favourite location in a vast RPG to a portrait of a beloved character, you have absolute freedom in what you create. It just has to be amazing to win of these prizes:

The Max Out Award: the top prize with an internship at a massive games company & £1000 prize.

The Still Image Award: an internship at a top design company & £500 prize.

The Moving Image Award: an internship at a VFX studio & £500 prize. 

The Crowdpleaser Award: an internship at Stakester (that’s us!) & £500 prize. This one’s voted for by the public so get your friends involved!

30 people — including the winners — will have their work displayed at an Exhibition in Central London later this year. Our panel of judges work at some of the world’s top game and design companies. They’ll be choosing three winners, plus the honourable mentions, and will be joining us for the exhibition.

It’s time to announce our first judge: Nimrod Vardi from Arebyte Gallery! Arebyte supports developing artists and leads a pioneering digital art programme at the intersection of new technologies and contemporary culture. And he has a message for any prospective entrants: “We’ve been impressed and inspired with the quality of work we’ve received so far. But, it’s not too late to enter the competition!”

Our second judge is Amy Smith from Framestore, a Bafta and Oscar award-winning creative studio, famous for its range of visual effects, production, direction and post production services.

Rounding out our jury is Alexander Raphelt from Epic Games, the home of international blockbuster games Rocket League and Fortnite!

If you want to keep up with the competition and even get involved, make sure you follow us on Instagram so you don’t miss an update!

If you’ve read this far, well done. But, you’re probably wondering why a skill-based gaming company is hosting an art competition. We would too. That story starts with our inspirational in-house designer – and former intern – Hannah del Herrera. Read more about her story here.