Archisource presents the Drawing of the Year 2021, our annual, international drawing competition - is open-to-all and completely free-to-enter for students! With over £10,000 GBP ($13,500 USD) worth of prizes, the Drawing of the Year celebrates the very best outstanding drawings created by professionals and students around the world each year. This year's Drawing of the Year competition is brought to you in partnership with Enscape to bring our biggest, most accessible and inclusive competition to date.

Open-to-all, the competition awards entries across four categories. We’re looking for drawings in any medium and style that brilliantly communicate their subjects - the competition is by no means limited to architecture! Anyone, any industry, of any experience is welcome to enter.

The Drawing of the Year celebrates the diverse talent of creatives and the extensive variety of drawings that are created around the world each year. Following the success of it’s first two years, the competition is becoming a widely recognised aspirational series of awards for those in the architecture and design community. Past winners have gone on to kickstart their own careers with one of our past winners stating it like “an Olympic games for architects”.

All our winners and commendations have the opportunity to be internationally published and recognised across the Archisource platforms. Enscape will also be awarding an ‘Enscape Commendation’ to an outstanding image created with their software. 

Thanks to our amazing collection of partners, we have doubled last year’s prizes - with £10,000 GBP ($13,500 USD) worth of prizes to win across four categories! It’s your chance to win graphics tablets from XP-PEN, beautiful designer bags from Atelier YUL:, designer watches from Holzkern, stunning lighting from Daylight, a giant collection (probably a year or two’s worth) of pens from edding, inspiring books from gestalten, designer furniture from Case Furniture, and fantastic prize bundles from London Graphic Centre! This year we have collaborated with SANDHELDEN’s designer Carlos del Castillo to design and produce trophies created from sand for the Drawing of the Year 2021 Awards, along with creating bespoke Commendation Awards (all of which are completely unique in design!).

Archisource truly believes in the power of drawings; the Drawing of the Year aims to recognise those that have truly excelled in creating works that need no words to stand-out. The aim of the competition is to showcase works created throughout 2020-21 - there’s no need to create new works.. unless you want a new challenge over the Winter break! 

We are looking for the outstanding drawings in four categories with the aim of showcasing the different types, styles and functions of a drawing and is in no way limited to architecture - we welcome all creatives! Whether it be hand-drawn or painted, rendered or collaged, detailed linework or diagram - our judges want to see it.

TIMELINE

Submissions Open: 1st December 2021

Early Entry Closes: 31st December 2021

Final Deadline: 31st January 2022 (23:59 GMT) 

ENTRY FEE

Students: FREE

Professionals: £5 per drawing (Early Entry)

Professionals: £10 per drawing (Late Entry)

PRIZES

£10,000 GBP ($13,500 USD) worth of prizes across four categories

AWARD CATEGORIES

- Drawing of the Year Award

- Architectural Award

- Environmental Award

- Narrative Award

- Enscape Commendation

COMMENDATIONS

- Highly Commended

- Commended

- Special Mention

TERMS

For full competition details and terms please visit the website. 

STUDENT ENTRIES

A valid student ID or alternative proof will be required to validate your free entry. 

PROFESSIONAL ENTRIES

Aiming to keep the competition inclusive and accessible, we made the professional entry fee the lowest it’s ever been at just £5 per drawing (that’s more than half the entry fee from previous years!).

The winner of the Drawing of the Year 2020, Pavel Babienko, blew the judges away with his series of ‘Nomads in Space’ drawings. The originality, powerful composition and beautiful story that it portrayed were astounding. Caleb Ong won the Drawing of the Year 2019 with an incredibly detailed, hand drawn, cut-away axonometric that displayed the true life within a building.

Every year we are overwhelmingly impressed with the quality, excitement and talent that is evident in the submissions. This year we’ve made it completely free for students with a minimised fee for professionals to make sure that even more of the incredible drawings created can be celebrated and given the recognition they truly deserve. Good luck!

Top image courtesy of Archisource.

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