not just a shop product competition

What makes a good jigsaw puzzle design

Find more details about the brief, including a template and a sample design.

Audience

Who will buy and who will receive it?

We’re planning on selling the jigsaws in store during the festive period. This is when customers have downtime to enjoy mindful activities such as puzzles. We expect customers to buy these as gifts for loved ones, such as friends and family. Staff may also buy them as a gift on behalf of the University.

Message

What do you want to convey with your design?

The designs should be appealing to the shop’s audience. They should be:

• aesthetically pleasing
• easy to engage with
• require no previous context to understand
• perform well in stores as these have a wider audience appeal.

The jigsaw will most likely be a gift, so consider how the receiver would feel when seeing the design.

Colour and texture

How does the colour palette impact your design?

We are looking for designs that appeal to a wide audience. Consider interesting, fun visuals rather than challenging ones.

We recommend using a variety of colours and textures. Aim to highlight elements within the jigsaw. This helps differentiate sections and avoid frustration (such as large areas of one colour or repeat patterns).

Originality

Is your design original or does it have a fresh take on current jigsaw designs?

We want to provide our customers with a considered design that cannot be bought at any other store. We recommend looking at jigsaws that are currently available. Make an informed design that is new and interesting for experienced puzzle enthusiasts.

Terms and conditions 

• This competition is open to current students from all UAL colleges and courses (including international students).
• There is no limit to the number of submissions that can be sent in. Students are welcome to collaborate on the design(s). Note that the prize money will be divided equally between them should their design be selected.
• We cannot accept designs that are made with generative AI. You are able to use assistive AI, but we will require details on the process and programme you have used.
• Only one jigsaw design per student will be selected.
• Designs should be commercially viable. They may be required to be adapted to increase suitability (in agreement with the entrant).
• Artwork can be produced in any medium but must be submitted as a high-resolution digital image.
• Winning applicants will need to supply the final artwork to UAL as an Illustrator, EPS or TIFF file and provide a short designer biography.
• The intellectual property of designs submitted but not selected will remain entirely with the students who created them.
• Designs entered must be your own original artwork. You should be holding and will be maintaining the copyright to.
• Prize of £250 is equivalent to royalties for the production of up to 50 jigsaws. We will reach out to discuss a further fee if we decide to produce more.
• The winning designs will also be used across UAL marketing and advertising materials to promote not just a shop and future competitions. You'll be credited whenever the images are used.
• Production of the jigsaw set will be managed by UAL.
• The jigsaws will be produced as branded merchandise for UAL. The branded details will be on the packaging, we'll send this over for the winner’s approval.
• The jigsaws will be sold both in-store and through the online shop from October 2025.

Schedule  

Deadline for submissions: Monday 7 July 2025, 10am

Feedback to applicants: Thursday 24 July 2025 

Privacy notice

Purpose and legal basis

The University of the Arts London (UAL) collects the personal data you provide in this form to:

• enter you into the current not just a shop design competition
• consider your work for the production of your design to be sold in not just a shop.

Processing of your personal data is necessary under GDPR basis Art.6(1)(b) ‘necessary for the performance of a contract’.

If you choose to provide information about your ethnicity or health, we will process this with your explicit consent (as collected on the form) to monitor the diversity of those we support and contact.

You can withdraw consent at any time by contacting notjustashop@arts.ac.uk. Afterwards, your ethnicity or health information will be removed from our copy of this form if it has not already been anonymised.

Sharing

Any Equality, Diversity and Inclusivity (EDI) information you provide will be anonymised before being shared for the purpose of statistical reporting. The other information you provide will be copied to a central location where it can be viewed by members of UAL’s not just a shop team who will contact you with further information regarding your entry once all designs have been assessed.

Retention

The personal data and applications of unsuccessful applicants will be deleted within 2 months of the application deadline. Successful applicants' personal data will be retained for the duration of the competition plus 5 years before being deleted.

Other information

Visit arts.ac.uk/privacy-information for other information about UAL and your rights over personal data.

Personal information

Self-employment monitoring 

Careers & Employability is researching how many UAL students and recent graduates become self-employed. The following information is being collected for UAL’s student and graduate self-employment monitoring. It has no impact on your application.

Upload

Before uploading your design, please name your file in this format:

FirstName_LastName_TitleofYourDesign

Before uploading your design, please name your file in this format:

FirstName_LastName_TitleofYourDesign

Design 3

Before uploading your design, please name your file in this format:

FirstName_LastName_TitleofYourDesign

Equal opportunities

We're committed to being a diverse University and support equal opportunities for all. To help us monitor our success in this area, we would appreciate it if you complete the following information. We'll keep this information within Careers & Employability only - separate from your application record - and not share it with other teams or organisations. This is entirely optional.
 

Communications

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