Tate Poster Competition

What makes a good poster design?

Brief

Does your design represent and communicate the spirit of Tate Modern, Tate Britain, the city and its communities?

Commercially viable designs do not need prior context to understand the poster’s message.

Audience

Your design should have a wide public appeal. Consider who Tate’s audience is and where the poster would be displayed in their homes.

Colour

Colour can create a certain mood or theme and can highlight aspects of the design.

Please note that certain colours do not print well. For example, using too many darker colours might not stand out when printed. We recommend test printing to ensure your colouring is most impactful. 

Originality

Does your design reflect the spirit of Tate Modern, Tate Britain, London and its communities in a fresh and contemporary way?

View Tate's current range and shape your design to offer something different from what they currently sell.

Copyright

To ensure your design has the best chance of being selected, please avoid including the following:

• Existing artwork 
  This is an artist's intellectual property. It cannot be used commercially / in a design intended to be sold without permission from the artists. This includes artwork in Tate’s collection, as they are not the copyright holders.
• Depictions of famous artists or people 
  This falls under personality rights for commercial products. They will have to be removed from the design.
• Business logos 
  Any logo would need to have permission from the business to be included in any commercial design. Some businesses charge to be included, so avoid using any logos. For example, Transport for London (TfL).

Before you continue, do a final check

Ensure you’re putting forward your best design. Check if your design is the correct image size, includes bleed along the edge, has high image quality, readable text size (if included), finished colouring, and so on.

Terms and conditions

• This competition is open to current students from UAL.
• Students are welcome to collaborate on the design(s). In this case, the prize will be divided equally between them, should their design be selected.
• You can submit up to 3 design entries but only 1 poster per student will be selected.  
• Designs should be commercially viable. Design adaptation (in agreement with the entrant) may be required to increase suitability.
• 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 Tate 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 hold and will maintain the copyright.
• If the applicant is using AI in their designs, it must be used responsibly. It is the applicant’s responsibility to make sure they have the permission to use the final imagery in a commercial context.
• The license agreement will be between the designer and Tate. Once selected, the winning designers will be contacted by the Tate production team via email to discuss the agreement and production.
• Winning designs will be exclusively licensed to Tate for reproduction until 2029. At this point, the license will end and you will be entitled to seek a new outlet for the design.
• Selected designs cannot be used commercially elsewhere during the selling period (such as on other products or printed in other retailers).
• The winning designs will also be used across UAL marketing and advertising materials to promote not just a shop and future competitions. You will be credited whenever the image is used.
• Production costs of posters will be managed by Tate.
• not just a shop will purchase the posters wholesale from Tate to be sold in High Holborn store and online from October 2026. Proceeds from the sale of the posters in not just a shop, will be reinvested into UAL’s Careers and Employability department, which provides free support for students and alumni.

By continuing to the next page, you are agreeing to the Terms and conditions above.

Privacy Notice 

Purpose and legal basis

University of the Arts London (UAL) collects the personal data you provide in this form to enter you into the product open call application and to consider your work to be sold in not just a shop. If selected, your data will be published on our website and other social media platforms as the maker of the product. 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 health to provide reasonable adjustments and other support for those declaring a disability, we process this under GDPR Art.9(2)b ‘necessary for carrying out obligations in the field of social protection law’

Retention

If you are not an existing client, and as part of your application, you may have shared information about your business, this data will be shared within our annual HEBCI submission, after which we will delete your data.

Successful applicants' personal data will be retained for the duration of the competition and as long as you remain a client of ‘not just a shop’ plus 6 years from when you cease to be our client before being deleted.

Other information

For other information about UAL and your rights over personal data, go to arts.ac.uk/privacy-information.

Self Employment 

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

If you are unsure about how to use AI while at UAL, please read Our Position Statement on AI | UAL) 

If you are unsure about how to use AI while at UAL, please read Our Position Statement on AI | UAL) 

If you are unsure about how to use AI while at UAL, please read Our Position Statement on AI | UAL) 

Check your answers below. Use the back button if you need to change anything. When you’re ready, scroll down to submit your entry.

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