Grab your colored pencils and tablets: all UW–Madison students are invited to create a unique work of art for the 2025 WISCIENCE Sticker Design Contest!
The winning design(s) will be made into stickers that will be shared with the campus community.
The winning student(s) will receive a prize of art supplies and other goodies. They will also be featured on the WISCIENCE website and social media with an opportunity to link to their personal portfolio or website.
Eligibility
Open to all undergrad and grad students at UW–Madison. You don’t have to be majoring in art or STEM!
Prize
Art supplies and other goodies.
Deadline
November 14, 2025
Sticker Theme: Celebrate Research!
Research is central to all STEM fields—it’s the hard work taking place in the lab and in the field, by students and seasoned scientists alike, at universities and beyond. Fueled by a spirit of inquiry and a dedication to the scientific method, research leads to powerful breakthroughs, new discoveries, and further questions.
For this sticker contest, we are looking for designs that explore and celebrate all things research—from the processes and tools to the unique discoveries that have impacted our world. We’re especially interested in designs related to research at UW–Madison (but this is not required).
Here are just a few topics to jumpstart your ideas. Looking for some inspiration? Check out this page about Research at UW.
- Current research (at UW or elsewhere)
- Important discoveries
- How research makes a difference
- Cool, weird, or surprising research
- Research tools and technology
- Research group life
- Field experiences
- Experiments & the scientific method
- UW research firsts
- Community and collaboration in research
- Research and human health
- Research and the environment
Criteria
We are looking for designs that fit within the theme and that are original, creative, and fun. The winning design(s) must be able to easily translate into a sticker format, which may be smaller than your original submission.
Your design should include the word “WISCIENCE” or have space to add the WISCIENCE logo (for examples of how to do this, see last year’s winners).
Submissions will be evaluated based on artistic quality, creativity, interpretation of the theme, and suitability for WISCIENCE (see rubric).
Judging
Our judging panel is comprised of WISCIENCE staff and partners, undergrad students, and grad students. The judges will select the winning sticker(s) based on the evaluation criteria above. Depending on the submissions we receive, there may be more than one winning design.
Submission Rules
- Submissions must be your own original work.
- You may use any physical drawing or painting media (i.e., colored pencil, markers, oil pastels, acrylic paint, etc.) or submit an original digital work.
- You may submit more than one design.
- Copyrighted work, stock images, and clip art are not allowed. No elements protected by copyright are allowed, including “fair use” of copyrighted material.
- You may not submit designs created using generative AI in any way or in any amount. This includes fully AI-generated designs, AI-assisted designs, and those that contain AI-generated content.
Artwork Specifications
All submissions should be:
- In JPG, PNG, or PDF format
- At least 300 DPI
- Less than 50 MB
Contest Timeline
- Contest opens: October 9, 2025
- Submission deadline: November 14, 2025
- Judging and selection process: November 17–November 26, 2025
- Winner(s) notified: December 1, 2025
- Winner announced to public: December 8, 2025
- Stickers available to the public: January 21, 2026
Questions? Please reach out to connect@wiscience.wisc.edu.