Design-A-Thon by Nerds Room

Design-A-Thon By Nerds Room: Design-A-Thon by Nerds Room is a free-to-attend graphic design challenge hosted on Unstop for creative students, designers, and innovators who want to showcase their skills through real-world branding and design tasks. The event is focused on graphic designing, branding, social media creativity, and visual storytelling. Participants will work on practical design challenges inspired by real community events and startup ecosystems. Nerds Room is a student-led ecosystem that promotes entrepreneurship, innovation, and collaboration among early-age founders, creators, and students. Through communities, hackathons, workshops, and collaborative initiatives, Nerds Room aims to empower students to build, create, and innovate. This Design-A-Thon is part of Nerds Room’s larger vision to host a series of Hack Days supported by Google Gemini, GitHub Copilot, and MLH. The event is designed to identify talented student designers and provide them opportunities to contribute to upcoming events, communities, and innovation initiatives. Participants will get an opportunity to showcase their creativity, work on real branding tasks, and become part of a growing student innovation ecosystem. Eligibility: Open to all students and early professionals. Participants from all colleges and universities are allowed. Inter-college participation is allowed. Inter-specialization participation is allowed. Participants from any stream or domain can participate. Basic knowledge of graphic design tools is recommended. Team Size: Solo participation only. Registration Details: Registration is completely free. Platform: Unstop. Participants must register before the deadline mentioned on the platform. Competition Format: The competition will consist of 2 rounds. Round 1 – Portfolio/Profile Submission: In the first round, participants are required to submit their previous design work and creative portfolio. Participants can submit: Portfolio links, Behance/Drive links, Social media creatives, Branding projects, Posters, UI/UX designs, Event creatives, Any other relevant design work. The goal of this round is to evaluate: Creativity, Design quality, Visual storytelling, Branding understanding, Consistency, Originality. Shortlisted participants will move to the final round. Round 2 – Design Challenge: Shortlisted participants will receive a real-world design task related to Nerds Hack Days. The task will include: Designing a registration poster for Nerds Hack Days, Designing a partner/sponsor shoutout poster. Participants can take inspiration and references from the existing posts available on the Nerds Room Instagram page. A public drive folder will be shared containing: Official logo files, Brand kit, Color palette, Fonts, Required assets and references. Participants are expected to follow the branding guidelines while maintaining creativity and originality. Tools & Submission Guidelines: Participants can use any design tool of their choice. Recommended tools: Canva, Figma, Photoshop, Illustrator. Submission Guidelines: Final designs must be submitted in high-quality PNG/JPG format. Editable source files may be requested from shortlisted participants. Submissions should maintain proper dimensions and readability. Late submissions may not be considered. Evaluation Criteria: Participants will be judged on: Creativity and originality, Visual appeal, Branding consistency, Typography and layout, Color usage, Relevance to the theme, Overall presentation quality. Rules & Guidelines: All submissions must be original. Plagiarism or copied work will lead to immediate disqualification. Participants must follow the provided branding guidelines. Offensive, inappropriate, or copyrighted content is strictly prohibited. AI tools can be used for assistance, but the final creative execution should be original and meaningful. The organizing team reserves the right to disqualify any submission violating the rules. The decision of the judges and organizing team will be final. Perks & Rewards: Certificate of Participation for all valid participants. Winner Certificate. Runner-Up Certificate. Second Runner-Up Certificate. Opportunity to work with the core team of Nerds Room. Chance to contribute to upcoming Hack Days and community initiatives. Networking opportunities with founders, creators, and innovators. Recognition through Nerds Room community platforms. Purpose Of The Event: The purpose of Design-A-Thon is to encourage creativity, innovation, and branding skills among students and aspiring creators. Through this initiative, Nerds Room aims to identify talented designers, provide them with real opportunities, and build a strong student-led ecosystem focused on innovation, entrepreneurship, and community building.