ELIGIBILITY

• Entrants must be enrolled and active students in a college/university majoring in a commercial interiors discipline (i.e., interior design, textiles, architecture, etc.)
• College/university staff members, interior design professionals, or recent college/university graduates do not qualify to participate.
• Student membership in NEWH is required (membership fee is waived for students)
• BECOME A MEMBER NOW

JUDGING CRITERIA

Please keep these elements in mind by which your entry will be judged.

• Concept
• Presentation
• Market Feasibility

QUESTIONS

If you have any questions, please refer to our FAQ section. If you cannot find your answer there, email us at dscover@rsvpcomm.com.

TERMS & CONDITIONS

1. Student membership in NEWH is required (membership fee waived for students).Contest is intended for currently enrolled college students only.
2. One entry per person.
3. Entries cannot be returned. Entry uploads can be revised/replaced up until the deadline of Tuesday, March 24, 2026.
4. Entrants warrant that the submissions are their own original work and do not infringe the work of any third party.
5. All submissions shall become the property of Durkan and/or its affiliates and Durkan and/or its affiliates shall own all copyrights and other proprietary rights created, including the creation of derivative works of such submissions. If requested by Durkan, entrants agree to sign any documents necessary to confirm Durkan’s ownership of the submission.
6. Durkan reserves the right to use winning entries for promotion or display. All designs will always be credited with creator's name for the life of the pattern when used for promotional purposes.
7. Winner must provide a publication quality headshot.
8. By entering this competition and accepting the Prize, you grant Durkan the right to edit, publish, promote, and otherwise use your entry either as submitted or in edited form without further permission, notice, or compensation, including but not limited to Durkan product catalog, website, and other media outlets.
9. All entrants must complete all questions on the online Entry Form. Finalists who do not provide contact information will be eliminated from the competition.
10. Professional carpet designers such as free lance designers commissioned by a carpet manufacturer or a staff designer for a carpet manufacturer are not eligible.

Cross the t’s and dot the eyes. It’s time to show us what you’ve got. Create your designs and fill out the form.

THE CHALLENGE

Create a fresh and innovative design for a hotel corridor and coordinating area rug.

Submissions should inlcude the following:

1.  Create a trend-focused story/mood board with 3–5 images and include one paragraph explaining the concept and its influence on your design.
2. Select a color palette using a maximum of 12 colors for both the corridor and area rug that connects with your storyboard. You must use only colors from Durkan Hospitality’s pom color selection. You can download pom box A here and box B here.
   1. 1st Create a Hotel Corridor design 7ft 6” W X 12ft L -Pattern repeat in width not required but it needs to repeat in length. The file should be submitted as a 25 DPI in tiff format. Save the file as entrynumber_corridor.
   2. 2nd Create a coordinating Area Rug 12ft W X 18ft L -Pattern repeat not required. The file should be submitted as a 25 DPI in tiff format. Save the file as entrynumber_arearug.
3. Only one entry per person
4. Entries must be dated no later than midnight (EST) Tuesday, March 24, 2026.

Final submission should include a mood board, write-up, tiff files of the corridor design and area rug.
 

Entries must be dated no later than midnight (EST) Tuesday, March 24, 2026. Entries dated after this date & time will not be eligible for judging.

• Can I get an extension on the deadline?
  No. Entries must be received by the deadline (Tuesday, March 24, 2026).
• Will you confirm receipt of my submission?
  When you register and create an account you will be able to check the status of your registration, update contact information, add comments and upload design files and required documents. You will also receive reminder e-mails to log-in and finalize entries.
• I have already sent in my submission, can I still make a change?
  Yes. Due to the new digital format you can now make changes as long as it is before the final submission date of March 24, 2026.
• When will we know if our entry was chosen?
  Winners will be contacted confidentially no later than the beginning of April, 2026. Official announcement of winners will be communicated via email by mid April 2026. Because of the number of entries we receive, we can only notify people whose work is accepted.
• Do the patterns have to relate or coordinate to each other?
  This is up to your discretion and you are free to design how you think the two patterns work best. Most often in this type of application there is a link between the designs. This could be with color, or technique, or design element etc.
• Can partners or groups submit a design?
  No. Entries are to be designed and submitted individually.

Deadline Tuesday, March 24, 2026