Student Design Competitions

Although there are many arguments to be made regarding the ethics (or lack of) of student design awards, as long as the person taking part is aware of this you could also argue that its effective to exploit the awards for personal advantages, such as exposure, money, contact, placements etc. It's also good to 'know your rights' as such; D&AD for example claim that their aim is to support and nurture the next generation of students. You can therefore demand that of them.

With this in mind, the following is a list of competitions which interest me the most:

Penguin Student Design Award
Most ethical, rapid to complete, free to enter, large rewards

YCN
Quite ethical, large projects, free to enter

D&AD
Least ethical, large projects, reward of large exposure

RSA

Large and globally significant projects, costs to enter, substantial monetary rewards





Specific Projects: 

YCN: 

"Create an original and inventive packaging design for a new personalised chocolate product"

D&AD:

"Design a new website template that will help designers and creatives to show their work at its best"

Starpack:

"Create an innovative and flexible solution to the containment of disaster aid products"

YSA:

"Use design to empower people to better prevent, detect, prevent and possibly reverse lifestyle-related health conditions"

and 

"Design and develop a product, system or business model for Fast Moving Consumer Goods based on principles of circular design and value creation"