Banner Contest FAQs

There were over 650 individual entries in this year's banner contest.

20 designs were chosen as semi-finalists by a panel of volunteer community judges in the following manner:

• First, a panel of community judges is invited to review ALL the submissions from a private, online gallery and choose their top 20 designs that represent the banner contest themes.
• Next, the judges and City of Richmond staff participate an in-person, or virtual meeting, to narrow down their collective preliminary selections to 2 designs per theme. 
• Criteria for the 20 semi-finalist selections includes:
  • How well does the design / artwork meet the spirit of the theme it represents?
  • Is the resolution of the artwork high enough to meet banner production needs and can the design / artwork able be enlarged successfully? 
  • Is the design / artwork bold, colourful and dynamic?
  • Is the design / artwork a NEW take on a similar theme from previous years?

Once the judging panel reaches a consensus on the semi-final designs for each theme, the banner artwork is paired with a colour coordinated "wordmark" banner and presented for selection by the public.

One banner from each pair of themed designs will be selected as a winner in the contest. A total of TEN banners will selected by the public for display.

The 10 winning designs will be on display on City of Richmond street poles from February 2021 to February 2022.

Yes. A $300 honorarium will be awarded for each of the selected designs.

The artist retains sole copyright to his/her artwork. The City of Richmond has unlimited reproduction rights to all contest submissions as stated in the contest rules on the website.

The contest is open to everyone, of all ages, as long as the design / artwork submitted reflects the City of Richmond and the contest themes.

Note: All photography submissions are reviewed carefully and MUST have been taken in Richmond for judging consideration. 

City of Richmond employees and family members are ineligible for this contest.

Yes! If you wish to have your name and email address added to an email notification list about the Annual Banner Contest, please send an email to parksprograms@richmond.ca