Futures
Challege
& Awards

Ten years of DesignUp.
Ten more to imagine.

Last year, The Future of Currency asked entrants to reimagine what money means by 2050 — and it landed. Students flew in from across the country, and a jury assembled from around the world to judge them. Year Two goes further: as DesignUp turns ten, we're asking
what design itself becomes.

Future challenges

Oct 3-4, 2026, Bengaluru

Last date to apply 6,Sept

Students & recent grads

The
Tomorrow
Title

Title card • 001

Synthetic Empathy
Architect

“I design the feeling a
machine gives you”

Builds the emotional logic layer between AI systems and the humans who depend on them.

Role Dossier

Hired to do/ Solve

Prevent trust collapse between people and autonomous systems at scale.

Tools of the trade

Sentiment calibration rigs, consent choreography maps, empathy latency dashboards.

Collaborators

Behavioral economists, model welfare researchers, grief counselors.

Outputs

Interaction scripts, calibrated failure states, an emotional design system.

IMpact

Fewer people quietly stop trusting the systems they rely on.

The year in question

The Premise

A decade of disruption, and one more ahead of it

As DesignUp turns ten, we're marking a decade of profound change in the design discipline — and turning our attention to the decade ahead.

The DesignUp Futures Challenge invites design students and young graduates to leapfrog to the year 2036 and map the shifting frontiers of our field.

Not with a trend report. With a person.

The Brief

Name a job title that doesn't exist yet

Construct a comprehensive, world-built blueprint of a practitioner of 2036 — one whose title may not even carry the word “design” anymore.

Beyond the name, imagine an ecosystem around this person. It could include — and isn't limited to:

What they're hired to solve

Their daily mission

Tools they wield

Who they collaborate with

What they output

The impact they have

+ anything else that makes it reaL

The point isn't to check every box — it's to build a world that holds together. Show us how design redefines itself when today's cutting-edge becomes tomorrow's ancient history.

The Output

Player cards, front and back, and the reason why

Each entry takes shape as a player card for its 2036 role - and a slide deck explaining your futures thinking behind.

Download the submission kit for a more information on formating and all templates for your entry here.

Front

Job title, tagline, and a one-line mission. What you'd see if you drew the card.

back

What they're hired to do or solve, tools of the trade, collaborators, outputs, and impact. What you'd read before hiring them.

Scroll back up and flip the sample card to see the split in action.

the Details

Who, when, and what you get

Everything to know before you enter — who's eligible, the dates to watch, and what a place on the shortlist actually earns you.

who can apply

Full-time students,
any discipline

Young designers / recent grads (within 2 years)

Individual entries only —
no teams

Timeline

Submission open: 7th Aug, 2026 - 10:00 AM IST

Deadline: 6th Sept, 2026 -
12:00 Midnight IST

Finalists: Awarded on the main stage at
DesignUp 2026

Recognition

Shortlisted: conference pass, certificate,
showcase display

Finalists: Awarded on the main stage at
DesignUp 2026

Panel & partners TBD

The Judging
Criteria

What the jury is looking for

Four things carry weight in the room. Not polish for its own sake — but whether the role is genuinely new, and whether the world you build around it holds together.

Originality

A genuinely new role, not a rebrand of an existing one.

Systemic thinking

The ecosystem around the title actually
holds together.

Craft of world-building

2036 rendered specifically, not generically.

Relevance to Design at Crossroads

Wrestles with real tension, not just novelty.

Meet the 2026 Jury

Your ideas will be reviewed by accomplished design leaders and creative thinkers from around the world, whose work influences products used by millions every day.