A WYSIWYG design competition for lighting professionals and students.
Every year, we see incredible work created with WYSIWYG, beautifully crafted plots and previsualizations that showcase the creativity and technical expertise of our users. Some are students just beginning their journey, exploring where they fit in the world of live entertainment. Others are professionals, quietly producing exceptional designs under the pressure of demanding deadlines.
We wanted to recognize the time, creativity, and effort behind these incredible designs and give the talented people behind them the appreciation they deserve. That’s why we’re launching a design competition, and we’d love for you to be part of it.
The premise is simple: design something, render it in WYSIWYG, and send it to us. A panel of industry professionals will judge the entries, and the winners get a month of WYSIWYG Perform (cloud license) plus a real audience for their work.
Two tracks, judged separately
The competition is open to students and to industry professionals, and the two are judged against their own. Students compete against students. Professionals compete against professionals. A first-year lighting student isn’t going to be scored next to someone with fifteen years of touring behind them, which means the student track is genuinely winnable and the professional track is genuinely competitive.
Pick the track that describes you, and enter that one.
Professional track open to anyone working in the industry, no minimum years, no credit list required.
Student track open to anyone currently enrolled at an educational institution. To verify, submit your entry from your school-issued email address. That’s the whole proof of enrolment process; we’re not asking for paperwork. If you send your entry from a personal email address, we have to count it as a professional entry rather than a student one.
If you need WYSIWYG to design in, students get an educational license free for a full year. It carries the standard educational watermark, which won’t count against you in judging. Full details on the educational license here.
If you’re a student who also works professionally, either track is fair game, pick the one that reflects where you are right now. Just make sure the email address you send from matches the track you’re entering.
What the winners get
If you win the professional track, you get a month of the WYSIWYG Perform (cloud license). Already a subscriber? You add an extra month onto your existing subscription.
If you win the student track, you also get a month of the WYSIWYG Perform (cloud license), with no watermarks. It’s a chance to carry your WYSIWYG skills into portfolios, internships, freelance projects, and early-career opportunities with work that looks finished.
Beyond the license, there’s exposure. Winning work gets shared across our platforms, which puts it in front of the designers, production managers, and hiring people who follow us. For a student, that’s a portfolio piece with reach attached. For a professional, it’s your work in front of an audience that understands what they’re looking at.
Key dates
Competition Opens: August 20th, 2026
Submission Deadline: September 20th, 2026
Winners Announced: October 5th, 2026
Submissions close at end of day on September 20th at11:59pm EDT.
What to submit
Renders must be produced in WYSIWYG and include the current WYSIWYG logo. That’s the one hard requirement, this is a WYSIWYG competition, and the judges want to see what you can do inside the software.
Send your entry to marketing@castgroupinc.com and include:
- Your render(s), in jpg format along with the actual WYSIWYG file.
- Your name and the track you’re entering (student or professional) along with the show details and credits.
- Students send from your educational email address.
- A short note on what you designed and the thinking behind it.
That last one matters more than people expect. The judges are designers. They’re interested in the decisions behind the image, not just the image.
How winners are notified
Winners will be announced across our social channels starting on October 5th, its worth following us, so you don’t miss it. We’ll also email each winner directly at the address they entered from.
Questions
Email marketing@castgroupinc.com and we’ll get back to you. If something in these rules is unclear, tell us, it probably means it’s unclear to someone else too, and we’d rather fix the wording than have you guess.
Good luck. We’re looking forward to seeing what you build.
Rights and permissions
By entering the competition, you agree that CAST Group may use your submitted renders/images for promotional and marketing purposes across our website, social media channels, and other CAST communications, and you consent to receive marketing communications from CAST Group. You will retain full ownership of your original work, and appropriate credit will be provided whenever your renders are shared publicly.