Delta H 2026 Art Contest
Theme:
This year’s theme drops you into the Neuroverse, place where satellites monitor dreams, androids question love, and the line between humanity and machine dissolves under neon skis.
Neuroverse: Code Houston draws inspiration from cyberpunk and space-fueled anime worlds like Ghost in the Shell, Chobits, The Orbital Children, and Cyborg 009. It’s a fusion of heart and hardware, of identity and augmentation, of dreams that pulse through wires and rebellions launched beyond Earth’s orbit.
Your mission? Translate this universe into art. We’re looking for bold, boundary-pushing interpretations that could span:
- Neon cityscapes or orbital colonies.
- Cyborgs, AIs, or androids questioning their humanity.
- Space-born dreamers caught between stars and systems.
- Entirely new visions of what the Neuroverse means to you.
There are no limits to style, medium, or approach. Whether your art leans toward the intimate, the cosmic, the philosophical, or the chaotic we want to see how you decode Neuroverse: Code Houston.
This is your chance to shape the visual soul of the convention’s theme. Submit your vision. Upload your rebellion. Become part of the code.Guidelines
Please observe the following guidelines when creating your artwork. The DHC® staff will be reviewing all submissions based on these guidelines. The DHC® staff reserves the right to reject any submission, and may make revisions or send the artwork back for changes as it deems necessary.
1. Required Elements
- The text “Delta H Con” or “DHC” must appear in the artwork.
- The year (2026) or the anniversary count of 18 must be included.
- At least one official Delta H Con mascot must be featured.
- The piece must incorporate this year’s theme: Neuroverse: Code Houston (cyberpunk + anime + gaming + space fusion).
2. Appropriateness to Audience and Theme
- Artwork must depict DHC® in a positive and family-friendly manner.
- Rated G to PG-13 only.
- Avoid explicit violence, profanity, nudity/sexual content, or references to drugs/alcohol.
- Submissions must tie to anime and/or gaming in some way.
3. Reproduction & Technical Requirements
- Artwork must be scalable with minimal loss of quality (vectorized preferred, or high-resolution with lossless compression).
- Print-ready specifications: RGB color, minimum 300 dpi, with bleed space for print layouts.
- Accepted formats: [list your preferred formats, e.g., PSD, PNG, JPG TIFF].
- Keep design versatile for use across multiple mediums, including t-shirts, posters, flyers, program books, and digital platforms.
4. Submission & Eligibility
- One judged entry per artist. We will take the best piece submitted for judging.
- All entries must be original work. No copyrighted material or traced art will be accepted.
- By submitting, the artist grants Delta H Con rights to reproduce and use the artwork for promotional purposes.
Judging Criteria
All submissions will be evaluated on the following:
- Originality & Innovation
- Fresh vision, bold concepts, and unique artistic voice.
- Overall Composition & Technical Execution
- Balance, clarity, and skill in chosen medium (digital, traditional, or mixed).
- Interpretation of Theme
- Creative integration of Neuroverse: Code Houston and its cyberpunk/space-fusion tone. How well does the piece capture the spirit of anime and gaming through this year’s lens?
- Convention Connection
- Alignment with the spirit of Delta H Con. How well could the piece resonate with attendees, fans, and the event’s culture?
- Guideline Adherence
- Meets quality, format, and age-appropriate requirements.
Judging will be conducted by Delta H Con committee (100%). Entries will be shown to the community.
Art Quality: Please try to submit your best work. The DHC® staff will reject any submission if it feels that the art does not meet its quality standards.
Originality: Please observe international copyright laws when creating your work. Do not use any copyrighted characters or work that has been created previously for other clients or by others. If you use any fonts in your design, please ensure that they are of your own design or are in the public domain.
We reserve the right to use any art submissions for our own promotional and media purposes until the end of Delta H Con 2026. After the end of the convention, we will contact the artist to ask for permission for any further use of the artwork.
Artists will be credited in our program book and promotional materials if the artwork is used for promotional purposes. Submissions for the T-Shirt contest and for the Print Art Contest must be made by May 25th, 2026 at 11:59PM.
T-Shirt Contest
Technical and Design Requirements (written up by our T-Shirt Printer):Step One.
• Create your design using a raster program like Adobe Photoshop (PREFERRED).
OR Create your design using a vector art program like Adobe Illustrator.
• Hand drawing the sketch on paper then coloring in Photoshop or Illustrator is perfectly allowed.
• We are looking for artwork with layers to allow us to edit what is necessary.
• If you are designing with a raster program, make sure your canvas size is 12″ x 15″, and 300 dpi (pixels per inch).
• Use a minimum line width of 5 pixels.
• If your design contains gradients, you must convert them to halftones. Make them 1 to 30 LPI (lines per inch).
• Each dot that makes up your halftone must be one solid color.
• If you are designing with a vector program, make sure the canvas is at least 5″ x 5″.
• Use a minimum line width of 1 point.
• If your design contains gradients, your gradients must have a minimum 15% dot in all colors. We’ll create the halftones.
• Your fonts should be expanded or outlined in your final version.
• Save all final vector files as an eps. Colors: Use a maximum of 4 colors. This includes black and white. (If we print on dark shirts, we’ll add an underbase. A base is separate from white, and NOT counted in the artist’s maximum 4 colors.)
Note: if you plan to present your design on a black t-shirt, you can use the t-shirt’s color as your black line; therefore it doesn’t count as one of your max 4 colors. Colors should be Pantone Solid Coated. RGB.
T-shirt Color: Although Black t-shirts are King, you may choose a t-shirt color that best suits your design from the following: Ash, Black, Deep Forest Green, Deep Red, Deep Royal, Gold, Light Blue, Light Steel, Maroon, Navy, Orange, Purple, White, or Yellow.
Step Two:
Please save a copy of your design as a GIF, JPG or PNG. Submit your high resolution artwork and the image file. Please make sure your high resolution artwork has all layers in tact. Do Not flatten your image when in the form of .ai, .psd, .pdf or .eps.
Prize for T-Shirt Art Contest
The winning Artist receives an Artist Alley table with two Artist Alley badges + T-Shirt ($200 value).
Print Art Contest
Technical and Design Requirements:
• For the Print Art Contest, the entry may have as many colors as you’d like and no restriction on the background.
• Print Art Entries must be digital; traditional art submissions (i.e hand-drawn art and sketchbooks) will not be accepted. To Clarify: Hand drawing the sketch on paper then coloring in Photoshop or Illustrator is perfectly allowed.
• Print Art Entries relate to our family of characters.
• The 2026 attendee badge template will be Vertical. Please put this into consideration when drawing for the Print Art contest.
• There will not be a limit to the number of entries you may submit to all of the contests. Limit one 1st place winner (we won’t allow one person to win two Artist Alley tables and a pre-reg badge).
• If the winner of either contest has already purchased an Artist Alley table then they will get a refund of their table cost.
• It is highly preferred that all submissions have layers if at all possible. Do not flatten your image. Submitted art needs to be in TIF or PSD/Photoshop format [preferred]. We will also accept JPG/PNG files. If submitting a JPG/PNG file, let us know if you have a EPS/PSD/PDF (Photoshop/Illustrator) file available so that we can ask for it if your entry is selected.
• Please make sure the picture is high-resolution at 300DPI. Please be at minimum 1365 x 1024 pixels if at all possible for Print Art entries. Bigger is better. The preferred canvas size for Print entries is 8.5″ x 11″. Upon submitting your entry, the artists agrees on the following: • We reserve the right to decide for each entry if it should be in the Print Art Contest or in the T-Shirt contest. Meaning that if you submit your art to the Print Art Contest, you could win the T-Shirt contest and vice-versa.
• Artists will be credited in our program book and promotional materials if the artwork is used for promotional purposes. Submissions for the T-Shirt contest and the Print Art must be made by May 25th, 2026 at 11:59PM.
Prizes for Print Art Contest
• 1st Place: Art used on Program Book Cover. Winning artist will be awarded 1 table in Artist Alley with two Artist badges (good for all 3 days of the convention) for Delta H Con 2026 ($180 Value) [WINNER MAY REQUEST SUBSTITUTE PRIZE OF EQUAL VALUE].
• 2nd Place: Art used on 3-Day Badge. Wins a 3-Day Badge + T-Shirt ($70 Value).
• 3rd Place: Art used on GOLD VIP Pass. Wins a 3-Day badge ($50 Value).
• 4th Place: Art used on VVIP Pass. Wins a 3-Day badge ($50 Value).
• All awards received for the 2026 art contest apply only to Delta H Con 2026.
• 1st-4th place winners may give their prizes to friends if requested.
• All other entrants will receive a 3-Day badge ($50 Value) to Delta H Con 2026.
Art Contest Submissions HERE
You are not required to pre-register for Delta H Con in order to submit an entry. If you have any questions then fill out the form on our contact page.