Rincón de la Victoria seeks young artists to design the official RincónGo! 2026 poster

The next official poster for RincónGo! 2026 will not come directly from a design studio. Instead, Rincón de la Victoria Town Hall is looking for its image among young creators from across Málaga province through a new drawing competition.

The Youth Department has launched the competition for the first time to select the illustration that will represent the RincónGo! 2026 Manga and Alternative Culture Fair, one of the municipality’s events aimed particularly at younger audiences.

Anyone aged between 14 and 30 and living in Málaga province will be able to take part, regardless of whether they live in Rincón de la Victoria itself.

Anime, manga, video games, cosplay, fantasy and Asian culture are among the themes participants can use as inspiration.

There is, however, another important requirement: the illustration must include some kind of visual reference connected to Rincón de la Victoria.

The competition also introduces a particularly significant rule at a time when generative tools are becoming increasingly widespread: artworks created wholly or partly using artificial intelligence are explicitly excluded.

Who can take part in the RincónGo! 2026 poster competition?

The competition is open to young people aged 14 to 30 who live anywhere in Málaga province.

This means participants do not need to be registered residents of Rincón de la Victoria.

Illustrators and amateur artists from Málaga city, the Axarquía, the Costa del Sol or any other part of the province can therefore compete for the chance to see their work become the main image of RincónGo! 2026.

Participants under the age of 18 will need to provide authorisation signed by a parent or legal guardian.

Each person may submit only one entry.

The artwork must also be original and unpublished, meaning it cannot have been previously published or used as an existing piece.

Manga, anime, video games and Asian culture as inspiration

The competition theme is directly linked to the world of RincónGo!.

Participants can create their illustration around manga and anime, video games, cosplay, Japanese, Korean or wider Asian culture, fantasy and other forms of alternative culture.

That leaves plenty of room for creativity.

Entries can include original characters, fantasy settings or compositions inspired by these universes without having to reproduce well-known commercial characters.

But the design must also serve a second purpose.

It should not only look like a poster for a manga event, but also identify the place where that event is held.

For that reason, the rules require participants to include recognisable elements of Rincón de la Victoria.

This opens up a wide range of creative possibilities for combining the municipality with the visual language of manga, gaming or fantasy.

Rincón de la Victoria must feature in the illustration

That local element could become one of the most interesting parts of the competition.

Rincón de la Victoria offers a number of features that could be reinterpreted through illustration.

Its coastline, beaches, the Mediterranean, the El Cantal cliffs and other recognisable parts of the municipality can all provide inspiration for a composition linked directly to the town.

The challenge will be to make both worlds work together.

The objective is not simply to create a manga-inspired illustration and then add the event name afterwards, but to produce an image that can function as an identifiable poster for both RincónGo! and Rincón de la Victoria.

That will likely be one of the main creative challenges for participants.

Artificial intelligence is banned from the competition

One of the clearest distinguishing features of the competition is found in the rules governing permitted tools.

Rincón de la Victoria Town Hall expressly states that artworks produced wholly or partly using artificial intelligence will not be accepted.

The restriction applies both to images generated directly through AI tools and to illustrations that have later been modified using this kind of technology.

Traced or copied drawings and images downloaded from the internet are also excluded.

The aim is for the artistic authorship and creative process to belong directly to the young person entering the competition.

The initiative therefore places the focus on traditional drawing and painting techniques at a time when automatically generated imagery is rapidly changing creative workflows.

Can the drawing be digitally edited?

Digital editing is also restricted.

The rules only allow technical adjustments that are strictly necessary to digitise a physical artwork correctly, such as minor cropping, resolution changes, brightness or contrast corrections.

What is not permitted is the use of digital editing to substantially transform the illustration after it has been created.

This distinction is important because all entries must ultimately be submitted by email.

A participant can, for example, draw on paper, scan the work and make minor adjustments so that the digital version accurately reflects the original colours.

What they cannot do is use digital tools to make complex changes to the composition or add new elements afterwards.

Watercolour, pencil, ink and markers: techniques that are allowed

Despite the restrictions on digital processing, participants have considerable freedom when choosing how to create the physical artwork.

The competition accepts traditional drawing and painting techniques.

These include:

• Pencils.
• Markers.
• Watercolours.
• Wax crayons.
• Tempera paint.
• Ink.
• Mixed techniques.

This means the competition is open both to young artists who normally draw manga using ink or markers and to those who prefer watercolour, pencil or a combination of several methods.

It is therefore not a contest reserved exclusively for Fine Arts students or professional illustrators.

The initiative is specifically intended to encourage young and emerging talent, including people who develop their artistic skills outside professional settings.

The winning drawing will become the official RincónGo! 2026 poster

Beyond the material prizes, the main reward will offer considerable visibility.

The artwork awarded first prize will become the official image of RincónGo! 2026.

That means the selected illustration will represent the Manga and Alternative Culture Fair in its public communication and promotional materials.

For a young illustrator, this also offers the opportunity to see their work connected to a real event and displayed to a much larger audience than a personal piece would normally reach.

The winner will also be invited to the official poster presentation and to RincónGo! 2026 itself.

They will additionally receive a product pack worth €50.

Three prizes will be awarded

The competition will not recognise only the creator of the winning poster.

A total of three prizes will be awarded.

The selected participants will receive a trophy, certificate and gift vouchers, while the first-place winner will also receive the additional benefits connected with having their work chosen as the official image of the event.

The competition therefore aims to give visibility to several of the entries rather than recognising only one participant.

The initiative forms part of the ‘Universo Joven: participation, creativity and alternative culture’ project, linked to activities designed to encourage new forms of participation among younger residents.

How to submit an illustration to the RincónGo! competition

The entire submission process will be carried out digitally.

Participants must email their entry to:

reservasjuventud@rincondelavictoria.es

The artwork must be attached in one of the following formats:

• PDF
• JPG
• PNG

There is also an important requirement regarding the file name.

The illustration must be identified only by a motto or code chosen by the participant, without including personal information directly on the artwork.

A second separate document must also be attached.

What is the ‘Plica’ that must be submitted with the drawing?

This second file is used to identify the artist without placing their personal details directly on the competition artwork.

It must use the same motto or code selected for the illustration, followed by the word “Plica”.

Inside, participants must include the registration form and the corresponding personal details.

This system allows the illustration to remain linked initially to an identifier rather than directly to the entrant’s name.

It is worth checking this procedure carefully before sending the email to avoid identification errors or submitting all documents together in a single file.

What is the deadline for submitting drawings?

The submission period is already open and will close on 2 October 2026.

Entries received after that date will not be eligible for the competition.

Young artists therefore have almost a month from the publication of the call to prepare their design, digitise it and complete the necessary documentation.

It is advisable not to leave the submission until the final hours, particularly because both the artwork file and the corresponding plica must be attached correctly.

A poster created by the same generation RincónGo! is designed for

The method chosen to select the RincónGo! poster introduces an interesting feature.

Instead of presenting a finished institutional design, the Town Hall is inviting the same age group the event is largely aimed at to participate directly in creating its visual identity.

A 16-year-old manga fan, a 22-year-old illustration student or a 29-year-old young artist could all compete for the chance to define the look of the next edition.

The competition therefore brings together two objectives.

On the one hand, it provides an official image for the Manga and Alternative Culture Fair.

On the other, it creates an opportunity for young creators in Málaga province to showcase their work and participate directly in an event connected with their own interests.

And the decision to exclude images generated with artificial intelligence makes the focus of this first edition particularly clear: the artwork must be created by the participants themselves.

The full rules, participation requirements, prizes, accepted file formats and the 2 October 2026 deadline can be checked in the official information published by Rincón de la Victoria Town Hall.