Art2Park is an annual design competition that gives students the chance to be creative and save some money, if they’re lucky, by designing the next academic year’s potential parking permit.

Submissions for Grand Valley State University’s Art2Park contest are now open to all students enrolled in the 2016 winter semester who are in good academic standing. The Department of Public Safety and Parking Services (DPS) will be accepting one submission per student from Feb. 22 to Feb. 29.

“The Art2Park competition brings students together in a friendly competition and then the entire GVSU community (will) vote on the winner,” said Ben Kaluski, a marketing intern for DPS.

The winning design will be chosen by popular vote online through the DPS website, allowing for the entire GVSU community to get involved.

The first round of voting will begin on March 14 and end March 20, and the second round of voting will begin on March 22 and end March 27. The winner of the contest will receive free parking for the entire upcoming academic year.

“The best part about Art2Park is anyone can win,” Kaluski said. “Some of the previous winners were not an art or design major.”

One of the previous winners of the Art2Park contest is Paige Osler, who said she had no background in art, besides one photography class in high school. She submitted a design to the contest because she thought entering would be a fun experience.

“I’m a pre-dental student,” she said. “You don’t need to be a graphic design or art student to give it a try.”

In order to assist students in developing designs, DPS has several templates prepared to get students started on the creative process in case they run into a creative block.

There are some design guidelines to be considered when submitting an Art2Park design. The original GVSU logo shape cannot be manipulated or altered in any way and the logo must be in black and white. All specifications can be found on the DPS website.

“Each year the winning design is different and unique, this year will be no different,” Kaluski said.

Kaluski said students are encouraged to self-promote their designs in order to show off their creativity and engage more of the GVSU community with the contest.