At Desmos Studio, we love learning and growth. Every year, we try to add new features to make Desmos more powerful, useful, and fun (check out our What’s New page!). And every year, we’re blown away by the new techniques and discoveries shared so generously across the Desmos community.
So, this year’s Math Art Expo is focused on learning and the journey it takes us on. That’s why we’re calling this an “Expo” – a celebration of creativity, growth, and community. We want to see how you use the capabilities we’ve added to express yourself. But even more than that, we want to see how you’ve grown, what you’ve learned about math and about creating art with Desmos in the last year.
For example, we were blown away by this anonymous participant’s two self-portraits, first in 2020 and then in 2021:
Or take a look at these two graphs from Diana A., both amazing, and together showing so much growth from 2022 to 2023:
If you’ve submitted in the past, we can’t wait to see what you’ve learned in the last year.
If this is your first time participating, we hope this is the first of many, and are just as excited to see what you create!
We’re also going to try something new this year, highlighting graphs in the gallery that make use of the following features:
- Lists
- Animation: sliders, the ticker
- Interactivity: moveable points, the Geometry tool, 3D, clickable objects
- Random
- Tone
- Complex numbers
- Recursion
Pick one of these that you’re excited to learn more about, and explore how you might incorporate it into your submission.
As you’re working on your graphs, please reach out to us with any questions or suggestions at support@desmos.com or join our temporary Art Expo Discord Server to connect with our team and with each other. More details about this year’s Math Art Expo can be found below.
– The Desmos Studio Team
- Who can enter?
- What are we looking for?
- What prizes will be awarded?
- How to submit your entry
- The fine print
- Learn more about math art
Who can enter?
Any individual from any country, aged 13+ may submit a Desmos graph to the competition via the Desmos Graphing, Geometry, and/or 3D tools. We’ll select graphs to feature from each of the four age groups listed below based on participant age as of January 1, 2025:
- 13–14 years old
- 15–16 years old
- 17–18 years old
- 19+ years old
Similar to last year, a parent or guardian over the age of 18 will be able to submit a graph on behalf of their student. This means that anyone over 13 can participate from anywhere in the world, even in countries where people under 16 aren’t allowed to submit graphs themselves.
What are we looking for?
Your original art, created in the Desmos Graphing, Geometry, and/or 3D tools. Participants may submit one entry on each of these tools, for a max of three entries in this year’s expo. Desmos Studio will be picking submissions to feature from across all three tools.
Submissions CANNOT contain copyrighted images or audio (Pokémon™, Among Us™, recently released songs, etc.), or non-original work. While you cannot submit graphs of copyrighted images or audio, you may submit graphs of works that are in the public domain.
As with last year, we’ll feature submissions that have some combination of the following:
- Creativity and originality, including:
- A personal story or connection to the work
- Notes describing your process and your connection to the work
- Mathematical variety, including using some of the highlighted features for this year
- Care and precision
- Beautiful visual design, including custom colors
- Subtle and surprising details
- Performance
- Simplicity, including using fewer expressions to achieve the same goal
- Fast rendering and smooth animations, even on low-powered devices
- Approachability
- Using familiar math where possible
- Graph organization & documentation
What prizes will be awarded?
Our panel of judges will select 20 featured graphs in each of the four age categories. Each of the 80 featured artists (20 in each age category) will receive:
- $250 USD cash prize
- Exclusive Desmos Studio merch
- Artwork publicly displayed by Desmos Studio on our company website and social media channels.
How to submit your entry
Individuals submitting their own works will be able to submit their entries through the sparkle icon available in the Desmos Graphing, Geometry, and/or 3D tools. If you’re over 13 but live in a place where you aren’t allowed to submit a graph yourself, you may invite a parent or guardian to submit on your behalf at www.desmos.com/art. All submissions must be made on or before January 15th, 2025 at 8:59 p.m. PST / 11:59 p.m. EST.
The fine print
- All contestants must be ages 13+ as of January 1st, 2025 to participate.
- Complete the starter questions when submissions open in the Desmos Graphing, Geometry, and/or 3D tools to determine your eligibility to participate. Consider inviting a parent or guardian over the age of 18 to submit on your behalf if you’re over 13 but not eligible to participate based on geography via www.desmos.com/art.
- We will only consider a contestant’s last submission, so you’re welcome to resubmit your graph(s) any number of times before the deadline, this includes via an adult submitting on your behalf at www.desmos.com/art.
- All graphs must be the original work of the contestant and created using the Desmos Graphing, Geometry, and/or 3D tools. We cannot accept submissions that include copyrighted images and audio. Specifically, submitted graphs may not include the use of content that is not the intellectual property of the person who made the graph. This includes graphs of your favorite characters, logos, images, etc. that are not currently in the public domain.
- Before distributing prizes, winners must complete our winner’s form. We reserve the right to verify a contestant’s eligibility and application information. It is the contestant’s responsibility to ensure that they are abiding by local data privacy laws.
Learn more about math art
Brand new to graphing with Desmos? Not so new, but want to learn more? Check out any of these links to get started.
- Learn about bringing your graph to life with Animation and Interactivity in these videos.
- Read about some favorite features in the Desmos Help Center:
- Level up your Geometry skills with this Art with Transformations video.
- Watch videos on go-to art strategies like Shading with Inequalities and using Custom Colors.
- Check out our Desmos Math Art Teacher Guide if your’re interested in a class or organization-wide math art expo.
- Explore more math art in the Help Center.
Questions? Contact us at contest@desmos.com or ask fellow artists for help and inspiration in the Desmos Art Expo Discord.