The winners of the 24H Competition “Matrix” competition have been revealed! Created by Ideas Forward, the 24H Competition invites entrants around the world to put their skills to the test in a race against the clock. Once the prompt is revealed on competition day, they only have 24 hours to complete and submit their proposals.

Things got metaphysical in the 18th edition, “Matrix”. Inspired by the iconic film franchise, the competition challenged entrants to follow their instinct and draw out their own perceptions of reality — influenced by light, time, or space — in New York City's Times Square. 

The competition concluded with three prize winners and seven honorable mentions.

  • 1st place: Arnaud Charoy; City: Aachen; Country: Germany
  • 2nd place: Akshita Sabarwal, Aditi Vyas, Manushi Shah, Shreya Chheda, Ruta Mehta; City: Mumbai; Country: India
  • 3rd place: Ruoting Wang, Ziling Yan; City: New York; Country: United States
1st place: Arnaud Charoy; City: Aachen; Country: Germany
1st place: Arnaud Charoy; City: Aachen; Country: Germany - Jury comments: “As a temporary installation, Blackout proposes a different perception of the Times Square with reference to the analysis of the surroundings. It also helps discovering hidden features of Manhattan and provides multiple and complex forms of perceptions. Superposition of the physical (real) and the digital (virtual) and the duality of crowd and isolation are appreciated.” — Heves Baseli “The proposal has been properly conceptualizad in a clear and direct way. The graphic piece has got different visual resources, in one hand the sketches and in the other the image with different visual importance.The background picture containes tours by Times Square with elements linked to each other and information of the colective imaginary that estimulate the observer.The box outstands in the composition through its shape and color reinforcing the message of this new look of the place motivating the spectator to experiment the new perception of it.” — Sebastian Martinez “A clear winner. Proposal was imaginative, well structured and clearly set out. The writing was intelligent, considered and informative. All presented beautifully with strong and compelling graphics, including 3D drawings, diagrams and rendered images.” — Alan Dunlop “Analyzing the complex condition of Times Square, the design cleverly offers a very small intervention. Visualization of the data and narration of the proposal are also successful.” — Duygu Tuntas