Cocone to Hold Digital Art Contest for Creators Aged 15 to 35

Cocone Corporation, part of the ENSAPIA Group, which changed its name from Cocone Group on April 1, 2026, announced that it will hold a digital art contest for people aged 15 to 35 with the aim of discovering next-generation creators. The contest will broadly solicit ideas and designs that advance the fields of digital worlds and digital fashion, emphasizing free imagination and originality, with the goal of discovering and nurturing new talent. What is the ENSAPIA Digital Art Contest 2026? Based on nearly 20 years of experience in services centered on self-expression and community building in digital spaces, ENSAPIA Group aims to become a leading company in expanding “another place to belong” in digital spaces, where people around the world can live as themselves through avatars without being bound by nationality, race, gender, or other attributes. To expand the potential of fashion in digital worlds into new areas, the group sees the discovery and support of young creators who will shape the next generation as essential. The contest is being held as part of that initiative and will be the second edition following last year’s inaugural event. As with the previous contest, the company hopes to widely gather diverse and innovative ideas and work together with creators to envision the future of digital fashion. Event Overview Theme: Brand New Me - New Self-Expression in the Digital World Application period: Monday, June 15, 2026 to Wednesday, September 30, 2026 Eligibility: Applicants must be at least 15 and under 35 years old as of April 1, 2026. Junior high school students are not eligible, and applicants under 18 must obtain parental or guardian consent. Use of generative AI is not permitted. Applicants may submit up to one work per category. Categories: Avatar Fashion, Original Character, and Worldview / Spatial Composition. Awards: Grand prize of 500,000 yen, with total prize money of 3 million yen. Results announcement and award ceremony: Scheduled for Wednesday, November 25, 2026. Organizer: Cocone Corporation. Official website: https://dac.cocone-one.com/ Scheduled to open in early June 2026. Please see the official website for detailed application information. Winning works may also be considered for further development, including exhibitions and commercialization. Details will be announced in stages once decided. Judging and Announcement Submitted works will be reviewed rigorously by the company and external judges, after which the winning entries will be selected. The announcement of winning works and the award ceremony are scheduled for Wednesday, November 25, 2026. The judging panel is expected to include the company’s representative, an executive in charge of creative operations, the representative of Cocone One, the internal company responsible for digital fashion and digital asset production within ENSAPIA Group, as well as prominent external creators. External judges will be announced later through press releases and other channels once finalized. Organizer Comment Cocone Corporation President and CEO Mai Ishiwata said the contest was first held in 2025 and received many submissions, with the distinctive works of young creators providing significant inspiration. She said the company has long aimed to create places where people can spend time in digital spaces. Compared with the real world, digital spaces offer a broader, almost limitless range of expression. Fashion, spaces, and the characters that exist within them can all transcend the limitations of gravity, materials, and other constraints of the real world, enabling far broader and freer expression. People who live there can also exist in “a form they choose for themselves,” without being bound by gender, body size, skin color, or other attributes. In such digital spaces, she said, free ideas unbound by conventional concepts are what create culture unique to the digital world and expand the ways people can exist. Cocone looks forward to building the future digital world together with creators and to encountering bold, challenging ideas. About Cocone Corporation Cocone Corporation is a core content company of ENSAPIA Group, providing services including the Pokecolo series of avatar dress-up communication apps for smartphones, Livly Island, and Pure nista. ENSAPIA Group has delivered more than 1.2 million types and 30 billion units of decorative items, or digital assets, to customers worldwide, and its digital worlds continue to expand. Drawing on its experience in avatar development, community operations, language education, and educational businesses, the company is building digital worlds that give form to the “sensibility” it excels at, rather than focusing solely on convenience or functionality. About ENSAPIA Group ENSAPIA Group has bases in Japan, China, South Korea, the United States, Estonia, the United Kingdom, and other locations worldwide, and globally operates avatar-centered digital world services. The group is also actively involved in next-generation talent development, including applications of generative AI technology, operation of future-oriented preschools, and support for student entrepreneurs. The company name “ENSAPIA” derives from Latin-rooted terms meaning “existing within” and “wisdom.” It reflects the group’s determination to face the essence of humanity, consider how to design places where people belong in digital worlds, and create new worlds. ENSAPIA aims to build a new ecosystem in digital spaces where people’s “real lives” can take root. The group seeks to move beyond spaces that merely consume time and frameworks driven by algorithms, designing a world where time spent accumulates as irreplaceable “history and memories.” Toward a “Digital Ontos” where anyone can exist as themselves while transcending attributes and physical constraints and switching among diverse selves within a multiverse, ENSAPIA will provide a new-dimensional foundation that goes beyond mere connection and becomes a place where being begins, expanding the freedom and quality of life.