UC Riverside’s natural landscape served as inspiration for second-year student Valerie Cheng’s photo illustration that won the 2026 R’Card photo contest on March 19.
Her colorful entry, featuring orange trees and a blue sky, will be the background image on R’Cards distributed to students, staff, and faculty members for the 2026-2027 academic year.
Cheng, 20, who is majoring in business with a concentration in marketing, often takes photos with her phone as she walks around campus, using them as reference for drawings. A path near Lothian Residence Hall with several orange trees was a favorite spot of hers.
"The trees are so tall that I have to look completely upwards — it gives me an amazing view of the sky, leaves, and oranges together,” she said. “The color combo and composition is gorgeous, so I used it as the reference for my design.”
Since 2019, UCR Auxiliary Services has invited students to submit original images for a chance to be featured on the campus identification card. The winning image is selected by the campus community by voting on Instagram.
This year, the contest specified images of plants and flowers on campus and allowed for mixed-media and illustrations along with original photographs.
That allowed Cheng to use all her tools to bring her ideas to life. Using her photos as reference, she sketched out a drawing on her iPad with a digital illustration app that captured “how the sunlight would hit the oranges with the sky and all of it together.”
For fun, she added some hidden Easter eggs of a certain campus mascot for sharp-eyed observers to count.
Auxiliary Services received 83 submissions for this year’s contest. With 1,236 total votes, Cheng’s image was the overwhelming favorite with 563 votes, or 46%.
As the winner, she received a $75 voucher to the campus store, a framed photo of her submission, and will get a free 2026-27 R’Card. Runners-up will have their images sold as postcards at the Highlander Service Station during the academic year.
Seeing her fellow students pull out their R’Cards with her image is “the biggest brag I could have,” Cheng said. But she said the biggest compliment was “knowing that my design would be seen nearly everywhere around campus.”