Nothing Phone (2a) Community Edition is coming and you can help design it

Nothing Tech has just announced the Nothing Phone (2a) and now has something else up its sleeves – the opportunity to help design a Community Edition of this phone.

Nothing will be running a design competition, looking to engage with its community to turn some of the concepts that fans produce into a real product. Introducing the initiative via a video, company founder Carl Pei said: "This is a design and marketing co-creation project that I think will attract a lot of new creative minds. I’m excited to see what we are going to build together."

The process will be split into four phases, inviting submissions on hardware design, wallpaper design, packaging design and finally coming up with and executing the marketing campaign.

The successful applicants will work with Nothing staff to bring the creation to life and this will result in the phone actually getting manufactured, so it's a great opportunity for budding designers to showcase their talents, while massively engaging the community in a novel way.

It might look like a challenge from TV show The Apprentice, but you're not going to get Alan Sugar dismissing you in shame at the end of the process.

Once submissions are in, there will be the opportunity for the community to vote and show support for different designs, before an internal Nothing panel will reach a final decision. As the initiative is split into four different categories there will be four winners, who will be hosted in London for the launch of the of the Nothing Phone (2a) Community Edition.

Carl Pei, talking on the introductory video, makes it clear that this isn't a plan to get someone else to do the work and says that this is definitely not going to be a profit-making venture for Nothing - although with the final model going into production, there's a chance that the community investment could pay – it could be the hottest affordable phone of the year.

What it will do, however, is encourage Nothing fans to be more involved than ever and really does highlight how Nothing is different to other smartphone brands. It's a marketing move, sure - but if you have some talent in concept design or digital art - or even if you have a clever marketing spin, this could be a unique opportunity to showcase your skills.

You can find everything you need to know on Nothing's website.