BZFlag T-Shirt Design Contest! (Now with a winner)

[JeffM]

BZFlag T-Shirt Design Contest!
Ok, so it's time to get more items printed up for the BZFlag merchandise store. That means more shirts and hoodies! While we love the artwork that Saturos has done for the previous designs, it's time for a new design for the holiday season.

So... that means it's time for some new artwork, and to make it interesting we'll be holding a contest for the best design for this printing! A contest with prizes!

If you have had an idea or design in mind, now is the time to bust it out. If your design is selected, you will receive a free shirt and $100 USD (via PayPal) or the equivalent value in additional store merchandise (your choice).

The designs do need to fit a number of specifications since they will be printed as regular stock items. They are:

Colors:
Designs must use a limited number of flat colors. The last design used 3 ink colors (White, 50% Gray, and Black). Do not use more than 4 colors.
1) The background shirt 'color' doesn't count as one of your colors.
2) The fewer colors used the better. More colors mean more printing passes and more cost.
3) No "blending" or "mixing" of colors. The screen printing process puts each color down as a as a single pass of ink, so it is not possible to have your design mix yellow and blue and have it come out as green. You can, however, dither colors together for some designs, but it's not recommended unless you know what you're doing.

Design size and placement:
We want to provide a similar style of shirts and hoodies so that means that the design must be usable for both garment types. Last time we did a 3 color print on the back and a one color print on the front. The new design should probably be a similar print arrangement (though we can be convinced otherwise).

1) The design will be sized for the smallest item we print, that means a small shirt. So it should be no more than 10 inches wide and 12 inches tall. Locations for prints can be front, back, left chest, right chest, or one of the sleeves.
2) The URL "BZFlag.org" must be in the design somewhere. The previous design placed the URL underneath the small single-color tank seen on the front.
3) Variations: Designs that work well on more than one background color will be rated better as it allows us more variation. The more we can reuse the design screens and ink colors, the cheaper it is for us. The same design needs to be used for hoodies so we can get volume pricing.
4) Due to printing limitations, small thin lines will not print on t-shirts. All shapes and lines should be larger than 1mm.

Content:
1) Nothing rude, vulgar, dirty, or otherwise inappropriate will be considered. The design content should be appropriate for everyone including children of all ages. Appropriateness is at the discretion of the judges.
2) The content must be game-related. Even better if it actually has something to do with BZFlag. Abstract designs are, however acceptable.
3) The artwork must be original, free for commercial use, and/or be derived from BZFlag game art assets. The submitter must have FULL rights to use any and all portions of anything submitted. Works with content that cannot be verified will be disqualified.
4) It is beneficial to minimize the use of "slogans" or "catchphrases" as the shirts are sold internationally. That is not to say that the use of words is bad.. Just that if the design is based around the wording on it, it may be ranked lower.

Format:
1) Artwork in a vector format (e.g., SVG, Inksape, Adobe Illustrator) is always best. Vector art can be scaled.
2) Artwork in a raster image format (e.g., JPEG, PNG, etc.) must be in as HIGH a resolution as possible and not be anti-aliased. Your design should be 300 DPI or better as a general guideline. This will allow for better conversions and printing.

Prizes:
The winner will receive one short sleeve t-shirt with the printed design and $100 USD via a Paypal transfer. The winner may choose to use the prize money as "store credit" for additional merchandise if they so choose.

Judging:
A panel of judges consisting of BZFlag developers, server operators, and core community participants will select the winning design. Judges are not allowed to submit a design for consideration. In the case that the panel of judges is unable to decide a clear winner, then a community poll will be announced to add weight to the final choice. Multiple submissions by the same person will be allowed (within reason).

Submissions must be made in the official contest thread on http://my.bzflag.org/bb/viewtopic.php?p=128084 by 12:00 AM (noon) Pacific Daylight Time (19:00 UCT/GMT), on 28 September 2008.

Submissions will be judged over the following week. The winner will be publicly announced on October 5th to the http://BZFlag.org website and BZBB.

[JeffM]

Please feel free to discuss the contest here, ask questions, etc..

Official submissions need to go into the Submission thread at http://my.bzflag.org/bb/viewtopic.php?p=128084.

Reference for our current shirts can be found in the older shirt threads.
http://my.bzflag.org/bb/viewtopic.php?t=12444
http://my.bzflag.org/bb/viewtopic.php?t=12376

Good luck to all.

[JeffM]

Just to clarify the 1mm rule. Here is an image to illustrate (thanks saturos)

[JeffM]

The contest is now over, I'd like to thank the 5 applicants.

We will now review the designs and make a choice

[JeffM]

Winny.


It was a very close contest with a number of good submissions. It took us a very long time to decide.

Here is the shirt that we will be making that is derived from the design.


We will have the pr-eorder pages for the new designs up later today, but here is an idea of what the shirt will look like



Again, many thanks to all who entered, and congratulations Winny.

[Saturos]

Congrats! Nice work.

Just a question out of curiosity: In the shirt mockup you made, Jeff... the pocket image was never posted as a submission. Same for the color combination. How's that possible?

[JeffM]

Our goal was always to tweak the colors after the design was done, it was a design contest not a color contest. The submited color varations were simply ways to show how the design worked with color.

I went and "played" with all the designs, changing color variations and small tweaks, and whatnot. That was part of the deciding factors in the very close race. The primary things I looked for was how well the design held up under various ink/shirt colors and how solid the design aspect was.

The front image was made after it turned out that the original submitted front design would make the shirt cost more then we wanted it to ( a somewhat "emergency measure" since I'd rather not have an 18$).

I will be using the original front logo for a hat design.

There will be hoodies and sweatshirts as well, I am still working out the details on those. It's a testament to how close the race was, that I didn't have time to get all the store and pre-press work done before the announcement

[JeffM]

The pre-order pages for the shirts and hoodies and sweatshirts are now up,
Please visit http://store.bzflag.bz

This will be a 2 week pre-order period.

[lol_u died]

Congrats Winny! Good Job! Can't wait to get the T-Shirts!

[Monster]

I want one with saturos design on the front and with bachiiii's on the back

[z[h]ero]

I want one with saturos design on the front and with bachiiii's on the back

If you pay lots of $, then you will surely get this purpose-built item.