WANTED 2010 - CREATIVE, ARTISTICAL FOLK

Do you love all things Serenity? Do you love doing good works? Do you have mad artistic skillz?

Then there’s probably no power in the ‘Verse more compellin’ then a request for you and your awesome creativity.

Calling all Big Damn Artistical Heroes… We’re putting the signal out to those of YOU with the guts and artistic skills necessary to create the Official Promotional Artwork for CSTS 2010.

One lucky winner’s design will be featured on t-shirts, posters and promotional material and only one can achieve world fame.

Should you accept this mission and seek to become an artistic part of the CSTS 2010 crew, you’ll have to follow the basic guidelines listed below. The reward is shiny, the cause is mighty and we’re sanguine (as in the hopeful sense of the word) that the competition will be mighty fierce… what with all the amazing and compelling art you’ll be sending in.

So saddle up, release your inner muses and submit your artwork to us today! We look forward to seeing all that positivity and creativity we know all you Browncoats have stored inside you.

Keep flyin’ shiny!
Christine (via Anne’s perfect 2009 prose)

And now, we’d take it as a kindness if you’d read up further on the competition guidelines. For more information please continue reading herein below.


THE CAUSE:

• CSTS 2010 and Equality Now

THE SHINY STUFF:

• The winner’s artwork will be used as the basis for the T-shirt, poster and promo for CSTS 2010.
• Additionally, the winner’s artwork will become the face of CSTS’s new and improved website for 2010 and featured prominently therein.

THE RULES:

• Your artwork must be original and the work of your own two hands to be entered into the contest.
• You must use the CSTS logo and have it displayed predominantly within the piece you are submitting.
• You may use anything from the Serenity Universe* so long as it is your own artistic rendering. Each entry must be accompanied with the proper form, signed stating this is so. Anyone caught plagiarizing will be automatically disqualified, given to the Reavers and may be subject to further penalties under the law.
• Because this is about Equality Now and Peace in the ‘Verse, there should be no overt violence portrayed within it.
• The winner agrees that his/her artwork can and will be used by CSTS for the purposes of the 2010 CSTS Screenings and events, and that CSTS has the rights to use this artwork for T-shirts, posters and promo until the next contest winner for 2011 has been chosen. The winner further acknowledges that no other remuneration will be given to the winner, except for that expressly outlined herein above.

THE SPECIFICS:

• Contest will open January 18, 2010 and all entries must be received by the CSTS Global team no later than February 14, 2010 by 11:59 P.M. Pacific in order to be considered for this contest.
• The Global Team will review each piece to make sure of its relevance and adherence to the guidelines. Those pieces found not in compliance will be returned and not considered unless corrected, resubmitted and accepted by the Global Team. All decisions by the Global Team are final.
• All artwork which meets the guidelines will be posted on February 22, 2010, PST on the official CSTS Website. The voting period ends Feb 28, 2010 at 11:59 P.M. PST. In the event of a tie, the Global Team will choose the winning piece of artwork from those locked in the tie.
• You may submit up to three pieces for consideration. The Global Team will review multiple entries by the same artist and choose the piece to represent the artist in the contest, unless the artist wishes to designate which submission is to be entered therein. The decision of the Global Team is final once the judging period begins.
• All entries and questions should be submitted to sara@cantstoptheserenity.com. In the event the artwork needs to be mailed, please contact the above for specific directions. When you are ready to enter, please contact us for the form to be submitted with the art.

FORMAT:

• We will accept any artwork in almost any format: vectorized, rasterized (bitmapped) or real life based (like a sketch or painting) so as to make it as easy as possible for people to enter. We RECOMMEND a vector based format such as the ones listed below but will also accept raster formats and even physical artwork if need be.
• Because of this, we reserve the right to translate / digitize / clean up any artwork we get to a format and minimum level of quality (resolution / smoothness) needed to look good in all areas that it will be used (web, print, merchandising, video, etc)
• You can create a full color piece of artwork, but it is RECOMMENDED that you create a design that lends itself well to being rendered down to four color, three color, grayscale, AND black and white as this makes it easier to use the design in the various mediums cheaply and accurately (Screen Printing, Dye Sub Printing, Inkjet Printing, Web, etc...) Also, we would recommend using the RGB color space and not the CMYK color space for your digital creation. Transparency / using an alpha channel is allowed and encouraged if needed. Anti-aliasing will be applied if necessary.
• We will make our best effort to remain true to the original artwork, but for best results, least amount of work for us, and to guarantee highest possible quality, we RECOMMEND the following vector formats (in order from best to worst):
  
  • EPS - Encapsulated Postscript File (Vector Mode, NOT Bitmap Mode)
  • SVG - Scalable Vector Graphics
  • AI - Adobe Illustrator File
  • Most other vector formats such as PDF, SWF, EMF and WMF will also be accepted but are not preferred
• If you prefer to submit your artwork in a raster (bitmapped) based format, we will still accept it, but we may translate it to a vector based format if, for example, the resolution is too low. For raster based submissions, we RECOMMEND a print dpi setting such as between 300 dpi and 600 dpi and we RECOMMEND the following raster formats (in order from best to worst):
  
  • TIF - Tagged Image File
  • PSD - Photo Shop Document
  • XCF - G.I.M.P. Document
  • Most other raster formats such as PNG, BMP, JPG, and GIF will also be accepted but are not preferred
• If you do not have access to or experience with professional graphic design programs such as Adobe Illustrator or Adobe Photoshop and do not wish to purchase any specifically for this contest, we would recommend using Inkscape (found at http://www.inkscape.org ) for Vector based formats. If you must use raster based, we recommend the GNU Image Manipulation Program aka G.I.M.P. (found at http://www.gimp.org ) or GIMPshop (found at http://www.gimpshop.com ), a version of GIMP tailored to people who are familiar with Adobe Photoshop. All of these programs are legal to download and use free of charge.
• Last but not least, if you are not a digital artist, and would like to create your artwork in a real world medium, such as sketching or painting, you may mail the artwork to us if you are not confident in your ability to acquire a high quality scan of said artwork. We can scan it, but we reserve the right to translate it into a vector based format, which may lose some of the nuances of the medium it was originally created on. Also, we can not guarantee the ability to return the artwork to you.

Universal has no problem with CSTS running this contest. However, it should be noted that Universal in no way officially approves the artwork (i.e. it is not their official creation for Serenity) and that the sale and promotion thereof is solely at the discretion of CSTS. Please note that the inspiration for your artwork should come from movie Serenity and not the TV Series - Firefly.

Pete from the 2009 team provided some outlines of the twinned logo to aid in the contest. We encourage contest participants to use the following format order, from best to "less best":

Preferred formats, in order of preference (top = best preferred)

• EPS
• AI
• SVG
• TIF
• PSD
• XCF

CSTS Logo Outlined source files

• CSTS Logo Outlined EPS
• CSTS Logo Outlined AI
• CSTS Logo Outlined SVG
• CSTS Logo Outlined TIF
• CSTS Logo Outlined PSD
• CSTS Logo Outlined XCF

Woot!
Here we go, I can't wait to see our Browncoat creations

my most thankful thanks to Kethra and Sarrava

If anyone is being scared off by the terms "vectorized" and "rastorized", please don't be!

Vector graphics use shapes (like curves or lines) as the foundation of the image, and is often the preferred format for printable images. When you shrink or enlarge a vectorized image, it stays crisp. You can shrink it to an icon or enlarge it to a billboard, and the quality is retained.

Rastor images (or bitmaps) on the other hand uses pixels or dots to create a picture. A key difference here is that these rely heavily on resolution for scalability (ie. it needs to be of very high resolution to ensure it can be enlarged and retain the quality).

Common Raster-based image editors include: Photoshop, MS Paint, and GIMP
Common vector-based image editors include: CorelDRAW, Adobe Illustrator, or Inkscape

I have split this topic into informational and question topics. Please ask all questions here to avoid clutter in the guidelines thread.