Mythical Women Contest - Cold Hard Cash up for Grabs

[DaveGFX]

Hey guys

Sorry, I'll probably be posting this on multiple forums, so apologies if this comes off a bit spammy.

We've just launched a contest at GFX Artist, and it would be great if we could have some conceptart.orgers participate. For more details, check out: http://www.gfxartist.com/general/general_news/27956

The Mountain, a worldwide distributor of high quality, hand-dyed garments is looking to add a few artists to its roster. If you've ever wanted to enter the lucrative world of licensed products this is the perfect opportunity to get your work seen by the art director of a major T-Shirt and Greeting Card company. Winners will not only have their artwork seen on the T-Shirts of thousands of people around the world, but will also receive a royalty agreement worth hundreds (or thousands) of dollars over the course of the year with The Mountain. I know a lot of artists look at contests with a healthy amount of skepticism, but this really is a great chance to get your foot into a very lucrative door. Royalty contracts are being handed out to a minimum 11 works in this contest, and these guys sell 10's of thousands of shirts a year. Do the math...

Judging will be based upon creativity, visual storytelling, salability, illustrative style, and overall originality and attention to detail. Please keep this in mind when you design, this is for a product that will be sold to tens of thousands of people (worldwide) so the appeal to the general public must be overwhelming.

If you have any questions, post them here or email me at david@gfxartist.com, and I'll answer them promptly.

Cheers.

[DaveGFX]

Hey guys, just wanted to add a bit more information. No more bumps after this i promise.

This is from the Art Director of The Mountain btw:

Now that this contest has been posted I just want to be here for anyone that has any specific questions about what this is all about. Any vague rules that bother you. Any guidelines that you don't understand or can't work within for whatever reason.
Any worries about how can I trust these people or will I really get paid or what is the deal in general.

The main thing that you need to know is that we are a real company. We have 150 employees. We print over 10,000 shirts per day. We have 50 reps that carry our line world wide. We do everything in house except grow the cotton and assemble the T-Shirts. We work with over 150 artists like yourselves that get a royalty check every month. We are located in New Hampshire, USA and we would be happy to provide email addresses of artists we currently work with that will soothe any reservations you may have.

One main concern amongst artists that I hear and experience quite frequently is that Artists feel that T-Shirts "cheapen" the art. Well I'd agree if you went with a company that treated your art as an image that sits on top of a white t-shirt in a square
and felt and looked like it was printed on a laser print transfer paper and ironed on.

But if instead you work with a company that treats your work with respect, removes the image from it's frame and transplants it to it's new T-shirt canvas (on computer), carefully matching the shirt color with the background color of the art and making sure it bleeds seamlessly into the shirt, we sit together behind the computer and make sure the color is perfect for your image. When we are sure it's a perfect match we proof it. Now you may begin to feel some respect. Then if you knew the development process where the separation, the dye tests, the printing, viewing and re-testing making sure that the design never sees the light of day until it's a perfect on screen (proof) match, sometimes taking as many as ten tries and thousands of dollars in material and man hours until it is perfect or better than the proof and signed off on. Only then is it scheduled for production.
The only complaints I ever hear from an artist are before they receive their first check and production samples. Never after.

T-Shirts are your best advertising. Unlike other products that are stationary (don't move), tee-shirts are always on the go and viewed by thousands of people in their lifetime. They are a walking gallery.

I am here checking in 5 or 6 times a day to answer any questions you may have.

A couple things...

1. The rules and guidelines are not 100% complete. Because of the time restraints involved we posted the contest before finishing them so everyone could begin working or reworking or start submitting previous works, to get the ball rolling.

2. This is The Mountain's 1st contest. Please bear with me (and GFX) and if you can offer guidance or support in any way it would be appreciated.

3. The Prizes are pale in comparison to the real prize of this contest, the licensing agreement. I speak as an Artist and not an
art director when I say that this is the true prize. What do you get out of this? Well money for one, contacts, publication worldwide, product references (meaning if your work shows up on our shirts, then you will be sought after for other products).
You retain all ownership and © to your work. You get fame, fortune, well let's not get carried away...

4. The guidelines are dream guidelines, meaning if you only work in RGB for whatever reason don't worry we accept RGB.
When I set out writing guidelines I of course wanted the format and color space that I work in, I separate in, so your images will look as they look on your screen. RGB to CMYK conversion can wreak havoc on an image especially if you work in out of CMYK gamut colors. The only reason I request CMYK is for that reason, everything is printed in CMYK, but the majority of the art I receive is in RGB format, so don't be scared off if you work in RGB.

5. If you are a newbie or just starting out don't get scared off. Your work is just as important as the "Professionals" and sometimes better. I don't always look at finished work, I also look at potential and if you have potential you are bound to remain in my favorites, for the future best digital artist. Also if you visit our site you can see that mythical women isn't our only line. So maybe you are better at drawing animals than people....

6. The main thing to keep in mind when designing, is the public (the end buyer of the T-shirt). The majority of people buying our shirts are not into hardcore imagery. That’s such a small percentage of the marketplace and not really our market at all. Our customer is Middle America, and middle America wants nice simple non-offensive (no nudity, death, blatant sexuality or black magic etc.). I’m not saying there isn’t a market for that imagery, because I know there is, I’m just saying that market is not ours and if you design for that market there is a good chance that your image will not be chosen as a finalist.

7. Finally, I want to make a fine distinction here, this is contest is about illustration and not art. Illustration is where you get paid doing something for someone else. Art is what you do for you, that you love and you don't care if anyone else likes it because it's about you and not them. Making that distinction is a key factor here, it is about selling your “work” and not about selling what you love. Sometimes you get lucky and people love what you love.


I hope I can help you make this a more painless and enjoyable experience.

And finally, regarding Art Styles:

we are introducing many new looks next year which don't reflect on the website. The contest area of the site when completed will give you a better understanding of what we are looking for. Sometimes I don't even know what I'm looking for until I see it, so this is a great way to get a lot of different takes on some areas that we would like to add many more designs to. The examples you've seen on the site are what they are, examples, not a guideline but just to give an idea of what works for us. The images that seem to sell the best have an in your face character (a full body shot) amongst a
background of some sort. But that is for one aspect of our line, the mass appeal T-shirt. Another aspect is the female scoop, spaghetti and tank line that has a more condensed focus. The target group is girls and women age 12-35. That leaves a lot of room to move and design for. Tees need to be instant recognition of what is going on in the design. There is a 5 second attention span window for a shopper and if they need to really look at it then it probably wont work. We have added some anime this year, some cg a lot of digital art different styles and different looks. We will continue to do so. We are also adding some illustrator based work, simple cartoon style images. So the gamut it wide. Don't be put off by what we have already done
we are looking for new styles and new imagery.

So if that was all too confusing, we are looking for both and more. A fantasy oriented scene may be fine, but if it's too in depth and too confusing to figure out what is going on then it would not be good. I'm planning on writing a description in the "contest area" that gives you the low down of what I look for when I'm looking at artists work for designs. Some times all I need is a character on a white back ground, sometimes the scene is important, it really varies. Target groups vary as well. If I'm trying to get into a 12-18 year old market anime is key and more in your face simplistic instant message style work is good. Stand alone characters etc. If the target group is 40-65 the the work needs to be more reserved and elegant. Focusing on non offensive and clean. If the target group is goth or hardcore crowd, then it needs edge and depth, sexual and dark, but not so over the edge that offense be taken or it hurts the sales of other images just for being in the catalog. There are so many things to take into consideration.

Nothing is required per se. But we seem to be having the most luck with actual people, as opposed to say a cat person representing a goddess. I'm leaving this one in the hands and mind of the artists.

[DaveGFX]

Sorry about the bump. Just a reminder, this is the last day to get your stuff in.