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Post by SSO JOAT on Jan 23, 2014 19:39:48 GMT -9
Attention pathtaggers, artists, aspiring artists, and members of GeocacheAlaska!Get out your electronic paint brushes and set your sights on quarter-sized artwork. As with the previous couple years, GeocacheAlaska! is going to produce a set of custom themed pathtags for the geocaching community. The theme for this year is " Birds of Alaska" and we will produce a set of four pathtags, one for each quarter of 2014. These will be sold through GeocacheAlaska! as a fundraising item, with the proceeds going toward Geocaching Social Events in Alaska during the summer of 2014. This design contest is open to the public. All entries must include high resolution artwork with a PMS color coding table for all colors used in the art. These should be ready for submission to Pathtags for production. All entries will be reviewed by committee as they are received. Any entry that does not clearly fit within the theme "Birds of Alaska" will be rejected. Any entry that is not ready-to-produce artwork with full PMS color coding will be rejected. If a design is rejected, a single message will be sent to the submitter with the reason for the rejection. The artist may make any corrections or additions and resubmit the artwork to the contest prior to the official close of the contest. To be fair, any artwork rejected on the last day of the contest will have 24 hours after the official closing to resubmit their corrected artwork. The contest is open immediately and closes at midnight, Alaska Standard Time on March 17, 2014. All entries must be submitted via email to a special email account setup for this contest at pathtags@geocachealaska.org. Send an email from an account where we can contact you if needed. Put "Pathtag Contest" in the subject line. Include your full name and mailing address in the body of the message. Please name the bird species that appear in your image. And don't forget to attach your high resolution artwork! As designs are accepted into the contest, a low-resolution copy of just the tag face will be posted to this forum thread and posted to our website photo gallery. We will group designs by bird species and voting for the 4 winning designs will be done such that we do not have duplication of species on the winning tags. The final vote process will be determined by how many designs are submitted and how many species are represented. Birds appearing on your pathtag design need to be on the list of Birds of Alaska that appears on the list at en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_birds_of_Alaska. Individuals may submit as many designs as they wish, though each design should be submitted with a separate email. Thank you for participating in this contest. We look forward to seeing your artwork! GeocacheAlaska! Inc., Board of Directors
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Post by alaskacariboozer on Feb 12, 2014 22:15:35 GMT -9
Scott/SSOJOAT, A few clarifying questions/comments. Since this is a contest, would it be best to not publish low-res copies of the pathtags entered into the contest before the contest window has closed (FEB 28 - midnight)? All submissions should not be available for public viewing until the contest window is closed. (Let's avoid knock-offs.) Second, am I correct that the pathtag designs that DO NOT win will be returned to their submitter so that they are not floating around for others to get hold of and be produced?
Thanks for your response. Cameron/AlaskaCariboozer
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Post by SSO JOAT on Feb 13, 2014 0:32:43 GMT -9
You can view the previous two contests on the pathtags forums. Previously, it was up to the designers to post their artwork to the forum thread on the contest. Then we allowed the entire planet to vote on the winners from everything that was posted on the forum. Then the GCAK FR Commmittee spent the next couple months trying to get the winning artists to give us the full artwork with PMS color codes and all. In both previous contests, it was many months between the end of the contest and the arrival of the finished tags at our mailbox.
Similar problems were had with previous calendar photo contests where individuals posted low-rez photos in a forum thread and then we spent a lot of time chasing down the winners to get hi-rez artwork. The 2013 calendar was the first time we changed the rules and required hi-rez art to be sent to an email address up front. Then, we (actually, I) created the low-rez versions for posting to the photo gallery on the website in advance of the voting. It easily cut a month off the time table by not having to repeatedly chase down original photos in order to make the calendar. The process worked even better with the 2014 calendar.
So, for our third running of a pathtag contest, I figured we should do the same thing and thus avoid all the problems with having to chase down the artists after the fact. We should end up with the artwork up front and ready to send for proofing. This will also allow us to reject designs that don't meet the contest design goals up front and prior to the public seeing them.
As for public viewing of the designs, only the selected winning designs are going to be "claimed" by GCAK. The remaining designs are the property of the artists, but without our GCAK rim design, and they can do whatever they want with them. The length of time the public gets to view the images shouldn't have any bearing on the contest voting. The idea of "knock offs" has never happened before, but a swelling forum thread with posted entries does seem to encourage even more participation.
One little item that was missed in the original contest annoucement was providing a copy of our GCAK rim design for people to provide as a ring around their tag designs. I'll be working to remedy that skipped step as soon as possible. Those who have already submitted art without the GCAK rim will be given ample opportunity to adjust their designs by placing it in our rim template.
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Post by SSO JOAT on Feb 13, 2014 1:17:09 GMT -9
A quick update to the contest as provided on the pathtags forum... So you don't have to go look at the pathtags forum to see the previous year's designs, I'm attaching some examples from the previous three annual tags (note, the walrus was done in house, not as a contest).
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Post by SSO JOAT on Feb 13, 2014 19:38:30 GMT -9
After giving this much thought today, I feel we need to relax the "blueprint ready" requirement slightly. It's come to my attention that some have been paying Pathtag artists up front to convert their design concepts into blueprint ready designs prior to submission to the contest. So, if you have art that is very close, but may still need a little work to get to that last blueprint step, go ahead and submit it to the contest. Once we take a look at it, we'll let you know if it is good enough to go to the vote or if more work is needed.
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Post by NeverSummer on Feb 14, 2014 16:56:21 GMT -9
My problem is that I don't have a PC, so I can't use Pathtags' tag editor program. I'm at a roadblock on how to get my ideas to a vote-ready level.
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Post by SSO JOAT on Feb 14, 2014 18:54:34 GMT -9
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Post by NorthWes on Feb 15, 2014 11:57:56 GMT -9
Beyond the contest this is stirring my interest in a path tag of my own...
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Post by SSO JOAT on Feb 15, 2014 18:43:06 GMT -9
Yes. I've had a design for my own pathtag sitting on my computer for a couple years now. Just haven't worked up the $$$ committment to produce it yet. Since you need to buy a bunch on the first order, it does take a certain level of committment to something that you're just going to give away or drop in caches to rust away.
The designing part is pretty fun though. I'm working up a design or two of my own to enter into the contest.
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Post by NeverSummer on Feb 26, 2014 10:35:25 GMT -9
One thing I'm realizing as a self-designated "bird nerd" is that getting a bird image across on a tag is tough! From feathers to colors to gradiation, getting a design for a pathtag is proving to be an exercise in frustration...
I'm still working away on a couple of designs, but it's hard to make them "realistic" and accurate. I may have to caricature or lampoon some of these bird ideas I have to make it work on a tag...
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Post by SSO JOAT on Feb 26, 2014 19:51:05 GMT -9
Do what you gotta do to get it "pretty close". We can tinker with final artistry for the winning designs.
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Post by SSO JOAT on Feb 28, 2014 10:05:55 GMT -9
Due to a slow response, we are extending the contest deadline out to St. Patrick's Day. Let's see some more tag art!!!
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Post by firemanak on Mar 1, 2014 11:16:04 GMT -9
We are trying to get a couple designs together but we have lost 2 family members in 2 weeks and temp custody of a 2&7 year old girls... So life is crazy.
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Post by SSO JOAT on Mar 15, 2014 11:49:21 GMT -9
Last push folks!!! You now have just over 2 days left to submit some pathtag designs. We have not received nearly as many entries as I would like to have seen. But there's plenty of time to put together a tag design and have it to me by Monday night.
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Post by SSO JOAT on Mar 16, 2014 18:42:25 GMT -9
OK Folks!!! Only ONE Day left to get your designs in!
Here is a list of tags by species that we have received so far:
Black-Capped Chickadees Bean Goose Trumpeter Swan Multi-Species Tag: Eagle, Owl, Puffin, Ptarmigan, & Chickadee Willow Ptarmigan Frigate Bird Snowy Owl Tufted Puffin Willow Ptarmigan Willow Ptarmigan Willow Ptarmigan Willow Ptarmigan Boreal Owl Tufted Puffin Bullocks Oriole
Yes, there is a whole flock of ptarmigan, but strangely enough, we are short on Bald Eagles...
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Post by ladybugkids on Mar 16, 2014 19:05:17 GMT -9
Hmmm...I'm also surprised not to see the ubiquitous raven, those marvelous magpies, redpolls, Steller's jays, Canada geese, snow geese, oyster catchers, phalaropes, Arctic terns, many duck species...
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Post by TheFirefly on Mar 16, 2014 20:25:46 GMT -9
Doggone it! I have two species not on the current submission list that I was hoping to submit. Alas, I just haven't had the time to figure out how to convert my photos to something remotely pathtag-esque. (badday) Ah well.
I'm looking forward to seeing all the submissions!
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Post by NeverSummer on Mar 17, 2014 10:37:06 GMT -9
I'm tossing in my Eider idea. I'll shoot that off to you, JOAT.
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Post by SSO JOAT on Mar 17, 2014 11:39:40 GMT -9
Got your PDF by email. Did you happen to have a JPG file image of that and without the color fill reference lines? Send me that if you have it. The design will need some blueprint prep work if it is picked, but we'll cross that bridge when/if we get there.
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Post by NeverSummer on Mar 17, 2014 12:26:37 GMT -9
Roger that. I'll convert and resend
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Post by SSO JOAT on Mar 18, 2014 20:37:58 GMT -9
The pathtag contest is closed and the designs are going to be reviewed by the BoD. Following that, we will set up a vote to pick the 4 winning tags. Stay tuned...
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Post by SSO JOAT on Apr 29, 2014 8:46:03 GMT -9
Here are the 17 entries that we received for this contest: The Fundraiser Committee and Board of Directors reviewed the entries, debated the merits of each design and then held a vote to determine the winners. The following 4 designs were selected: We are working with the artists to make any needed adjustments to colors, addition of text, and preparation for blueprinting.
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