Prizes

The first-prize winner will receive a check for $100. The second- and third-prize winners will each receive a free Shehaqua T-shirt.

Choosing a Winner

All submissions will be shown to a group of judges composed of members of the Shehaqua Council, Shehaqua Operations Team, and a number of additional volunteer judges.  Additionally, all designs will be posted on our Facebook page and the public will get a chance to vote for their favorite designs by liking them. (The artist will remain anonymous, so this will not become a popularity contest.) The Facebook votes and the judges' votes combined will determine the first, second, and third place winners.

Become a Judge

If you are interested in being one of the judges, please send an email to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. However, you cannot participate in the contest and be a judge at the same time.

Dimension and Location of Artwork, and Number of Submissions

  • The dimension of your artwork can go up to 12" × 12". However, 12" × 12" is much too large for most designs, and we recommend that you print out your artwork at various sizes and attach them to a T-shirt to see which size works best. Your submission will be printed at 100% size.
  • Your artwork will go on the front of the T-Shirt. Additional art for the back is optional.
  • Each person can submit up to two different designs.

Wording and Theme

  • The T-shirt should include the words "Shehaqua Family." It's fine to add additional words if you so choose. Some of our previous t-shirts that included phrases such as "Loving and Serving the World," "Live for Joy," "The Family—God's School of Love," These Roots Go Deep," etc. were quite popular.
  • In 2017, the winning design featured an owl family, but there were several popular designs featuring a bear. Maybe 2018 is the year of the bear design?

Colors and Copyright Issues

  • Your artwork can have up to four different colors of ink. If you choose to have art for both the front and the back, then each ink color used for the back counts as one of the four colors that are available to you, even if it is a color already used on the front. (For example, if you use red, green and blue on the front, it counts as three colors, and if you use red again on the back, it counts as the fourth color).
  • Using all four ink colors is optional, and you can decide to use less ink colors for your design.
  • Due to our printing process (silk screening), all designs have to be clearly separable into (up to) four flat colors. The colors can't be mixed together to create a new color, and there can't be any gradients, where one color runs into another. (Read more about this under "Format")
  • Your design will be printed onto a colored T-shirt. You can match your ink colors to a specific background color by looking at the available T-shirt colors here. We reserve the right to change ink colors or T-shirt colors if we have used similar color schemes recently or if we don't believe that your color combinations will appeal to a large number of Shehaqua Family members.
  • Please note that if you want parts of your design to be white, you will have to count white as one of your four ink colors, unless you choose a white T-shirt to print on.
  • Your art has to be your own work. Using clipart or stock art as elements of your own work is permissible if it does not violate the license of that art. The license has to allow for commercial use. (Some art in the Creative Commons allows for free use, but not for commercial use. Since our T-shirts will be for sale, only art with a license for commercial use is acceptable.) Please describe the origin of your stock art (submit a link if the origin is online) with your submission if you are using any.

Format

  • The art must be submitted in digital format—as a high quality jpg, tiff, EPS, or PDF file—at a minimum of 300 dots per inch (dpi). You can create your art on the computer, or, if you plan to use just one color, you can create it on paper and then scan it in at the proper resolution (300 dpi).
  • We need your artwork in two versions: One file that shows the art on top of your chosen T-shirt (background) color—this will be sent to the judges—and one without the background color that can be used for separating the colors which is necessary for silkscreen printing. (We need the second only if your design wins. ) We strongly encourage you to submit your file as a layered Photoshop, Illustrator, GIMP (free Photoshop alternative), or svg file with each color on a separate layer. If you don't have access to any of these programs, or don't know how to use them, we will help you separate the colors if your design wins.
  • If you create your design on paper, we recommend that you don't use pencils but ink, pens, or markers instead to create clear contrast. Complicated line drawings are more difficult to print with silkscreen printing, while designs with larger, simpler elements will look better.
  • It's most effective to submit your design on the background color you would like to have it printed on. This way the judges will see the full effect of the design on the correct background.

Deadline

  • Please send your electronic file to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. by February 15, 2018.

Comments

Don't let all these rules intimidate you: If your design wins we will work with you to solve any technical problems. If you have any questions, please feel free to ask. Send your question to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..