T-shirt contest

[mark]

Hi everyone.

We thought it would be great to have a design contest for t-shirt artwork. The winning design(s) will be used for the official event t-shirts.

Here's how it's going to work:
We will be able to offer two or three t-shirt designs for event attendees to choose from. I have access to an excellent screen print shop through work, so we're going to be able to offer t-shirts for $10 each. Since the Bennington Triumph Bash is a grassroots-style event with no independent funding, we will not be able to print a batch of t-shirts to sell at the event, so all shirts will need to be pre-ordered by May 1 or so (exact date TBD). We'll set up a Paypal account for payment. The vast majority of the cost of each shirt will pay for supplies and labor; what little remains can either go to a charity or to Iskra, the screen print cooperative that will be printing the shirts ( http://www.iskraprint.com/ ).

My suggestion for the design contest itself would be to have an open submission and community critique period for a certain time frame (say, until March 1 or so), and then run a poll for a month to choose the three most popular designs. Once those designs are chosen, we'll post them along with t-shirt order information.

There are just a few rules to keep in mind. Iskra is a screen print studio. They don't do digital printing. Therefore there are certain production limitations that must be taken into account when coming up with your design.
• You may use up to three colors in your design (spot colors from the Pantone Solid Coated swatch book). The three-color limit includes black and white -- and keep in mind that when printing on a colored or black t-shirt, any color printed must be backed with white because screen printing inks are not fully opaque.
• Tints of colors are okay to use (eg, if you want grey, you can use 30% black instead). You may also blend colors by tinting them. Take a look at the Iskra website to see the sort of stuff they can pull off.
• If you absolutely, positively need a fourth color, we may be able to accommodate you, but it will not be able to register precisely (ie, the positioning may change slightly from shirt to shirt, so it should not be used for any design element that butts up against another color in a position-critical way).
• You may put artwork on the front and/or back of the shirt.
• You may specify the color shirt you want your design to go on -- or you can choose to leave shirt color up to the purchaser (since the shirts will be made to order, we can accommodate any standard shirt color as long as it works with the artwork, although naturally black is preferred... or white, I suppose...). Shirts will be standard Hanes Beefy T's.

We'll also be looking for one primary design constraint: brand consistency. We have a logotype that you can download here:
http://www.armchaircommando.org/benning ... -logos.zip
This .zip archive contains two Illustrator EPS files: a spot-color version and a single-color version. Each of them contains the logo against a white and a black background.
• The spot-color version is preferred. The yellow spot color used for the logotype is Pantone 1235; it also uses black or white, depending on which color it's being printed on. Pantone 1235 may be used anywhere else in your design as well, as can black or white. Please do not change the colors in this logo.
• If you really don't want to use Pantone 1235 in your design, you can use the single-color logotype. If need be, you can change its color to one of the ones used in your design (preferably the darkest color if on a white t-shirt, or the lightest if on a black t-shirt).
• Do not separate the "Bennington Triumph Bash" portion of the logotype. The place/date line may be moved if you so desire, but please don't change its size relative to the rest of the logotype.
• Please don't alter the logotype in any other way. This will ensure that the final designs are tied together in a way that allows for consistent branding.
• If you want to add any other type to your design, please choose a font that maintains stylistic consistency with the logotype (preferably Charlemagne or Sackers Gothic).

If you're absolutely dying to try your hand at a logotype design, please contact us privately to discuss.

One final note: in order to make screen printing films, it's preferable to have the design done as vector graphics in Adobe Illustrator. Photoshop is discouraged, especially for type elements. If you do need to work in Photoshop, please work in spot channels. If you submit raster artwork in RGB or CMYK color spaces, we may have to alter/simplify it when preparing the files for output.

Sorry for all these rules, but there are very real production restrictions we face when screen printing. That said, screen printed shirts will be the highest quality, and the printing will be the most durable and machine-wash friendly available.

Have fun with the design process, and good luck!

--mark

[BritRider]

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[mark]

Oh, one other rule I forgot to mention:

We SHOULD NOT use the official Triumph logo. This is not an official Triumph event and we are not in any way sponsored by or affiliated with Triumph, so we should avoid using any of Triumph corporate's intellectual property. That includes logos, and also any official Triumph photography.

--mark

[BritRider]

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[BritRider]

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[BritRider]

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[mark]

A vector version of the BTB logo is linked in the first post, above. You can just use that instead of picking up the low-res web graphic.

--mark

[TonUp]

I am ready to place an order!!! LOL


Tito

Ton Up




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[mistermellow001]

Here's the design I worked out for the Triumphrat.net forum, but it appears from the graphic limitations that this wouldn't qualify to be printed in 3 colors.

A word about the design elements I chose. For those from other forums and riding groups who may not be aware of this, the Bennington run was conceived by Whisperinsmith, in a thread titled "Here's a Thought" from Triumphrat.net, as a way of supporting Bonniegirl (also from the forum) in her desire to move on to another chapter in her life, possibly selling her cafe in Bennington. "Whisper" owns a Tiger, and Bonniegirl's name is Robin. The design and slogan should make sense now. The run has happily grown, beyond anyone's expectations, from these humble beginnings.

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[mark]

Mistermellow, it wouldn't be too hard to distill your design down into three colors. I can help with that when the time comes.

Only thing I'd ask is that you use the existing Bennington Triumph Bash logotype (linked in the first post in this thread) in order to maintain branding consistency.

--mark

[hankspeed3]

I Like Mister Mellows idea but I cannot seem to open marks logos. maybe a combination of the 2.

looks great Mister!

[mark]

Hank, the downloadable file is a .zip archive; once you decompress it, the resulting files are Adobe Illustrator EPS files, so you would need graphic design software to make much use of them. Preferably Illustrator, although Photoshop will work too as long as the resolution is set high enough.

--mark

[JEnfield]

Hey heres a thought can we get the back ground or the whole shirt in a union jack & stars and stripes print. I dont know if it can be done but I will leave it in the hands of the R&D department.

Jimmy