Annual Official Art Contest

In its over five-year history, Can’t Stop The Serenity has raised more than half a million dollars for Equality Now. We can do even more good works, but only if people show up! That’s where you come in. Since we’ve been doing this for more than half a decade now, the novelty factor has worn off, which means it’s more important than ever before to build excitement for CSTS. The logo, poster and t-shirts are critical tools for raising awareness about the event, building excitement, and getting people into theaters around the world. Good luck! We can’t wait to see your submissions!

Entries and winners for previous years:
2013
2012
2011
2010
2009

The complete rules for the annual Promotional Art Contest:

THE SHINY STUFF:
The winner’s artwork will be used as the basis for the T-shirt, poster and promos for the annual CSTS season. Additionally, the winner’s artwork will be featured prominently throughout CSTS’s website and social media outlets.

THE RULES:

  • All artwork you submit must be your own. If you plan to incorporate any stock imagery in your entry, you must have documentation showing that you have permission to use and reproduce it.
  • It should go without saying, but we’ll say it anyway. Don’t use copyrighted artwork in your submission.
  • Because this is about Equality Now and Peace in the ‘Verse, there should be no overt violence portrayed within the art.
  • The winner’s artwork will be used by CSTS for the purposes of the upcoming year’s CSTS Screenings and events, and for additional promotional purposes until the upcoming year’s artwork has been chosen. No other compensation will be given to the winner.
  • There is a limit of 3 submissions per artist.
  • Whle Universal has no problem with CSTS running this contest, 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.

ARTWORK GUIDELINES

  • Each entry must include the following:
    • An isolated version of the logo (no background images)
    • A black and white version of the logo
    • A mockup of the logo as a poster (may contain additional text and artwork)
    • A mockup of the logo as a T-shirt (may contain additional text and artwork)
    • A mockup of the logo as an embroidered patch (may contain additional text and artwork)
  • You must use the CSTS logo and have it displayed predominantly within the piece you are submitting. You can download various versions of the logo below. These are provided as outlined files, and the official color values are provided.
  • The logo may be used in many different ways, including, but not limited to stationery, patches, stickers, web banners, icons, etc. The more flexible your design, the better.
  • 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 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 www.gimp.org) or GIMPshop (found at 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.

Official CSTS Logos
You may download the following documents for use in your submission for the CSTS Promotional Art Contest (in order of preferred format):

Serenity Logo color values:

  • Outer Ring: RGB: 226/127/65 – CMYK: 9/60/84/0
  • Inner Disc: RGB: 254/216/85 – CMYK: 1/13/78/0
  • Kanji: RGB: 135/23/26 – CMYK: 28/100/100/33

Equality Now Logo color values:

  • Entwined Symbol Ring: RGB: 42/40/41 – CMYK: 70/66/63/67
  • Equals Symbol: RGB: 194/32/38 – CMYK: 16/100/100/7

SUBMITTING YOUR ENTRY

  • Submissions must be received by the published deadline in order to be considered for this contest. This deadline for each year’s contest will be published on the front page of this website in news posts related to the contest.
  • You may submit up to three pieces for consideration.
  • All entries and questions should be submitted to artdirector@cantstoptheserenity.com.
  • If you need to mail your submission, email artdirector@cantstoptheserenity.com for instructions and a mailing address.
  • All entries which meet the guidelines will be posted on the official CSTS website, to be voted on by the general public. The voting period for each year’s contest will be published on the front page of this website in news posts related to the contest. In the event of a tie, the Global Steering Committee and Global Team will choose the winning piece.