Miscellaneous

She Needs Your Help!


Hello RandomC Community! I’ve had this dream ever since I’ve started writing for the site — I want to have something cool to show off that I’m one of the few many writers of one of the greatest anime blogs around. Since I joined roughly a year and a half ago, I’ve watched the community grow larger and larger — never failing to impress me with how many views we get on a daily basis or the amount of people who hang out on IRC nowadays.

And what started as a simple idea to create a T-Shirt for this year’s Anime Expo has turned into a master plan to ask our community create the coolest T-Shirt imaginable (that I really want to wear at Anime Expo). That said, I can’t draw to save my life — which is why I’m turning to our amazing community to create something awesome.

The guidelines are simple — design a RandomC T-shirt for use at Anime Expo!

  • Design the Whole T-Shirt.
  • One-Sided or Two-Sided.
  • Design a Character! I attached one that my friend drew for me but they can be tall, short, skinny, or skinny Rihoko size — be creative!
  • Deadline is May 31st, 2012! Gotta get the shirt made in time for the convention!
  • Please submit your creations to takaii @ randomc.net.

    • High quality, original files are preferred! The writers’ favorite designs will be showcased on the site but the designer whose work is picked will get a shirt made and sent to them!

    As you can tell from the guidelines, there aren’t too many specifics to go off of. I personally like characters that have that nice sleek outlines around them and clean art tends to win brownie points, but overall have fun with it!

    181 Comments

      1. Gonna make a really abstract design of Miharu Rokujo on the front and the words “*RandomC, being curious is a good thing*” on the back.

        Gonna use that software i use to make clothes for second life years ago, need to find it.

        Cybersteel
        Reply

        1. As an artist, especially in this economy where even getting freelance work is tough, Im not doing spec work. No guarantee I win, and the only payment being my shirt that someone else makes money on. Is my name even on it. Sounds like an awesome deal. No one who illustrates as a job will do this, I encourage hobby artists to give it a whirl though, ut I didnt spend 90grand on art school for a tshirt contest.

          whatt!!
          Reply

        3. I completely agree. I feel like any artist that is actually REALLY GOOD wouldn’t see “receiving a shirt with your own design on it” as any incentive. Especially when you can do that yourself for like $10….

          Sensei2453
          Reply

        1. Yes, the bloggers are very generous here on RandomC to offer up their time to follow and critique the current anime, but holding a contest for art is a completely different story.

          You would not create a contest for the bloggers saying “Create a novel about me so that I can carry it around at a convention and show people that I have a biography, oh and I’ll print you a copy of it.”

          Curry23
          Reply

        2. That’s rather a poor comparison you have there. Wearing a t-shirt publicly has the potential to catch someone’s eye and who knows, maybe that person will say “Hey, who designed that AWESOME t-shirt you’re wearing?” after which the blogger will hand over a name, maybe a website address, whatever. And what comes next? Well maybe, just maybe that interested party might contact the artist with a contract for some awesomely paid work.

          It’s called exposure. Marketing is almost as important to an artist as the actual art of earning money. You, my friend, have already failed in the marketing department – I see you link your site… while your art is nice, I’ve completely lost any interest I might have had in hiring you based on what sort of person you’ve shown yourself to be in these comments.

          Spinning
          Reply

        4. While I agree on the exposure part, consider that out of all the people who enter, ony one can win. So for the rest of the artists, some entries won’t even be posted (because only favorite designs will be actually shown). Being an artist is harsh when you’re looking for more reward than the enjoyment you get out of drawing. Then you’re bound to get disappointed. I can put my heart into the design all I want, there’s no guarantee that it will be chosen. If it isn’t no one will care and that’s hard, really. If no one looks at your picture it might very well not exist at all.

          Bukki
          Reply

    7. I’ll give it a shot! I can’t guarantee that it’ll be the most beautiful thing, but i’ll try my best~

      For reference, is there any mottos or anything that we could use for text or particular colors you want associated with the chara?

      chiyoko
      Reply

    16. Ahhhh! I’d love to participate in this one… too bad I’m not that good in drawing 😛

      I just hate how I love to draw but I’m not good enough. More practice, indeed.

      The Story You Don't Know
      Reply

    18. first thing in the morn and you already attracted my attention…I guess i can skip my class final study session to come up with something if it means I can wear my own design 😀

      shamaticgrl
      Reply

    20. .. and so RandomC store is born. No kidding I’m so buying the t-shirt, mug and plushie mascot… with detachable limbs for stress relif will be great !!!!

      *throws money and monitor…please take it!!!!!

      Yes!@
      Reply

    24. You guys should totally sell the shirts thorough one of those online make-your-own-t-shirt sites. Expo will be saturated with RandomC readers wearing it, that’d be so cool…

      Zen
      Reply

    26. I’d like to submit. Just one question though: Is this t-shirt going to have color? Using iron on designs or actually printing on the t-shirt. I’d like to know since I’d want to design around these specs.

      PockyG
      Reply

    28. Awww I’ve been a huge lurker (not a single post q_q) for… 7 years I think?

      But I’ll definitely try to get some time and design some tshirts! Even if I can never really draw for free anymore, but I love your blog so who cares >:

      Do you have some sort of colour limitation or something? Or size limitation for the print?

      Hellyhelly
      Reply

      1. Realistically, it’s tough to print on an entire t-shirt. So if you don’t have a background on it, it would make it easier to position on a shirt and give it the “full shirt” appearance.

        And nice to see you comment! Hope to see your name more (:

        Takaii
        Reply

    30. I’ve been a fan of this blog for a long time, but I’ve never posted anything. I’m excited about the contest though, and was wondering if besides the design there needs to be the name of the site or if you need the name of the convention for it. I use vector graphics so it’s not that hard to edit it, same for colors. Just wanted to make sure. This sounds like fun so I think I’ll go get started now.

      Maneki Neko
      Reply

    31. Too bad I have to draw for two intakes and study for 7 exams in the upcoming weeks, otherwise I’d definitely try, though I don’t know if my skill is satisfactory. Still, it’s very cool you give your readers the chance to do such a thing, not only is it an easy way, but it makes the community even more interesting 🙂

      Crook
      Reply

    32. alright, i’ll give it a shot. but i’m actually quite bad with character designs and all, considering all i’ve ever been was assistant with h-manga and stuff.

      i’ll give it a shot though, just saying beforehand i’m not as good as xephonia or kaho.

      thenewhorde
      Reply

    34. Hi! I’ve been a lurker in this site for years as well and I would like to try this out. I also have an online store at Perzpektiba or rather me and Perzpektiba that is. I know that the designs on the store aren’t probably what your looking for but I’ll try my best to design something new for RC so please look forward to it! Also is it alright if I add the design to the store whether I win or lose? And another question does it have to be a female character or can we go with anything like mecha, cyborg, cute animals, half demon half angel or something like that? Well anyway good luck to everyone and sorry for the long post!

      Master
      Reply

    36. Ohohoho~~~~~~~

      Very nice post I’m reading today, Takaii! I’ll definetly submit some designs (I guess we can propose more than 1 design?)..

      If the deadline really is May 31st, I hope I’m done with my final exams by then, so expect lots of submissions from this guy by then 🙂

      Justinnnnnn
      Reply

    44. Yo, I’ve been lurking around here for awhile now, and I finally am commenting woo! I love drawing so I’m gonna give this a shot if life leaves me alone for awhile. Are all of the entries gonna be posted at the end? It would be really cool to see what everyone comes up with!

      Rivelets
      Reply

    45. This contest seems like a rip off…..I mean, all we get is a shirt? I can put a design on a shirt myself. I would love to enter, but the incentive sucks. You get an original design from your followers for free and get to print it on shirts. I would especially hope you wouldn’t be giving them away to people or selling them unless the artist is getting more for it.

      Sensei2453
      Reply

      1. That is essentially what being a fan means. If I were awesome at drawing (and I wish I was), I’d be more than happy to have the RC team take my designs. Just knowing that the bunch of dedicated bloggers that entertain me everyday are wearing my designs on their backs and showing them off to thousands at an anime con would make me so damn proud. Having your designs chosen is a big enough incentive by itself.

        Junglepenguin
        Reply

        1. ^ this.
          also, think of all the publicity you will get, which is essential to any uprising artist

          if it is chosen by RC, which thousands of anime fans check by daily, you’ll definitely be getting a heck alot of publicity and consequently comissions and maybe even commercial work opportunities :\

          ruirui
          Reply

        2. No. No it isn’t.
          Holding a contest is not about “fans” its about artists who happen to be fans. And if they want a quality design they probably aren’t going to get it by offering “one free shirt.” Like the above person said, we could print it ourselves. Or we could create our own design and sell it.
          ESPECIALLY now that talk of selling the shirts is a possibility? NO. NOPE. That’s just messed up and a TOTAL slap in the artist’s face. shirt.woot offers at least $1,000 – $1,500 PLUS royalties to each winning shirt design. And other shirt design competition sites offer more around $2000

          I’m surprised so many people on this site are going along with it, and voting down people’s comments defending the artists.
          The response was completely different when Crunchyroll had a contest with no announced prizes recently: http://www.crunchyroll.com/forumtopic-754084/calling-all-animemanga-artists

          Curry23
          Reply

        3. Yeah about that, Curry23, I have to say that the Crunchyroll contest is anything but a good example. The art they were looking for was explicitly for ads that will generate profit, for a for-profit organization. Furthermore, you know there’s a big difference when they have to add in an additional bit saying “you are giving us the rights to use your entry in all print, electronic, and broadcast media, and to edit it as necessary.”

          Random Curiosity writers, on the other hand, are not paid in any shape or form. I don’t see where they would even get any semblance of money to pay the winner, considering the fact that they don’t have any income from the site, and some writers are still in college and not explicitly working. As such, asking for thousands of dollars similar to those other competitions you’re talking about is just plain unreasonable. Sure, there’s the potential of profit from selling the t-shirt, but Takaii already explicitly said any sales plans would be discussed with the artist FIRST. Also, even if there were any earnings left over after splitting it with the artist, it would most likely go to just improving the site. Furthermore, it’s not even really a contest, but merely a request to the community, for those who have time and are WILLING to do it.

          I understand what you’re trying to say, in that you think that many of the “good artists” won’t do anything for nothing and/or that we’re exploiting artists for their time and/or we’ll get potentially “lower quality” works as a result, but really, from what I’ve seen, only you and about 2/3 others are voicing your discontent at the moment. As such, I can’t help but say that all I see right now is you trying to force your general opinion on others and talking as if you explicitly represent each and every artist out there. What’s more is that I can’t believe you’re basically saying that artists with less quality and skill will only participate in these unpaid contests. That’s one of the greatest insults to artists that I’ve ever heard, because you can’t possibly know the quality of other artists who choose to submit their work, willingly, I might add. Heck, it’s also just full of irony because your site lists you as an artist too. Somehow I don’t think you’d take too kindly to people insulting you without ever even looking at your work. Also, I have to say that it seems like you’re speaking from a slightly biased view, because your site shows you as someone who does commissioned works for money at times.

          Overall, I do apologize if I made some assumptions up there that are incorrect regarding you as an artist and what you tried to say, but it’s just that I feel that Takaii’s getting an unfair amount of flak for no real reason here.

          Random Observer
          Reply

      2. If you don’t like it, you don’t have to participate. It’s not mandatory.

        1st — I never said that I am going to sell this shirt. What I have said, is that if there is enough of a demand, we’ll cross that bridge when the time comes. IE: There is no plans to sell a shirt in the future. And even if demand was that high, which I doubt it will be, there’d be a long talk between Divine, the artist, and me before any type of selling occurs.

        2nd — I don’t understand why there are so many crybabies who are trying to put other people down. Are you implicitly stating that without a cash incentive, all the people who will and already have submitted work aren’t capable of creating something good?

        3rd — Do you see the word contest anywhere in my post? I’m asking the community to design a shirt that I can proudly show off at a convention. Nothing more, nothing less.

        Please go cry somewhere else about how unfair my request is.

        Takaii
        Reply

        1. Who the fuck are you calling a crybaby you snotty little cheapskate? Here you are trying to get graphic design work FOR FREE, because you don’t think an artist’s time, skills and talent aren’t worth anything?? I don’t care about you, or your silly little fan art shirts, or your shitty art panhandling, but you better watch your fucking attitude with people who have legitimate concerns or I’ll come back in here and logically decimate you. Go ahead, call someone a crybaby again you fucking moron.

          PS Being a fan doesn’t mean they’re your tools that are gonna do shit for you for free.

          Someone
          Reply

        2. Oh congrats ahead of time on getting the inept shmuck you suckered into drawing you a poorly rushed design, because the likely hood of anyone worth their salt designing you something for free isn’t gonna happen.

          Someone
          Reply

        3. Wooo… what’s up with the harsh language?
          Everything Takaii stated is a valid point and you just completely ignored it and zoned in on ONE word he used. He never implied that the artists’ time is not WORTH anything; in fact, we think so highly of our readers that we want to see them bring something to our site too. It is not compulsory to submit something, if people WANT to, they can. If you feel so strongly that you’re not getting praised enough for your work or you feel that you DESERVE something more for your time, then perhaps your time is best spent else where.

          You should not put people down just because they find value in creating something for RC and it IS worth their time. Artists have the right to prioritize or choose which projects to accept and just because some think that the costs outweigh the benefits for designing this shirt; doesn’t mean they all feel the same.

          I’m going to stop now because this is already probably TL;DR. However I do think you’re showing off more attitude than Takaii at this point and it’s totally uncalled for.

          Cherrie
          Reply

        4. Oh… Looks like someone had a fight with their boyfriend.. calm down.. take a deep breath. Deep breath.
          There.. feeling better now?
          Don’t worry.. we’re here for you buddy.. (>.<)\/

          MrRei
          Reply

        5. Whoa, I didn’t mean to start a fight and I really don’t like being called a cry-baby.
          Just want to point out that it is in fact a contest, just because you don’t use the word doesn’t change that fact. Its still a “call for entries”.

          I also apologize for not wording myself correctly, I did not mean to insult any of the artists that have entered. I meant that professionals aren’t likely to enter without some kind of prize besides a free shirt. I’d be happy to enter for something as simple as a few manga or a boxset; I could at least look at that as an incentive.

          The way it is set up however is considered “Spec work”, which is what disappointed me.

          Curry23
          Reply

        6. Also, people can feel free to enter, that’s fine. But it is still spec work. Even if RandomC is just asking their community, as friends.

          But personally, if I went to my one of my friends and asked them to design a shirt for me, I would pay them.

          Curry23
          Reply

        7. Lastly, (LOL sorry) I would just like to say that I don’t condone the person with all the harsh language… I am rather sad that it is coming from my side of the argument.
          I appreciate the idea that you are trying to back me up but there is no reason to become threatening… so umm yeahhh…. that is all. ^ ^ ;

          Curry23
          Reply

        8. I agree that there isn’t a whole lot of incentive to take part in this, and I was somewhat opposed to Takaii openly asking for art submissions as all we can really offer anyone is a bit of online notoriety, but there are a lot of talented “amateur” artists out there who wouldn’t mind “donating” their time and sharing their talent with the world.

          By definition, I’m an amateur writer since Random Curiosity isn’t my day job. I don’t even like writing; however, I’ve found it rewarding to put anywhere from 25 to 45 hours a week into this site for the past 3.5 years. Was that a good use of my free time? Was there any incentive in doing this at a consistent level for as long as I did, spending 2-4 hours on every post, and creating full-length images on top? I highly doubt it, but it’s not about the money here — it’s about a passion that people appreciate. All the other writers are no different, volunteering their free time to contribute to something that transcends monetary incentives.

          That said, I already made it clear to Takaii that he can’t sell this shirt out of respect to the artist, and even if something is mutually agreed upon, it would have to be at cost (i.e. not for profit). Also, I suggested that we do whatever we can to give the artist full credit right on the shirt itself, redirect traffic to their portfolios online, etc. We will give credit where credit is due, but if that’s not good enough for you, then please don’t spend your time on this.

          Divine
          Reply

        9. @Divine

          Was there any incentive in doing this at a consistent level for as long as I did, spending 2-4 hours on every post, and creating full-length images on top? I highly doubt it, but it’s not about the money here — it’s about a passion that people appreciate.

          That’s certainly the crux of this entire exercise, I totally agree. It’s all about someone’s passion for anime, and his/her love for this site. If I were a graphics designer, I would’ve jumped on board and started cracking the very moment I first saw this request, and I am certain that there are many other readers who would not pass up a chance to contribute to the community.

          But even so, you can’t deny the fact that offering some kind of incentive would attract more people to try a hand at this, and even more importantly, would attract more high quality individuals. I can hardly see that being a bad thing at all; more participants + a better participant pool equals a significantly higher probability of getting good quality entries.

          Now, before anyone jumps onto that sorely mistaken bandwagon and assumes that I’m in favor of monetary incentives, I will put it out there that I am not; I believe that incentives would be helpful, but I don’t think that these incentives need to be of a monetary nature to be compelling- the people who are asking for prize money are being completely unreasonable, I’m afraid; these are tough economic times after all…

          …volunteering their free time to contribute to something that transcends monetary incentives.

          This is exactly the kind of time that calls for unconventional and novel modes of thinking; what kind of “incentive” would transcend monetary incentives? Off the top of my head I can think of several ways through which you guys could offer compelling incentives to reader-graphic designers to participate- incentives that won’t cost a single cent.

          For example, since this contest is all about making RandomC shirts for AnimeExpo, you could offer the winning designer a chance to hang out with the RandomC writers in person during the event, should he/she decide to attend- all transportation and accommodation costs are his/her own responsibility, of course. This I feel would be a very significant incentive to many; which true fan of the site wouldn’t want to meet Takaii and the rest of the crew in person, after all?

          Another highly compelling, cost-free incentive you could offer is making the winner your de-facto go-to person whenever you need any kind of major graphics designing done for the site- or at least let him/her be the banner-maker for the site, or something (The Aquarion one’s been there forever…XP). Doing this won’t cost you a single cent, and I imagine that it would only benefit the site to have such a talented graphics artist on board, which the winner of this competition will inevitably be. Furthermore, if you made him/her your go-to graphics artist, after awhile, the site would become saturated with his/her art, which I would imagine, would serve as a kind of informal advertisement for his/her services- and a highly effective one at that, given RandomC’s massive popularity.

          And there are even creative ways to implement monetary incentives at no cost whatsoever.

          I already made it clear to Takaii that he can’t sell this shirt out of respect to the artist, and even if something is mutually agreed upon, it would have to be at cost (i.e. not for profit).

          Instead of selling the shirts yourself, what about you give a “license” (permission) to the winner to sell the shirts him/herself for a profit (within reason, of course- so he doesn’t jack up the prices to 99% royalties or something ridiculous like that) through sites like Zazzle. And then whenever Zazzle has the shirts ready for sale, you could put up a notification here on RandomC that endorses the shirt as the “official” RandomC T-shirt and redirects readers to the page on Zazzle where they can purchase it. Again, given RandomC’s huge popularity, I would imagine that any “official” site T-shirt would sell like hot cakes -and make the artist a significant profit in the process, creating a significant monetary incentive to the artist without any cost whatsoever to the site. And you could even leave all the logistical stuff involved in selling the shirt on Zazzle to the artist- not that it’s at all troublesome. In doing so you’ll be respecting the rights of the artist to his own art, and creating a significant monetary incentive all at the same time.

          Anyways, these are just suggestions; I’d urge you to consider them because I feel they will help attract more high-quality participants without any monetary cost to the site whatsoever. It’s your call whether they’re really worth the time, though I don’t think any of these pare particularly complicated logistically except for the Expo meet-up, perhaps…

          Zen
          Reply

        10. Great post Zen, I think these are very reasonable incentives and it really makes me want to join even more. Will definitely do if I have the time. This makes me think the the site might even expand to Danny Choo levels quite a way away in the future lol. (But perhaps not so commercialized)

          Also random but will we be getting and pictures of shirt in action?

          Kingyo
          Reply

        11. Thanks, Kingyo 😉

          And if anyone needs proof that these kinds of non-monetary incentives work, they should refer to the Kickstarter website, which was basically the inspiration for my ideas. Game developers looking to raise money have been highly successful at getting people to donate significant amounts of money through the use of non-monetary incentives. For example, some of the most successful incentives of the ongoing and highly successful Shadowrun kickstarter are personalized glyphs and npc characters- which are completely non-monetary and will only cost them some time to make; same goes for the recent Double Fine Adventure kickstarter which was 834% funded. Clearly, the power of clever non-monetary incentives cannot be denied…

          And special thanks to Master of Perzpektiba who was the inspiration for my third idea! 😉

          Zen
          Reply

        12. @Divine
          I am really glad to hear shirts will not be sold and it makes me feel much better about it.

          @Zen
          Yes I do believe that working for free can help a lot in the professional world, I got a job that way once (but it was for a professional studio).

          The only thing about this that turned me off is that artists get ripped off a lot in this online world and our work is constantly losing value. The average price of an anime-style commission online is probably between $7 – $20 Even $30 for a full color piece; a work that takes many many hours to complete. If we charge a reasonable price, or even a price equivalent to minimum-wage-per-hour we are likely to be frowned upon and bashed with anonymous hate mail about our “ridiculous prices.” Many of us have expensive school loans to pay as well, but our degrees do not give us any opportunity to raise the commission price without hate. So there is a big artist movement against anything that might imply artwork is not worth much.

          Not to mention those of us with online galleries are constantly bashed with free requests from individuals and sometimes small game / comic creators for free work. I have even gotten notes that didn’t even ask! They just straight up say “Draw this for me.”

          Its not to say I’m opposed to doing things for free, I love giving gifts of my art to friends and strangers online and am known for it at conventions. What I don’t like is being asked for it. haha. It feels like you don’t think my work is worth it unless its free.

          Anyway, as I said I feel a lot better about this contest now that I know for sure the shirts won’t be sold. I have been lurking this site for years and I really enjoy it. Its usually how I decide what to watch that season. (Woo~ Mysterious Girlfriend X and Kids on the Slope!) I’m excited to see what entries arise, and good luck to everyone. Also I am very sorry because I get the feeling that I came across abrasively, which I absolutely do not want to do.

          Curry23
          Reply

        13. Oh and @Zen that is a great idea. It would be okay to sell them also if the “prize” of the contest was to get a percentage of the shirt sales or be able to sell them yourself. It would solve all of the problems.

          Curry23
          Reply

        14. @Curry23

          Oh and @Zen that is a great idea. It would be okay to sell them also if the “prize” of the contest was to get a percentage of the shirt sales or be able to sell them yourself. It would solve all of the problems.

          You honor me. I truly believe that there are viable compromises available to solve nigh any predicament. The parties involved need only to step back out of the mire of emotion and set aside their own self-interests for a brief moment, dedicating their minds to coming up with rational, creative solutions that address everyone’s concerns in a satisfactory manner. This can be difficult to do at times, which is why disinterested third parties are often brought in as mediators; this is essentially what happened here; Takaii putting his idea out to all the readers in an open forum allowed the interested parties to voice their concerns, and the disinterested third parties to share their solutions to these concerns (And everything in between). Even if my suggestion is somehow a “good idea” it only exists as the final culmination of 130+ comments’ worth of input on this page; therefore the credit goes to everyone involved in the discussion, and to the ones who created this forum of discussion to begin with…

          Zen
          Reply

        15. Another highly compelling, cost-free incentive you could offer is making the winner your de-facto go-to person whenever you need any kind of major graphics designing done for the site- or at least let him/her be the banner-maker for the site, or something (The Aquarion one’s been there forever…XP).

          There’s actually a pretty good model for this case already. DotA while still on the War3 engine hosted a competition for designing their loading screen banner. The winner kunkka became their defacto artist for loading screens and now that valve has picked up DotA and is generating DotA2 he is now getting commissioned for his graphic designs (a good 4-5 years after).

          KoroshiyaKi
          Reply

        2. You would think that, but unless that one person has multiple computers, the upvotes say differently. Though they are a small bunch in amount of people who have voiced themselves here.

          Anon
          Reply

    47. Hi! I used “Master” as my username on my 1st post here. If I can make a suggestion Takaii, why don’t you guys open a zazzle store and let them make the T-shirts for you so that everyone who wants to buy the shirt can just go there and buy one for themselves and you guys don’t have to worry about the whole making the T-shirts yourselves and shipping it to the buyers. You can also make your store look like the Randomc website, they offer XHTML and CSS advanced settings for your store customization. You can also use their promotional tools that you can add here at your website. You can get the royalty fee for the purchase AND the refferal fee as well, if they purchase it thru the promotional tools, I think?

      And to those who want to participate here, Zazzle also has Guide files for the participants to download. I also think that the participants should only submit low quality images so that they’re guaranteed that their submitted entries will not be used even if they lose. And the winner should receive more than a T-shirt as well, ’cause if you were to sell the design on the T-shirt it would feel like you’ve cheated the designer, right?

      I would like to see a Randomc Zazzle Store someday, with products like Takaii T-shirts, Prooof Plates (yes, they have plates in there too!”), Stilts Stickers etc. Anyway this is just my suggestion it’s up to you guys to consider. You can check My/Our Store to get a feel of what it’s like.

      I’m still working on my design that’s why I haven’t submitted anything yet. Sorry for the long post again!

      Master of Perzpektiba
      Reply

    48. “me but they can be tall, short, skinny, or skinny ” BUT NOT A FAT ASS!!!! hehehehehe HEAVENS FORBID! LOLOLOLOL! all I’m saying is that this chick better BE A GLASSES GIRL!!!!

      BROOKLYN otaku
      Reply

    50. I am interested in what designs people will come up with. Hopefully, despite the worries of some here, you’ll still get some quality designs.

      I would love to participate but will most likely be busy doing uni related design work until semester break. If only the deadline was in June instead. Good luck to all, can’t wait to see your submissions.

      Momo
      Reply

    51. I’m going to try this 🙂
      I can understand why some people are anal about this but…. I’m an artist, I get paid to do draw. However I would try this anyway because I’ve been following this blog for a very long time. I don’t care if they use it for free, I don’t care if they sell it to gain profits. Each artist is different, and this is how I feel about it.

      Does RC have any color schemes?

      Lanka
      Reply

      2. Blue and White definitely, seeing as they’ve been the colour scheme of the site since forever. And yeah I guess a hint of gold, but that’s less permanant. It was green at one point in time.

        Kokakora
        Reply

    52. Good day. Long time lurker of RC; I really enjoy the anime coverage and synopses. Many thanks for (all of) your efforts on this fine blog. I have a few quick questions about the contest:

      (1) For this contest, may one submit more than 1 entry?
      (2) What optimal width/height ratio would you recommend for your T-shirt (for optimal printing etc)?

      Fly
      Reply

      2. Unless you are vectoring your design, you should go with perhaps A4 size (I guess that’s a decent amount of canvas space?) at least in 300dpi. Otherwise, Takaii could end up with an ugly pixelated design on his shirt and you’d have to redraw it.

        Kokakora
        Reply

        2. Wait was I wrong in saying that? :S I thought vectors should perfectly be able to be scaled without losing quality. And you can just export it as whatever you want later…

          Kokakora
          Reply

        3. It just shows general ignorance. The mod said to send in any resolution and they could scale it up and down. with raster submissions this wont work/look like garbage. If they are vectorizing it on their side, different quality issues arise. Ever see line art scanned at 300dpi, made vector, the scaled to 600dpi, say for a large poster, it doesn’t look so hot. Its a misconception that vector just scales up and down with no quality loss.

          spec art is bad
          Reply

        4. I know about the issues with rasterized submissions but not about issues with vector as well. Our design tutor told us in uni that there should be no problems with scaling vectors in Illustrator, but I guess not.

          Well I’m not even submitting a design so you don’t have to worry about my cluelessness haha…

          Kokakora
          Reply

      1. Maybe you could commission an art piece (according to your own vision) from a professional artist? Someone above mentioned that it costs something like $10-$30 USD…there’s lots of amazing artists who do commissions over on deviantART…

        Zen
        Reply

    55. Would you ask a nuclear physics to design the A NUCLEAR FISSION REACTOR to bring RC’s costs down, as a favor? No? Would you ask your friend the plastic surgeon to give the female members boob jobs so they’d get more attention at the convention, for free? Thats what you’re asking artists to do. Im glad you all can volunteer enough time to keep this blog up without an income, I wish I had something that paid me enough to do what *I* want to do all the time. However, as a designer/illustrator who went to school who put in my dues, I hate seeing art contests, and spec work. NOTHING stops you from taking people who didnt win’s art and using it for commercial purposes. I dont mean you, *you guys* would never do that, but it DOES happen in these contests. Its not a good way to get a fledgling artist a break. Not to mention there are companies that do solely this, and drive the price that we (professional artists) can charge for our time. They just start a contest, pick the one they want, and maybe use some of the losers in the future (its in the fine print) I know you aren’t making anyone sign their art away. I just see spec contests and think.. theres another group of people who don’t see what I do as something worth paying for.

      spec art... meh -_-;
      Reply

    56. Next time you need something paid for, start a kickstarter for it. Since your fans and staff are so generous, have them donate. Then, when the issue of needing art comes up. YOU CAN ACTUALLY PAY THEM. And not go through the amateur hour nightmare of wrong file sizes, incorrect DPI, not knowing RGB from CMYK, and other such things you’re going to get from people willing to spend time on free-work. Someone mentioned kickstarter before, it’s your perfect solution.

      an idea for the future
      Reply

      1. I would like to note that no one from the staff has endorsed my opinion here: I’m speaking from my own perspective.

        This comment is assuming that the winner is going to be a professional that knows exactly what he’s doing. Amateurs can win as underdogs too! Though the Kickstarter idea is a valid suggestion, I must contend against it.

        One of the main driving reasons why Takaii started this contest is that it was meant to be a way for our community to participate. Personally, I love it when we’re able to directly interact with our readers, so when Tak first brought up the contest, I thought this was a great idea for us to let our artistic readers have a go, if they wished, at showing off their RandomC <3, and I'm sure many of the other writers felt the same. :3

        The problem with a Kickstarter is that it suggests obligation for our community to raise money to a certain goal. That absolutely goes against our philosophy on accepting donations, something Divine has clarified some years back.

        https://randomc.net/2010/10/21/thank-you-for-your-continued-support/

        If we begun a Kickstarter, then started a contest for the tee design, that would mean that we would have to take many people's hard-earned funds to choose a design they might end up disliking, which seems absolutely unfair to them. Even if we opened it up to voting (which is a bad idea when money is involved, as it opens the field up to vote rigging), in the case that some designs are hotly contested, donators who vote for the non-winning design may feel jipped (just like how many no spec advocates feel at this moment).

        Starting a Kickstarter, then selecting a professional designer for the shirt without a contest would detract from the community outreach goal and also prevent amateurs from participating. We'd prefer if the design came from a reader who's willing to do a shirt design for us, paid or unpaid. Hiring a designer without allowing others to demonstrate their potential defeats the purpose the staff had in mind.

        However, do not think that we haven't made our faults, cause we have (and we're learning) and it has been an enlightening experience, with some of the non-monetary suggestions made here heard and noted. Starting a drive though to raise funds though just cannot fit in with our website culture.

        Zanibas
        Reply

        1. Starting a drive though to raise funds though just cannot fit in with our website culture.

          I second your opinion, Zanibas. I must admit that I now somewhat regret mentioning Kickstarter as the inspiration for my ideas about compelling non-monetary incentives; I seem to have opened up whole new can of worms here- I was reluctant to mention it at all at first because I knew that someone would latch onto it and get the wrong idea; I only added note of it in a later comment because I felt that strong examples were crucial to the credibility of my suggestions. All I meant to do was highlight model instances where non-monetary incentives have been highly successful at motivating people to give freely (Be it money/time/work/art)- and not at all to suggest that Kickstarter be used as a means to fund a prize pool for this contest. Like you said, accepting donations goes against long-standing site traditions, overstepping the moral boundaries that have been RandomC’s guiding light for all these years- I can tell you that Divine’s integrity is one of the main reasons why I love this site.

          Furthermore doing so may tread dangerously close to the thin red line that separates the legitimate Kickstarters from those that are somewhat…questionable morally, to say the least. For every legitimate Kickstarter, there seems to be another (or two…XP) which is/are simply someone/some group asking for money for some obscure, poorly documented purpose for which you know in your heart of hearts is entirely self-serving- like you said, there is no good way to ensure that everyone who donated will be satisfied the winning design. Your typical, legitimate Kickstarter provides donors with comprehensive information about what their money will be going to- therefore if you donate, there’s a good bet that you’ll be satisfied with what it begets you. With this T-shit contest there is absolutely no way to tell who or what the winner will be before hand- and thus there is also no way to ensure that donors will be satisfied with the result- which would make it entirely self-serving to whoever judges the entries, in complete disregard of the donor’s rights, making such a thing morally questionable…

          Zen
          Reply

    58. I don’t actually visit this site that often and principally I am in agreement with the fact that artists should not be doing these type of things. If I were a professional artist, I would never consider spec-work because not only is it a depreciation of my time, it also devalues the work of the entire profession in the eyes of the public.

      That said, since I have no sense of self-worth, no career ambitions in art, and do dumb things for fun, let the depreciation begin!

      http://i.imgur.com/dPxj8.png

      Fil
      Reply

      2. Also, I am submitting, but it’ll be released under a Creative Commons license.

        I want to point it out as an option for people who don’t want to see their works commercialized if they don’t want to.

        Fil
        Reply

        1. Previous staff responses above have established that commercialization of these shirts at the site’s profit would never happen. Although a CC license is a good concept to apply to your artwork in general, note that we have no intentions of resenting you for doing so, since commercialization has never been in the intent of this contest :).

          Zanibas
          Reply

    59. As of now RC’s t-shirt contest is a Pro Bono request made by a non-profit group which is perfectly fine and resonable as far as I’m concerned.

      Curry23

      I totally agree. I would love to enter if there were actual incentives…

      Curry23

      How have I shown myself to be a bad character? I am purely standing up for what I believe in; that spec work is wrong.

      Your agreement to add any form of prize or ‘carrot’ only to the winner would make it Spec Work.

      If by incentives you meant compensation for work committed to a blog site that doesn’t even pay its own writers (highly respectable, mind you)… well you’re looking and arguing in the wrong place buddy.

      These arguments are unsightly and inappropriately thrown around onto this innocent contest. There are better forums for this and I’m sure you know it.

      Hrmmmm
      Reply

    66. Is there a certain deadline to this? Because I’d be able to come up with some nice designs, but at the moment I’m kinda topped with work and other priorities, I’ll probably have enough time during Summer to design something but that depends if you guys have a deadline or need designs in by a certain date for printing etc.

      Shirikatsu
      Reply

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