Chris Mars To Judge 2012 Album Cover Design Contest
April 4th, 2012
We launched Figment back in 2008 on the premise that anyone who loves music is looking for a creative way to express that love whether they can play an instrument or not. In the four years since we launched, you our players, have proven that premise to be true, and Figment is now a place where you can express that love through original art/design, writing, and even marketing.So as we launch our fourth annual Figment Album Cover Design Contest, we do so with a lot of pride!
For those of you who are visiting Figment for the first time or just recently became a player, our Album Cover Design Contest is arguably the biggest contest we hold all year here on Figment. It’s a competition to see who can design the best album cover for their fake band. Whether you have mad design chops or just a great imagination and a clear concept, you’ve got a chance to win, and winning has it’s perks. We’d love to have as many participants as possible this year, because we believe all of our players have a creative voice that should be heard, and we hope you’ll take this opportunity to have your voice heard.
So who will be listening? Well, we’re thrilled to announce that this year’s judge will be none other than Chris Mars, the former drummer for Minneapolis alternative rock/punk band The Replacements. Beyond being a part of one of rock n’ roll’s most legendary bands, Chris also helped design some of The Replacements album covers including “Pleased To Meet Me” as well as all of the covers for all of his solo albums. His love of painting led him to largely abandon music in 2006 to concentrate on his visual art. His artwork has since been featured in exhibitions around North America and Europe. It was Chris’ gradual evolution from fan to musician to visual artist that we found fascinating and ultimately what makes him the perfect judge for this year’s Figment Album Cover Design Contest.
We’re also proud to have Adobe, the leader in digital media creation and editing products, on-board for the 4th straight year to supply our winner with Adobe Photoshop. Adobe supports and enables creativity at the highest levels.
So how does the contest work? Quite simply, we’re looking for the best original album cover design. Sure, technical design skill is a plus, but we’re ultimately looking for an album cover that grabs our attention. Last year the winner was theHoseman, whose design for Van Q’s “Shattered Circuits” album caught the eye of last year’s judge Tad Kubler, despite the fact that theHoseman didn’t even own a copy of Photoshop. Tad had this to say about theHoseman’s design:
I like the look of this album – color palette and it’s not overly designed. It reminds me a lot of Hazelmeyer’s designs from the AmRep records of the 90’s. I also like that the type on this is slightly discernible. It’s subtle and makes me want to find out more about the band. And I mean by listening to it. Not by checking out their facebook page.
So how will the judging work? Well, we’re going to add a new wrinkle to this year’s judging by including a fellow Figment player to our initial round of judging. Last year’s winner, theHoseman, will serve as a member of the initial panel along with members of our editorial staff. This panel will select the Top 10 finalists from all of the entries. Since he’ll be part of our finalist judging panel, theHoseman will not be allowed to enter the contest. Once the Top 10 covers have been decided on they’ll be submitted to Chris Mars for consideration. Chris, as the ultimate judge, will then pick a winner and 2 runners up from that Top 10.
As we mentioned above, the winner will receive a copy of the premier 3D graphic design software on the market, Adobe Photoshop, a prize worth over $1,000 alone! But it doesn’t end there, because we’ll match it with an autographed copy of Chris Mars’ book “Tolerance”, 10,000 pieces of Lucre, and a brand spanking new Figment t-shirt.
The runners up will each receive 7,500 and 5,000 pieces of lucre respectively, and we may have a few other prizes to throw into the mix soon enough, so we’ll keep you posted!
So now that you know what’s at stake, what do you need to do to enter? Here are the basic rules of the contest:
1. You must be a registered Figment user to participate. If you don’t currently have a Figment account please click here to create one. This contest is open to Figment users worldwide.
2. Create a fake band on Figment and release an album (EP or singles are also eligible) with cover art. The band and album must be fake, and not artwork for a real band. You may also release an album by an existing fake band that you created on Figment. To be considered, any album entry must contain song titles. Even though they won’t be the focus of our judging, any album that is released without any song titles will be disqualified. Once you have released an album you want to submit as an entry please post the band, album name, and the URL to the album as a comment to this post, so that we and other users can check it out. If you don’t post that information as a comment to this post your entry will not be considered eligible.
3. Any artwork used in the creation of your album cover should either be original or at least one you have the permission of the copyright owner to use. If you do use someone else’s work you need to make it your own by adding text, altering it through manipulation or doing something else that makes it your own. Any album designs that are judged as being a copy of an existing work will be disqualified. We will also disqualify any album cover that is offensive in nature – sexist, racist or hate-based.
4. You may enter as many album covers as you like. If you would like to enter an album cover you have already released on Figment, please note that you may only enter album covers created since January 1, 2012. Any album covers entered that were released before Jan. 1, 2012 will not eligible.
5. The contest will run from Wednesday, April 4, 2012 until Friday, June 1, 2012. All submissions must be posted by no later than 11:59 pm ET on Friday, June 1, 2012 to qualify.
6. By no later than, Friday, June 8, 2012 the Top 10 finalists will be announced, and sent to Chris Mars for his review. Chris will judge the Top 10 finalists and select a winner and two runners up. The winner and runners up will be announced on Friday, June 15, 2012.
As we stated earlier, this is one of the biggest contests we run on Figment and we’re thrilled to have Chris Mars on-board as our judge. So really try to pull out all the stops and create an album cover design that you think captures your creativity and love of music. We look forward to your submissions.
If you’d like to read the full contest rules you can access them at:
http://figment.cc/content/pdf/2012_Album_Cover_Design_Contest_Rules.pdf
April 4th, 2012 at 10:06 am
Oh snap! Time to make the donuts…
April 4th, 2012 at 10:56 am
WOW!!!!
April 5th, 2012 at 2:39 am
“Sick Of Your Burden” by Red Flames Rising http://www.figment.cc/albums/5208/sick-of-your-burden.fig
April 5th, 2012 at 12:35 pm
“Of Rebirth” By Aelexiana
http://figment.cc/albums/5052/of-rebirth.fig
April 5th, 2012 at 12:35 pm
“Binary Empire” by Sinthetic
http://figment.cc/albums/5029/binary-empire.fig
April 5th, 2012 at 1:28 pm
“Carnivore (Single)” by Old Republic
http://figment.cc/albums/5244/carnivore-single.fig
April 7th, 2012 at 10:09 pm
“Sacred Geometry” by Pragmatica
http://www.figment.cc/albums/5141/sacred-geometry.fig
April 9th, 2012 at 5:25 pm
I couldn’t decide which one I want to use, but here we go.
“Susie” by Temple’s Children
http://www.figment.cc/albums/5327/susie.fig
or “Audiphobic” by Fragile Agony
http://figment.cc/albums/5132/audiophobic.fig
April 10th, 2012 at 11:34 am
“Evolver” by Hurricane Abel
April 10th, 2012 at 11:34 am
Now with linkage:
http://www.figment.cc/albums/5264/evolver.fig
April 10th, 2012 at 11:53 am
Also:
“How to Get Away With Murder” by King Fu and the Shank Punch Pow
http://www.figment.cc/albums/5291/how-to-get-away-with-murder.fig
&
“Killing ‘Em With Kindness” by Hot Water Burn Baby
http://www.figment.cc/albums/5283/killing-em-with-kindness.fig
April 10th, 2012 at 7:51 pm
“Ballad of Tabetha – EP” by x69
http://figment.cc/albums/5294/ballad-of-tabetha-ep.fig
April 11th, 2012 at 7:44 am
“End Of Days- EP” by The Forgotten Falling
http://figment.cc/albums/5344/end-of-days-ep.fig
April 11th, 2012 at 1:19 pm
“Dying of the Light” by Old Republic
http://figment.cc/albums/5034/dying-of-the-light.fig
April 15th, 2012 at 10:48 pm
“Beyond The End Of The World” by The Forgotten Falling
http://www.figment.cc/albums/5222/beyond-the-end-of-the-world.fig
April 25th, 2012 at 11:47 am
“Modern Day Cowboy” by Tucker Jackson
http://www.figment.cc/albums/4986/modern-day-cowboy.fig
May 21st, 2012 at 4:02 pm
Man Vs. Beast by Sleeping Through The Apocalypse http://www.figment.cc/albums/5385/man-vs-beast.fig
May 21st, 2012 at 4:07 pm
“We Never Had a Reason to Fear in the First Place” by Fragment Shelter http://www.figment.cc/albums/5087/we-never-had-a-reason-to-fear-in-the-first-place.fig
May 21st, 2012 at 4:13 pm
“L2L V: The Awesome Chronicles” by Lambs to Lions http://www.figment.cc/albums/5072/l2l-v-the-awesome-chronicles.fig
May 21st, 2012 at 4:17 pm
“Through Her Eyes (single)” by Lambs to Lions http://www.figment.cc/albums/5171/through-her-eyes-single.fig
May 21st, 2012 at 4:22 pm
“Kranky (Deluxe Edition)” by Stonekrank http://www.figment.cc/albums/5170/kranky-deluxe-edition.fig
May 21st, 2012 at 4:25 pm
“Aim Low, Swing Hard” by Johnny Steele http://www.figment.cc/albums/5221/aim-low-swing-hard.fig
May 21st, 2012 at 4:28 pm
“Kranky As Hell (Didn’t Sleep Well)-Single” by Stonekrank http://www.figment.cc/albums/5339/kranky-as-hell-didnt-sleep-well-single.fig
May 21st, 2012 at 4:31 pm
“Time Flies…” by Stoned Ambition http://www.figment.cc/albums/5064/time-flies.fig
May 23rd, 2012 at 4:27 am
“Hunt the Monster Down” by Vapid http://www.figment.cc/albums/4966/hunt-the-monster-down.fig
May 23rd, 2012 at 4:28 am
“Crucifixer Upper (single)” by Eccentric Arcade http://www.figment.cc/albums/5306/crucifixer-upper-single.fig
May 23rd, 2012 at 4:28 am
“Disaster Girl (single)” by Eccentric Arcade http://www.figment.cc/albums/5237/disaster-girl-single.fig
May 23rd, 2012 at 4:30 am
“Wanted You More” by Eccentric Arcade and Alison Jones http://www.figment.cc/albums/5257/wanted-you-more-feat-alison-jones.fig
May 27th, 2012 at 2:49 pm
“WITNESS” by Sinthetic
http://www.figment.cc/albums/5407/witness.fig
May 29th, 2012 at 3:00 am
“Touch The Sky” by Stonekrank http://figment.cc/albums/5367/touch-the-sky.fig
June 1st, 2012 at 2:25 pm
“Full Blast” by The Phony Fakers
June 1st, 2012 at 2:25 pm
http://www.figment.cc/albums/5263/full-blast.fig
here’s the link
June 1st, 2012 at 3:09 pm
Lucifer and the Long Pigs – The Badlands
http://figment.cc/albums/5251/the-badlands.fig
Vorpal Queen – The Wizard of Ounce
http://figment.cc/albums/5269/the-wizard-of-ounce.fig
Mortimer C. Klaxton and His Big Damn Steam Band – The Automated Merriment EP
http://figment.cc/albums/5164/the-automated-merriment-ep.fig
Steel Beneath Flesh – Scorched Earth Campaign
http://figment.cc/albums/5234/scorched-earth-campaign.fig
Vengeance Burns Eternal – Inverted Salvation
http://figment.cc/albums/5325/inverted-salvation.fig
June 1st, 2012 at 10:26 pm
Let’s Not and Say We Did
“The Night We Didn’t See Carl Sagan”
http://www.figment.cc/albums/4078/the-night-we-didnt-see-carl-sagan-ep.fig
June 1st, 2012 at 11:13 pm
This contest is now closed to further entries. Thanks to everyone who submitted an entry! Stay tuned to see who will make the Top 10 from which Chris Mars will pick a winner.