haha of course I remember competitions! I did enter a few a couple of years ago and they were a load of fun and helped a lot. And I always thought it was really awesome since it was the community who decided who the winner was and not the person who held the competition. Especially since there's a whole new set of people here since, I'd love to see everyone in action.
I'd love to help out and create the icontests again if wanted? Know you've got a lot on you already and I'd love to give you a hand with getting this out for the community - especially when I've currently got a bit of free time on my hands for the next while. Contest themselves are great for improving (as I've always seen it). Since the average level of the graphic artists in here carries a lot of newer and beginner level artists, I think starting them up again would be great - not just for the newbies, but also for more experienced and even bringing some older artists once in a while to post sometime. Icons are small, but you can still do a lot with them than just the simple crop. But yeah, I'm eager to bring this back, maybe with an emblem as a prize as it used to be?
Dear, I'm always happy to have help and I'd love for my regulars to have just as much involvement in A&D as I do. Just because I've got some blue name doesn't mean I'm any more entitled to start a competition or any less invested in it! I want the artistic community to always have a home here, no matter what they use it for; competition, sport, adoration, sharing, anything! I love A&D and I want to see it thrive. Just shoot me a PM (naturally at your own pace and assuming this is a responsibility you want) and we can really get this ball rolling! <3
I love the idea of competitions and contests, as they could really help out newer artists, and even older, more experienced artists to challenge themselves and create something new and unique. Having the community decide is also a nice addition, as the most popular, and therefore generally better piece, will be noticed, and that artist could get recognition for it. There seems to be at least some new activity, myself included, here, and maybe the competitions are what A&D needs to really kick things off again, and attract more attention. Perhaps a weekly contest that had an announcement like the tournaments do when you log in?
I like the idea of an emblem as a prize, but it could lose incentive for winners to keep competing. And while immediately after they win that's not such a bad thing, it also means that's one less person competing later on, and you've then begun to lose people interested in the contests and competitions. Even if more people swarm in, if the prize isn't something continuously worth competing for, people will stop competing eventually. I think that perhaps winners could receive a spotlight for their Gallery, art or the winning piece, perhaps in the form of a pinned post or again, an announcement. I'm not overly familiar with how all these things may work, I'm just brainstorming here, but if you want ideas, I'm more than happy to give them.
This x 32457340874483
That's
exactly why I made the forum splash the way it is; with an events tab for any ongoing contests, an awards tab to showcase what I'm offering for winners/participants, and a featured tab to really showcase the winner's work. And it's nobody's fault, but the splash seems to go unnoticed more often than not and it's incredibly time consuming to update. Still, it's just that extra 2% of information spreading, hype, and appreciation in my eyes. A labor of love, perhaps.
Originally, I offered some pretty damn awesome prizes too. For icontest, the winning icon would actually
become the emblem, along with more generic second, third, and participant emblems. Winners would get custom usertitles back when that was a staff only perk, and their galleries/profiles would get featured in A&D's splash. I'd even give blog privileges and increased avatar sizes for big, high profile contests. Nowadays, Antemortem and I are conspiring to have winning pieces featured on PC's facebook and twitter accounts!
Just something. Something that really touches on how much we respect art and how much we care, yeah?
Sorry I turn into such a sap over this kind of stuff lol.