Submissions Frequently Asked Questions

HOW DOES OPEN SUBMISSIONS WORK?

Open Submissions is an ongoing contest. You can submit any idea you like, there are no creative constraints. You can simply upload your art as a jpeg or you can get creative and composite your art and show us your vision of it as a skateboard or as an iPhone, iPod or laptop art skin. Infectious staff, our community of artists and the general public vote on submitted artwork for two weeks. A couple of times every month we select designs to join the catalog. Remember, once we accept a design into the Open Submissions voting gallery you cannot amend your design. If you'd like to get feedback from the Infectious community to help tweak your design then we recommend using the Critique section.

HOW DOES CRITIQUE WORK?

Critique is a helpful tool for artists who are submitting art for the first time. You can submit multiple versions of one design and get feedback from the Infectious community to help improve your next iteration. The reason we send designs to Critique is because we think they are promising, but will score better in the voting gallery with a little extra work. To get the full benefits of Critique it's important to be patient and gauge the reaction of the community. When you're ready you can re-submit the best version.

I SUBMITTED TO CRITIQUE AND NO ONE'S COMMENTING!

Critique is about give and take. We ask that every artist in Critique takes the time to give some creative feedback to some of the other designs. The point is to communicate with each other and get your creative juices flowing. It can be frustrating when people select "Needs Work" or "Don't Submit" and don't leave comments. However, if this does happen a lot, it may mean that the community just isn't vibing with that particular design. You might consider uploading another design and seeing if the response is better.

HOW DO DESIGN CHALLENGES WORK?

We regularly host themed design challenges. For a recent one we teamed up with Mozilla Firefox and invited artists to create a design that shows people and robots living together in harmony. These contests have a start date and a deadline and sometimes we have guest judges. Winning designs receive up to $1000, royalties and free products. Check the rules carefully there are usually additional design requirements that you have to bear in mind.

WHAT DO I GET IF I WIN?

Our Open Submissions favorite design of the month receives $500 cash, up to $400 worth of Infectious product and 5% net sales. All other Open Submissions winners get the same deal except the dollar amount is 100. For Themed Contests, it changes from contest to contest.

HOW ARE DESIGNERS PAID FOR WINNING SUBMISSIONS?

We use Paypal. If you win a contest, you'll be required to set up an account if you don't have one already. We send you the prize money the day your product is launched, and royalties are paid out quarterly. We're all about paying you in a timely fashion :)

DO I MAINTAIN THE RIGHTS TO MY ARTWORK?

We do not own submissions. We only have limited rights for creating our product. Please read through our Design License Agreement for a thorough description.

HOW MANY PIECES CAN I SUBMIT?

We ask that artists don't submit tons of pieces willy-nilly. We recommend spacing out your submissions and focusing on your strongest one to two designs per week. If you have several pieces you would like to submit, that's great but please don't submit them all at once. We don't like to flood the gallery with tons of submissions by the same artist; it's just not fun for the rest of the community and will ultimately result in low scoring :(

WHY HAS MY ART BEEN REJECTED?

Some common reasons for rejection include:

• Your submission must be a 650px by up to 800px image which is 250 kb or less. Our website will not accept submissions that do not conform to these dimensions. Sorry.
• The cut lines are too complex, we need relatively simple outlines with vinyl products so that they are easy to cut out and install.
• It's the wrong style/does not meet our standards.
• You have submitted too many pieces at once. If this happens, we may choose the designs we believe are the strongest and reject the rest.
• It is a duplicate submission. You've resubmitted a piece that has previously been declined or the design has not been significantly changed.
• The resolution is too low/we can't see any details of your art. If you composite, be creative with your submission and show us lots of crops and zoom ins.
• Copyright issues. Only submit your own work; your own words, your own images, your own photos.

MY DESIGN HAS BEEN ACCEPTED! NOW WHAT?

Once accepted, your design will be moved into the voting gallery, typically within 48 hours. We curate the voting gallery as best we can while trying to get work in as quickly as possible. If we've accepted a few pieces from you, we try to space them out so they aren't displayed right next to each other.

HOW DO I SCORE SUBMISSIONS?

You can give designs a lot of love, a little love, or no love at all. Our "Love-O-Meter" is displayed next to each design in order to make voting simple and fun.

HOW LONG WILL THIS WHOLE PROCESS TAKE?

We'll let you know within 48 hours if your design has been accepted or rejected. All accepted designs are in voting for two weeks. For both Open Submissions and Themed Contests, we'll contact the winners usually within three weeks of the art coming out of voting. If you do not hear back from us straight away at the end of a contest period we ask that you give us 90 days to consider it for our catalog before repurposing it.

HOW ARE WINNING SUBMISSIONS CHOSEN?

Having the most votes doesn't necessarily mean your design will win the contest. We ultimately chose the winning designs based on our past experience of what will sell well, but our decision is heavily influenced by voting scores. Please be prepared to have your high resolution final art ready and respond quickly if you are selected as a winner.

I WON! WHAT PRODUCT WILL MY ART BE PRINTED ON?

All Open Submission winners will be printed on as many products as possible, providing the art fits well and looks good on them. Lots of product lines = more royalties!

HOW MANY COLORS CAN I USE?

There are no limits on colors. We print the full color spectrum, which means we can capture all the beautiful little nuances of your work.

WHAT SUBJECTS ARE TABOO WHEN I'M DESIGNING FOR YOU?

We are into collaboration, not censorship. Tread lightly around images of celebrities and copyrighted materials in general. Also bear in mind that we sell art that is in the public space. Please use your best judgment.

HAVE A QUESTION THAT'S NOT ANSWERED HERE?

Email us at support (at) infectious (dot) com and we'll get back to you as soon as possible.