Artists, here's your chance to make your work a part of Kumoricon!

The winning 2018 mascot will be prominently used in Kumoricon art and publicity material for the 2018 convention year, such as the website, promotional flyers and posters, advertisements, merchandise, badges, and more.

If you have any questions, please contact mascot@kumoricon.org. (Please do not email entries to this address. See entry instructions below.)

Contest Rules and Entry Contract

Due date and time: Sunday, September 10, 11:59:59pm, PDT. Slightly late entries may be accepted at our sole discretion.
Who may enter: Anyone except Kumoricon board members, and Kumoricon staff who are involved in running the contest.
Winning prize: Choice of:

• Free VIP membership at Kumoricon 2018
  – or –
• Free Artist Alley table at Kumoricon 2018

Contest rules and contract:

By entering, you (either an individual, or multiple individuals entering jointly) accept these rules and contract, including the intellectual property provisions. For multiple persons entering jointly, the person submitting warrants that all entrants have agreed to these rules and contract.

Age: If you are under age 18 at the time of entering, permission from your parent or legal guardian is required to enter the contest. If there are multiple entrants, this is required for each entrant who is under 18.

Original work: Entries must be wholly the work of the credited and entering individuals, and all artists must be so credited and entering. Entries cannot be based on or include others' characters or industry characters—no "fan art".

Intellectual property transfer: The winning entry, including any current and future derivative works (created by you or us), becomes the intellectual property of Kumoricon, including any and all copyright and any other intellectual property interest. When we officially announce the winner, all non-winning entrants are relieved of this commitment. By entering, you both agree to this transfer and warrant that you are able to make such transfer. The winning entrants retain any of their rights to display, copy, distribute, and sell their winning art for strictly personal purposes (no publicity purposes), provided such activity does not imply or state representation of Kumoricon or that the pieces are official Kumoricon merchandise.

Our permission to use entry: By entering (whether or not you win), you grant us perpetual, irrevocable permission to display, copy, and distribute your entry.

Composition: Each entry must contain both (1) an adult or teen mascot, and (2) a chibi mascot; of the same character and style.

Theme: Entries should thematically represent Kumoricon. We encourage entries to include Kumoricon themes such as clouds, an umbrella, or ghost neko, but these are not required.

Format: Color, 300dpi (at an approximate target size of 8.5"x11"), and just about any file format. We prefer a lossless format like PNG, PSD, or a vector format.

Style: There is no particular required style. For example, entries can be either hand drawn or computer drawn.

Background: Please draw against a single-shaded light, white, or transparent background. (When we use the mascot, it will be against other backgrounds.)

No prior publicity use: Entries cannot have been used by other organizations (such as mascots for other conventions). However, to clarify, this is not a prohibition on the entry having been seen by anyone else. The entry does not need to be kept secret or private. You may post the entry on your personal gallery (except for the Kumoricon forums or Facebook groups).

No discussion on Kumoricon sites: Nobody can discuss specific entries on the Kumoricon forums or Facebook groups (either public or staff group) until voting has ended.

Updating your entry: You can submit an updated entry before the deadline, replacing an earlier version.

Multiple entries: You (either individually, or as a joint entrant) may enter or be an entrant on up to two (maximum) entries. If you enter two entries, both entries must be completely unique from each other. (You can't enter two similar variations on a single entry—pick your best version.)

Previous entries: You (jointly with any previous entrants) may enter a single non-winning entry re-used from a previous mascot contest. This counts as up to one of your two entries, per the previous rule. If you do this, you must specify on the entry form what year(s) the entry was previously entered. (If you aren't sure of which years, you can review all the galleries.)

Selection: The winner will be determined by an online vote of Kumoricon staff over a one-to-two-week voting period. Voters will rank the entries and tabulation will use the Schulze method. In the unlikely event of a tie for the winner, the Kumoricon board will vote among the tied entries using a process and method of our choosing, or if necessary, the tie will be resolved by another tiebreaking method of our choosing.

Announcement: After voting, we'll post the entry gallery (without yet announcing the winner), and then announce the winner at Closing Ceremonies at Kumoricon 2017.

Disqualification: We may disqualify entries that are unsuitable, or whose entrants violate the rules, in our sole discretion.

Modification: We reserve the right to modify the contest or rules once it is underway, or even after it closes, if the circumstances so require. If this happens, due care will be taken to follow the spirit of the rules and be as fair as possible to all entrants. If we materially modify the contest or rules, we will publicly note what we have changed.

(Entries are now closed.)