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

The winning 2020 mascots will be prominently used in Kumoricon art and publicity material for the 2020 convention year, such as the website, promotional flyers and posters, advertisements, merchandise, badges, and more.

New for this year, we will pick two winners, with two prize packages! We are excited to take this path to promote and reward an additional artist, because there are so many wonderful entries every year! The first place winner will still be the main face for the website and branding, but the second place winner will add more character and depth in various web, social media, print, and possible merchandising avenues.

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

Dates and prizes

Entry deadline: Sunday, September 15, 11:59pm, PDT. There is a one-hour grace period, and then the form will automatically close.

First place award: Your choice of the "A" prize package or the "B" prize package
Second place award: The remaining "A" or "B" prize package

The "A" prize package: Wacom tablet and a weekend membership for Kumoricon 2020
The "B" prize package: Option of VIP membership for Kumoricon 2020 or no-cost Artist Alley table at Kumoricon 2020 (choose one)

Artist Alley table is subject to acceptance of our usual contract terms, except the base table cost.

Agreement to 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 enter, and have agreed to these rules and contract.

Who may enter

Restriction: You may not enter if you are a Kumoricon board member, are a Kumoricon staff member who is involved in running this contest, or if you have won in three previous Kumoricon mascot contests. Anyone else may enter!

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.

Multiple entrants: If your entry is the joint work of multiple people, then (1) All such contributing artists must have agreed to enter the contest; and (2) All such contributing artists must be listed as entrants and agree to these rules and contract.

The legal stuff

(This is important.)

Original work: Entries must be wholly the work of the individuals listed as entrants. Entries cannot be based on or include others' characters or industry characters—no "fan art". (The one exception is that you may incorporate ghost neko into your art.)

Intellectual property transfer for winners: When we officially announce a contest winner for each award level, then each winning entry, including any current and future derivative works (created by you or us), immediately becomes the intellectual property of Kumoricon, including any and all copyright, trademark, and any other intellectual property interest. By entering, you both agree to this transfer and warrant that you are able to make such transfer. When we officially announce both winners, all non-winning entrants are relieved of this commitment.

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

Kumoricon's exclusive publicity use: Winning mascot entries are intended to uniquely represent Kumoricon and be part of Kumoricon's publicity. Therefore, an entry cannot have been used in the past, or be able to be used in the future, as representation or publicity for any other organization or entity (such as a mascot for another convention).

Personal portfolio use: You may display, copy, distribute, and sell your entry art for personal or portfolio purposes, provided that you do so in a manner that does not represent Kumoricon or conflict with Kumoricon's exclusive publicity use as described above, and provided that you do not create or duplicate custom merchandise containing any winning mascot art. You may continue to do these even if your entry wins and after the intellectual property transfer.

Art requirements

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, and/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.)

Changes and re-entries

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 may re-enter a single non-winning entry re-used from a previous mascot contest. If this entry had multiple entrants, then all entrants must be included on the re-entry, with permission from all of them. 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.)

Voting process

Selection: The two winners 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. Because the contest rules allow a person to be an entrant on up to two entries, we limit an entrant to winning only one award. Therefore, if an entry winning an award would result in any entrant sharing in more than one award, then the lower-ranked award will instead be bumped down to the next entry in the ranking order that would satisfy this requirement. In the event of one or more ties in the result rankings that must be resolved in order to determine any award, the Kumoricon board will vote to resolve any such ties 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 winners), and then announce the winners at Closing Ceremonies at Kumoricon 2019.

Administrivia

Prizes for multiple entrants: If there are multiple entrants on a winning entry, then the entrants must decide amongst themselves how they will choose or apportion their prize. We will correspond with the primary entrant and treat their communication with us as final regarding decisions over choices of prizes or which entrant to deliver or award any part of the prize to.

Disqualification: In our sole discretion, we may disqualify any entry if it is unsuitable, if any of its entrants violate the rules, or if we discover a legal issue impeding the intellectual property transfer or Kumoricon's exclusive use of the art as its mascot for representation and publicity purposes. If we disqualify an entry after it has been announced as a winner, then the prize will not be awarded and the intellectual property transfer will be unwound.

Modification: We reserve the right to modify the contest rules, if the circumstances require. We will not modify the rules in a manner that violates the intent and spirit of the original rules, or that unfairly reduces your contractual rights.