Mascot Contest

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

The winning 2024 mascot will be prominently used in Kumoricon art and publicity material for the 2024 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.)

Entry galleries for previous contests

Mascot Contest entries for Kumoricon 2006–2023

Contest rules and entry contract

Dates and prizes

Entry deadline: Sunday, October 8, 2023, 11:59pm, Pacific Time. There is a one-hour grace period, and then the form will automatically close.

Award: Your choice between a VIP membership for Kumoricon 2024 –or– a no-cost Artist Alley table at Kumoricon 2024

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 a single person, or multiple people entering jointly) accept these rules and contract, including the intellectual property provisions. For multiple people 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, if you 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 a minor (under age 18 or the age of majority in your jurisdiction) 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 a minor.

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 people listed as entrants. This means:

• No "fan art": Your entry may not be based on or include others' characters or industry characters (except Ghost Neko as described below).
• No generative AI: Your entry may not contain any portion generated by AI technology that determines or creates expressive elements.

Intellectual property transfer for winner: When we officially announce the contest winner, then the 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 the winner, all non-winning entrants are relieved of this commitment.

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

Kumoricon's exclusive publicity use: The winning mascot entry is 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 having been a mascot for another convention, or entered into another convention’s mascot contest where all entries are subject to intellectual property transfer).

Ghost Neko: Kumoricon grants you permission to incorporate Ghost Neko into any art that you intend to enter into the contest.

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 or any entry art containing Ghost Neko (regardless of winning status). You may continue to do these personal and portfolio uses even if your entry wins and after the intellectual property transfer occurs.

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. Additional chibi poses may be included if you'd like.

Theme: Entries should thematically represent Kumoricon. We encourage entries to include Kumoricon themes such as clouds, an umbrella, Ghost Neko, and/or our primary colors blue and white.

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

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

Changes and re-entries

Updating your entry: You may 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 under the previous rule. If you do this, you must specify on the entry form what year the entry was most recently entered. (If you don't remember which year, you can review previous entry galleries.)

Voting process

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 ultimate winner will be decided from among the tied winners either by the discretionary decision of the Director of Publicity or by using another process and method of our choosing.

Announcement: After voting, we'll post the entry gallery (without yet announcing the winner), and then we expect to announce the winner at Closing Ceremonies at Kumoricon 2023.

Administrivia

Prizes for multiple entrants: If there are multiple entrants on the 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 choice 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 the winner, then the prize will not be awarded and the intellectual property transfer will be unwound.

Postponement: This contest selects the mascot for the 2024 convention. The 2023 convention has already had its mascot selected by a previous contest. Therefore, if Kumoricon 2023 is not held as an in-person convention on November 17–19, 2023, for any reason, then we may, in our sole discretion, either push back the results of this contest so that it applies to the next in-person convention for which a mascot contest has not selected a winner, or cancel the contest. If we push back the contest, we may, in our sole option, re-open the contest for additional entries. If we cancel the contest, we may, in our sole option, hold a brand new contest or select the mascot in a different way.

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.