Dash of Inspiration: March 2016 Design Challenge
Our March 2016 Winners are:
1st Place goes to Sun At Night Studios with PID 1426534
©Sun At Night Studios – 1st Place Winner
2nd Place is Awarded to: Stacia Gorge with PID 1429314
©Stacia Gorge – 2nd Place Winner
February is now over, all your exciting new cards have been entered into “The Race is On” Challenge and the judges will begin deliberating over those designs beginning today. In the meantime, it’s time for us to move on to the March Dash of Inspiration Design Challenge. You ready? Here we go …
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Theme: Business Classic Expressions
This month’s challenge will help fill a category at GCU which could use a fresh infusion of great cards. Business terms and buzz words (phrases) are popular right now in the world of corporate business and that’s what this challenge is asking you to create.
Requirements:
- A strong business message on both the card front and inside verse is required.
- The imagery must have a professional look and overall feel. Any medium is acceptable.
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Entry Deadline: Thursday, March 31st, 2016
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How to Enter: Post the PID (card number) and the URL (public storefront link – please WAIT for the card to be available in the public marketplace, please DO NOT post a link to your Manage Cards area) as a post in the challenge blog. We’ll forward your entry to the jury.
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Category: Business > Business Favorites Cards > Classic Expressions
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Rules:
- Submission must meet GCU’s Submission Guidelines and be Approved through the usual Review Cycle– Fast Track your submission with this in the Notes to Reviewer: March Design Challenge Submission here is the link to the blog post: (include THIS blog post URL)
- Only ONE card per artist per challenge.
- Submissions must be NEW, no existing designs.
- Your entry must meet the Challenge Requirements and Theme or it will not be included in the challenge.
- Stock Card Creations entries will not be accepted.
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BLIND Judging: We hope each of you enters every month. Entries are submitted anonymously for judging by the GCU Challenge Jury which means that before and during the challenge, judges do not have any way of knowing what artist is behind each entry. This eliminates any and all concerns with ‘favoritism’. Results will post on the Community Blog. The jury will judge the entries on the following criteria:
- How well the card meets the Challenge Requirements and Theme.
- How well the card speaks to the Category the artist chooses for the card submission.
- Creativity, Execution and Marketability.
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Winners: 1st Place:
- The winning designer’s card and store will be featured on the GCU Public Blog – the blog which customers view and follow.
- As well as featured on the GCU Public Facebook Page – over 28,000 followers, now THAT’S exposure!
- The winning card will be Design of the Day following the announcement of the winners (within 48-hours).
EXCEPTION: Horizontal (landscape) cards may not be featured as DOD due to GCU Home Page space restrictions. In these cases, GCU will choose a different vertically oriented card from your store to feature as DOD. Thank you for your understanding and apologies for this limitation.
- The winning card will be added to the Greeting Card Universe Design Challenge Winners Pinterest Board – currently GCU’s Pinterest Page followers: 1.3K!
- The winning card, should the artist choose, may be referenced in a new series by the winning artist and he/she may Fast Track all cards in the new series (being sure to give the Challenge URL and winning card PID in your Notes to Reviewer for each card in this series).
- Winning card will be included in a marketing email to over 100,000 customers!
- Winning card will be Twitted to GCU’s followers which is over 1,500 and growing.
2nd Place:
- Your submission will be Design of the Day the following week of announcing the Challenge winners (within 7-days).
EXCEPTION: Horizontal (landscape) cards may not be featured as DOD due to GCU Home Page space restrictions. In these cases, GCU will choose a different vertically oriented card from your store to feature as DOD. Thank you for your understanding and apologies for this limitation.
- Your card will be added to the Greeting Card Universe Design Challenge Winners Pinterest Board.
- Winning card will be included in a marketing email to over 100,000 customers!
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Tips:
The tips this month are for places to research for this challenge theme.
- 52 Most Common Business Idioms from the New York Times
- The Most Common Business Idioms
- 40 Useful Business English Expressions
- Thesaurus of Business and Management Terms
- Top Trending Business Buzzwords in 2015
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Here is my example for this month’s theme:
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Get creative! Be inspired! Have fun!
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Thank you to all our participants:
Here goes: http://www.greetingcarduniverse.com/business/business-favorites/classic-expressions/encouragement-in-new-job-business-1425060?aid=180150
Hi Cisillia, received and entered, good luck!
Hi Doreen, here’s mine for the month pid# 1425172, http://www.greetingcarduniverse.com/business/business-favorites/classic-expressions/business-classic-expressions-urban-overpowering-1425172 Congratulations to Stephanie and Julia, well deserved wins! Good luck to all who participate this month, I’m sure they will all be great! Laurie
Hi Laurie, received and entered, good luck to you too!
Hi Doreen, here is my entry for March pid#1425598
http://www.greetingcarduniverse.com/business/business-favorites/classic-expressions/thank-you-for-thinking-outside-1425598?aid=132125
Hi Sandy! Nice to have you join in the fun! Your entry has been received, good luck.
For clarification these cards should be single words or brief statements that are business oriented. A concept, expression or term that is used as reflection, inspiration or motivation in a business environment. They should not be occasion specific but a card that could be used at any time for any reason.
We are reassessing the other subcategories under Business Favorites as there appears to be some confusion and overlap (>>Business Terms and >> Inspirational). This however should not impact your design submissions. If we reorganize or consolidate we’ll make sure your cards are in the right place and eligible for the challenge.
Thank you, Mindy for the clarification. It is a bit confusing and your assistance to help the artists with their challenge entries is greatly appreciated!
Entry: PID 1426534 http://www.greetingcarduniverse.com/business/business-favorites/classic-expressions/patterns-of-change-classic-1426534
Mindy – your clarification really helped! I had just found this subcategory about a month ago. I was looking to do something different. But I was reluctant due to the ambiguity of the other subcategories. In my head I defined it as “non-occasion cards” which seem to kick-start my cognitive mental processes. Thank you!
So nice to have you enter this month, Sun At Night! Your entry has been received, good luck!
Hi Doreen,
My entry this month is a chalkboard card (always my favorite) with the business expression, ‘excellence’. Good luck to everyone!
PID:1426676
http://www.greetingcarduniverse.com/business/business-favorites/classic-expressions/retro-chalkboard-excellence-for-business-1426676?aid=269112
Take care,
Julia
Entry received, Julia, good luck!
Hello, well I hope this card fits into the category business classic expressions. Where I work, we promote made in USA, so that is what I went with. Anyways, the challenges are always fun! Good luck everyone! http://www.greetingcarduniverse.com/business/business-favorites/classic-expressions/quality-made-in-the-usa-1427392?aid=276330
Your entry has been received, Michelle. Glad you joined us and good luck!
Hi, here’s my business entry. A little unusual phrase, but one I’ve heard from business people meeting at Starbuck’s and discussing their most recent business plan together.
Good luck all, Teri
We need the public marketplace link, Teri 🙂
I’ll try that again – I placed the Sell This Card Link there and it disappeared! Here’s the correct link to my card:
http://www.greetingcarduniverse.com/business/business-favorites/business-terms/business-favorite-expression/lets-run-1427136
Thanks! 🙂
Got it, Teri, thank you! Your entry has been received and entered, good luck.
Hi Doreen,
Here is my entry :
http://www.greetingcarduniverse.com/business/business-favorites/classic-expressions/business-buzzwords-it-factor-amplify-1428454
It’s a collection of 2016 buzzwords all rolled into one 🙂
At first, nothing came to mind since most of these buzzwords can be quite abstract. But the pondering and mulling it over in my head was fun!
🙂 Barbara
Glad to hear we made your put your thinking cap on this round, Barbara 🙂 Your entry has been received, good luck!
Whew, I made it! This month really got away from me. I started this design in the beginning of the month and didn’t realize how fast the time flew. Here is my entry
http://www.greetingcarduniverse.com/business/business-favorites/classic-expressions/business-expressions-custom-business-name-1429004?&aid=145102
Time does fly, glad you made it! Your entry has been received, good luck, Betsy.
Like Teri, my posting seems not to be showing; I didn’t get a verification from WordPress either. I will try again here & modify the way I’m posting to see if it makes a difference. (If you get duplicates, please just delete them):
http://www.greetingcarduniverse.com/business/business-favorites/classic-expressions/integrity-is-what-grows-our-1429314
Thanks!
Yay! It looks like it worked! It seems that perhaps we can’t have a referral code in the link to our stores/websites anymore(?) that displays when hovering over our names.
Hi Stacia, well I’d guess with the results that both you and Teri found this round, it’s no doubt changes or bugs within WordPress. Glad you both were persistent! Your entry has been received, in the nick of time, good luck!
Thanks – I submitted it the day before this time! Not quite the “at least two days ahead of time” that I had planned, but my trajectory is improving! 😉 Thanks for offering these challenges; they’re fun!
LOL! Glad you enjoy them and we’re happy you join us.
Congratulations Sun at Night for your first place win! And to you, Stacia, for taking second place!
Congratulations, Sun at Night on a well-deserved win! Congratulations Stacia, on your second place! Both were excellent cards! Take care, Laurie
Congratulations Sun at Night and Stacia!
Congratulations Sun at Night and Stacia for your winning designs!
Teri
Congratulations, Sun at Night and Stacia! Great cards and ideas!
Thanks, Betsy, Laurie, Julia, Teri, & Barbara! And super congrats to Sun At Night Studios!