GCU Community

As the last design challenge of the year and before the anticipated 2018 Founders’ Choice Awards, we have a challenge that may likely challenge your skills as a designer. It certainly did challenge me since I have a love for color, I found it difficult to focus on one color and the variations thereof.  So here we go – and – be sure to read the tip section for this challenge. Corrie and I have gathered some great links to help you understand this design concept and for some wonderful color palette choices.

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Theme: Monochromatic

Requirements:

• A monochromatic color scheme uses a single color and its Tints, Tones, and Shades
  
• No Achromatic: a color scheme without a color. Achromatic color schemes use only Black, White, and shades of Gray for this challenge.
• Write your own verse/message, be creative and write a message that clearly speaks to your imagery, the holiday category and recipient.
• Blank verse will not be considered for entry in this challenge.

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Entry Deadline: Friday, November 30^th

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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:

Any that is well-suited for your Monochromatic design.

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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: November 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.
• Your designs should differ from those already offered in the category of your choice to offer shoppers a variety of choices, not more of the same.

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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 – nearly 56,000 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: 2K!
• 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!
• NEW starting this month, GCU will create a Meet the Team board for the winning artist under the Pinterest GCU account where the winning artist will be able to pin and promote her own storefront and all that makes them a unique card designer and one of GCU’s artistic community team member.
• Winning card will be posted on GCU’s Instagram with 2,000 followers and counting!
• GCU will create a Meet the Team board for the winning artist under the Pinterest GCU account where the winning artist will be able to pin and promote her own storefront and all that makes them a unique card designer and one of GCU’s artistic community team member.

2^nd 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!
• Winning card will be posted on GCU’s Instagram with 2,000 followers and counting!

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Tips:

• How to Design with Monochromatic Colors
• Color Theory 101: Harmonious Color Schemes
• Create Color Palettes at Color.Adobe.com
• Create Color Palettes at Paletton.com
• Rainbow Connection: Designing with a Monochromatic Color Scheme
• Rainbow Connection: Monochromatic Color Inspiration**

**Before any of you get started on your design, be sure to read and understand what monochromatic design is all about and note that not all of the color palettes shown in this blog post would work for the Monochromatic challenge. Only the single variations of one color – and that will be what our design calls for – choosing one color and using only the shades, tones and/or tints to create a monochromatic design. The palettes in this post which show a mixture of colors would not be allowed in the challenge.

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Be inspired to create and learn something new!

by Doreen Erhardt©