Design Slashdot's New T-Shirt and Win Cool Stuff!

It's been some time since we had a new shirt design for folks to buy, and it's time to change that. More specific guidelines for the contest follow, but in short, we're taking design submissions starting immediately. Winners will get a $75 credit at ThinkGeek, as well as 3 copies of of their t-shirt design. Winners will be chosen by me.

Technical Specs

• Designs should be for Black or White shirts. Or even better, both!
• No larger than 12" wide by 15" high
• No more than 5 colors (Black & White Count as Colors People!)
• Entries must be either 300 DPI Bitmap (JPG, PNG, Tiff etc), or Vector Format (PS, EPS, PDF)

General Recomendations

• I strongly recommend the use of Slashdot's favorite shade of green in any design submission. Slashdot's "Green" is 006666 in hex. 0,102,102 in RGB. Entries will not be excluded for failing to use the green, but I like it, and I'm the judge!
• You can try anything: From witty slogans to fancy design.
• Avoid photographs & shadows since they don't print very well at 5 colors.
• Parody is fine, but I'd rather designs be original.

How to Submit?

• Email tshirts at cmdrtaco.net, and provide a URL to your design(s). If this isn't possible, you may attach your submission to an email.
• Winners will be selected in a few weeks by Rob "CmdrTaco" Malda (Me!) based on their creativity and design.
• There may be more than one winner if there are several good entries! I have permission to select as many as 3 winners if there are many good entries!

Prizes!

• The submittor of each winning design will get $75 credit at ThinkGeek
• 3 Copies of your T-Shirt Design
• Bragging rights at LUGs, CompSci Labs, Cubicle Farms, and Tech Tradeshows around the world.

Finally our lawyer demands that you read the Official Rules. Do it!

What prize???

[ChaoticChaos]

A $75 credit at ThinkGeek won't buy one thing!

Re:What prize???

[JSkills]

You can get a case of Red Bull for $39. That's a couple of weeks (or less, depending on who you are) of brain food for you right there son.

This is total BS

[Anonymous Coward]

Slashdot is NOT some poor homebrew low budget site. /. is owned by a major corporation that is going to make a fortune on these shirts and they expect some chump will design them for a mere $75?

Give the winner 10% of the profit and then you might have something interesting here.

Re:This is total BS

[(54)T-Dub]

Or they could have eliminated the $75 and the 3 free t-shirts and they would still get plenty of designs.

It's not about the prize, it's about the status.

Re:This is total BS

[VonSnaggle]

I remember those shirts when I was a kid "My parents went to Hawaiiand all I got was this lousy t-shirt", well how about:

"I designed Slashdot's new T-Shirt and All I got was this Lousy shirt (and a $75 gift certificate)"

Re:What prize???

[baggachipz]

http://elektron.its.tudelft.nl/~aakeur21/title.gif [tudelft.nl]

Re:What prize???

[hesiod]

Hey! I'm only 25!

GIVE THE WINNERS A CUT, DAMNIT

[xlurker]

This totally stinks.
If your design is good enough, they use it and everybody buys it; what do you get?
less than $100
If your design is so good they should give you a cut. period.

Re:What prize???

[pi radians]

I'd enter if I wasn't totally lacking in artistic ability :-)

I'd enter if I wasn't totally lacking in american ability.

Re:What prize???

[pizzaman100]

Those states don't allow people to enter swepstakes if there is a a "fee" to enter.

The "fee" in the case of Slashdot would be the requirement of submitting a T-Shirt design.

Here are some other examples:

Weight loss sweepstakes [yahoo.com]

Fantasy sports [yahoo.com]

Sports Cards [upperdecke...inment.com]

Question for Taco or others

[Raindance]

What fonts is the graphic

Slashdot
News for Nerds. Stuff that matters.

Done with?

Re:Question for Taco or others

[Anonymous Coward]

More importantly

No larger than 12" wide by 15" high

Considering the average /.'ers girth, surely those size limits should be, well, made a tad more generous?

Re:Question for Taco or others

[Equuleus42]

Font geek to the rescue! May I refer you to my post [slashdot.org]? The word "Slashdot" is in Coliseo, and the "News for Nerds" part appears to be in Arial or Helvetica.

Huh???

[Creepy Crawler]

>>>Bragging rights at LUGs, CompSci Labs, Cubicle Farms, and Tech Tradeshows around the world.

Does that mean you'll also hire a personal bodyguard for the mockery and continual muggings?

If so, IM IN!!(snortchuckle)

How about...

[Anonymous Coward]

...the ascii goatse with "I read Slashdot at -1"?

Re:How about...

[ThrasherTT]

the ascii goatse

I thought that was considered ASSCI art...

My submission

[kmahan]

I submit the old t-shirt design. The editors won't notice.

Re:My submission

[JediTrainer]

I submit the old t-shirt design. The editors won't notice.

Even the bloody shirts will be DUPES! Dammit, man, that'd be just a little too real for me.

What we need is a Beowulf cluster in Soviet Russia figuring out why the secret to life, the universe and everything seems to have something to do with Natalie Portman petrified, and hot grits. 42 of 'em, I guess.

Aren't we the ones buying it?

[ASAPnetworks]

er.. Since we're the ones buying the shirts.. shouldn't we be the ones voting for it? Have something like all members get one vote and all Anonymous Cowards can eat poop!

Re:Aren't we the ones buying it?

[JUSTONEMORELATTE]

Since we're the ones buying the shirts.. shouldn't we be the ones voting for it?

Don't be silly. What's next, readers moderating the story submission queue? Catching dupes? Fixing typographical errors? Posting Google Cache links or no-registration partner links to NYT articles?

That's crazy talk, man!

--

Judges

[fobbman]

"The Judge shall be Rob "CmdrTaco" Malda.

Why do I feel like the first place entry will be merely a repost of the second place entry, only with misspellings?

hmmm

[Tumbleweed]

So I wonder how many variations on 'first post', 'imagine a beowulf cluster of...' and suchlike there shall be...it's inconceivable! (yes, that word does mean that I think it means)

Re:hmmm

[TeknoHog]

Imagine...
..a Beowulf cluster
of these!
|
|
V

easy

[chef_raekwon]

this one's easy:

Im' with the SlashDORK ---->

Re:easy

[Anonymous Coward]

Nonono

Slashdot THIS!
|
|
V

Re:easy

[Richard_at_work]

That on the front or the back of the shirt?

well...

[Jucius Maximus]

If I did some hardcore vector re-tracing, I'm sure I could make a submission that forces Rob to look at the goatse image and judge it for, uh, artistic merit?

Someone already managed to get a version of it

[Anonymous Coward]

into their local paper [b3ta.com] as a kid's drawing symbolising "unity"...

Deadline is August 1st...?

[Jin Wicked]

Didn't see it mentioned anywhere in the article posted... had to look at the "official" rules. :)

Re:Deadline is August 1st...?

[Adam9]

Hmm I also found this:

Residents of Vermont, Arizona, Tennessee and Puerto Rico are not eligible to participate in the Contest.

I wonder why..

Re:Deadline is August 1st...?

[stefanlasiewski]

Vermont, Arizona, Tennessee and Puerto Rico

CmdrTaco was threatened by the T-shirt mafia in those states...

Re:Deadline is August 1st...?

[Zapman]

Laws in those states prohibit such contests. If you read almost any contest rules, they will have the exact same verbage.

Read the T&C's!

[RobertTaylor]

This Contest is for United States residents only.

Aw crap!

Re:Read the T&C's!

[odyrithm]

so much for the internet being a world wide thing uh?

Re:Read the T&C's!

[Transient0]

I propose a submission proxy system.

Anyone who is a United States resident that would not mind taking a very small amount of work onto their hands and does not plan on entering the contest themselves, post contact information (preferably an e-mail address to this thread).

Anyone who wants to enter the contest but is not a United States resident, forward your desired entry on to the posted contact information.

Any U.S. resident proxy submitter may either accept or deny any offered submission as their one allowable submission under the official contest rules. In either case, it is polite to respond as promptly as possible so that the artist may offer their design to another proxy submitter.

In the case that a proxy submission wins, it shall be a gentleman's agreement that the proxy submitter is entitled to one t-shirt and $25 of the ThinkGeek gift certificate. The other two t-shirts and $50 should be mailed to the orignal designer (designer to pay postage).

Anyway, it's just an idea. I myself am a Canadian resident and will be quite happy to submit an entry in this fashion if any U.S. residents like the idea.

Re:Read the T&C's!

[blowhole]

Dear Transient0:

Your plans for proxy-submission are in violation of the DMCA (see: circumvention device). Cease and desist immediately or face legal action.

Sincerely,
You know who we are!

P.S. YVAN EHT NIOJ!

Re:Read the T&C's!

[mandolin]

Dear Transient0,

I am the newly appointed Finance and Accounts Director of INTC, meaning, Independent Nigerian T-Shirt Corporation. This organization, INTC is the sole body that produces T-Shirts and T-Shirt designs in my country Nigeria.

We have several winning slashdot T-Shirt designs, unfortunately as top civil servants of the Nigerian government establishment we are not allowed to enter them in the slashdot T-Shirt contest.

Therefore we have a proposal for you, which we hope you will accept.

re: read the T&Cs!

[ed.han]

nope; they were sold off last night in a bid to raise money to support for prosecuting the war on [noun].

might i suggest reading another news site that isn't slashdot? :>

ed

Pretty underhanded way to get cheap design ;)

[spybreak]

Say 10 or so hours design.. works out at maybe 7 bucks an hour!! But I guess given the economy most designers have some free time on their hands ;)

Sounds kewl.

[glh]

But... Do we have to use GIMP to design it?? :)

old shirt?

[napdawger42]

Can we see a link to the old shirt? I wasn't even aware there was an official slashdot shirt. That will also let potential designers see what's been done already.

Re:old shirt?

[gniv]

I have no mod points, so I'll just second that. Anyone has it?

All I could find was this: we pot the o in .org [geekt.org]

Re:old shirt?

[gosquad]

You can see my winning entry (it's the first one) from the 1999 contest here:

http://redmenace.org/slashdot/ [redmenace.org]

I have one that I never wore.. It'll be going on ebay August 2nd as a collector's item.. :)

-gosquad

How about...

[geekee]

I submitted this design to slashdot, and all I got was this lousy t-shirt (and a $75 gift certificate) :-)

Re:How about...

[chef_raekwon]

i read this on someone's sig:

Karma 50, and all I got was this lousy T-Shirt

The Slashdot font

[Equuleus42]

The typeface that Slashdot uses in its current logo is called Coliseo and can be downloaded here [themeworld.com]... A sample image of the font is here [themeworld.com].

Increase Your Odds of Winning

[Tha_Big_Guy23]

Submit the same Tshirt design once, wait a couple of hours, submit it again, then wait a few more hours and submit it a third time. They'll forget it was you....


go ahead... mod me down.. you know you want to.

goatse

[iso]

Regardless of the design, I think a tshirt with the following on the back would be pretty funny:

click here! [goatse.cx]

Unfortuantely /. doesn't allow the <u> tag, but you get the point.

So if you wear that shirt,

[pecosdave]

then someone taps you on the back, do you have to stop, drop your pants, bend over and well, open wide?

I'm damn sure not buying one that says click here for goatse.cx

I wouldn't do that even under doctors orders.

Re:goatse

[donutz]

at the risk of being modded down...I've underlined it for you:

Regardless of the design, I think a tshirt with the following on the back would be pretty funny:

click here! [slashdot.org]

Unfortuantely /. doesn't allow the tag, but you get the point.

Go ahead and steal this idea ...

[SuperDuG]

On the front in standarad courier font:

"SLASHDOT.ORG"

And on the back:

"Trolls, Dupes, and a little news"

OR

Front:
"Sexy Girls Naked Online
(see back for details)"

Back:

"Sucka, all we got is
goatse.cx trolls ...
slashdot.org"

OR

Front: |.

Back: Slashdot.org
get bent

I am releasing these ideas under the open content and dual licensing them with creative commons. Have at um.

Here's one.

[teamhasnoi]

In the largest letters possible:

Slashdot: (Score:5, Troll)

I want one already!

I was thinking more long the lines of...

[psxndc]

Front:

Slashdot

Back:

-1 Overrated

psxndc

karma whoring

[grazzy]

1) Design slashdot t-shirt
2) ...
3) Karma!

Well at least

[digitalsushi]

Can you figure out how to make these slashdot tshirts not magically start smelling like body order after 5 to 6 days of use? Oh, and make them out of 100% cotton, too- I don't need slashdot messing with my open sores!

Re:Well at least

[freeweed]

Can you figure out how to make these slashdot tshirts not magically start smelling like body order after 5 to 6 days of use?

Already done. In english-speaking countries it's called "laundry".

We want to see the entries

[Anonymous Coward]

Here's a suggestion - mirror the entries on /. somewhere so we can all see them (you could even be democratic and put your top choices in a poll and let us vote)

New T-Shirt design

[nother_nix_hacker]

"I trolled at /. and all I got was this lousy T-Shirt"

A unique approach?

[TrollBridge]

I don't know about the rest of you, but I'm going for a games.slashdot.org design, done on a t-shirt of the most horrid, offensive, seziure-inducing purple I can find.

Re:A unique approach?

[Monthenor]

Or how about pure "overlay" purple, so when digital cameras pick us up we become transparent? That would be awesome.

Alternative favourite color

[BetterThanCaesar]

Games section purple, 3300CC.

Slashdot Green?

[metalhed77]

What? Do we want to be insulted for poor taste before we get beaten up for wearing these shirts?

This Shade of green on white is quite, ummm, vomitous.

Hmmm....

[Dj]

I gave up my
IP rights in
this logo
and all I
got was this
lousy t-shirt.

Slasdot Membership Credit

[BigGar']

Don't you think that a slashdot membership for a year should be in the prize pack as well?

Re:Slasdot Membership Credit

[somethingwicked]

But that would suggest that there is somekind of value to a /. subscription...

While your at it throw in a Taco big toe nail (lightly chewed) and some CowboyNeal bellybutton lint (size large)

Hey /...

[dasmegabyte]

You *DO* know that "computer colours" aren't very accurate, right? As in, not at all accurate, due to everybody on the planet having different contrast, brightness and gamma settings on their monitors?

Hell, the green is different from my laptop to my pc. By a longshot. On the mac, it's nearly the intensity of a grass green and blends into white nicely. On the PC, it's more subdued and hides the shadow on the logo.

Get a pantone book and tell us the colour that most closely matches what YOU think the green should look like. Otherwise, you're telling us you want to see the world through our eyes.

actually thats wrong... HEX is fine.

[deft]

The hex for the color is the same everywhere, just like pantone is. Because your monitor isnt viewing it the same as I am, doesnt mean that the hex value has changed. In theory, if we calibrated correctly, it would be the same.

If what you said was true, then every printed brochure with slightly different hue would mean that the "pantone colors" aren't very accurate... you *DO* know that that you shouldn't blame the output medium, right?

But, just so you can move on, here's the CMYK, cleverly gathered from looking to the right of the hex value in Photoshop:

C90%
M42%
Y55%
K22%

He also mentioned the

R0
G102
B102

Now go make a t-shirt.

Re:actually thats wrong... HEX is fine.

[ChuckleBug]

The hex for the color is the same everywhere, just like pantone is. Because your monitor isnt viewing it the same as I am, doesnt mean that the hex value has changed. In theory, if we calibrated correctly, it would be the same

Wrong. If we had 2 different monitors that were both calibrated, we would still see different colors for the same RGB or CMYK values. RGB and CMYK are not colors, just device settings, and each device has its own interpretation of those values. That's why jpgs and tiffs support tagging with profiles. They define the actual colors the image is supposed to have.

All calibrating does is make a monitor profile that will properly display Lab colors, which come from the image's profile or color space.

Yum... Natlie portman....

[sdriver]

...with hot grits down the pants... ...being poured by a troll... ...telling me why we should make a beowulf of these!

Re:Yum... Natlie portman....

[Jack Comics]

You know, a Slashdot tee shirt featuring Natalie Portman would sell like hot cakes, 'cause that's the only method any Slashdotter could ever possibly have to get Natalie to touch his body. The real Natalie would run screaming in horror.

Troll shirt

[Junior J. Junior III]

I want a shirt design that incorporates Natalie Portman, Beowulf Clusters, the Goatse Guy, and All Your Base in Soviet Russia.

RGB or CMYK?

[superflippy]

You gave us RGB colors in the specs, so I'm assuming you want the entries in RGB color mode? Or am I allowed to submit a design in CMYK, to ensure that the final design gets printed in the colors I had in mind? And on that subject, how fancy can we get within the 5-color rule? Are metallic inks OK? Please let me know what's allowable.

Interesting...

[nepheles]

"To receive additional copies of these Official Rules, or a Prize Winner list, send a self-addressed stamped envelope to: Open Source Development Network, Inc., 47071 Bayside Parkway, Fremont, CA 94538; Attention Slashdot T-Shirt Design Contest. Specify Prize Winner list and/or Official Rules on your request. Replies will be sent after the completion of the Contest." - Official rules

Ah, yes. Requesting rules after the competition ends. Sounds like those slashdot Eds again.

My idea

[inertia187]

Slashdot: 1010001001101110010 geeks can't be wrong.

I win

[wizarddc]

I Have No Torso
You Insensitive Clod!

I win.

but i hold the patent ...

[*weasel]

for electronically announced and judged t-shirt design competitions.

bezos helped me fill out the paperwork.

How about:

[el-spectre]

"I wore this _exact_ shirt last week, but no one noticed..."

b0w b4 m3!!!

[IntelliTubbie]

That certificate is as good as mine:
_____ _____
/ \___/ \
/ /| |\ \
/__/ | /. | \__\
| |
| |
| |
|_________|

Beat that! Mess with the best, die like the rest! Sorry folks, contest over, move along...

Cheers,
IT

Winners get $75, Slashdot gets rich

[Anonymous Coward]

Design your own shirts, you bottom feeders. :-)
According to the Graphic Artists Guild Handbook Pricing and Ethical Guidelines 10th edition (published in 2001), page 340,
t-shirts:
$150-$250 for concept,
$250-$1,000 for design, and
$250-$1400 for complete design.
Fees are for each design; ranges reflect design complexity, size, and number of colors.

Compensate the winners accordingly dudes!
At $2.50 per shirt to produce, and selling at $15 - $20 per shirt, there's no excuse for not to.

By the way, I highly recommend the above book. (includes info on web design, programming, contracts, and negotiation as well)
It seems that pricing is one of the areas people are weakest at.
Web and Software Development a legal guide by Fisman (Nolo) is very good too.

Fan/Freak

[sulli]

How about a custom shirt with your user name and your choice of Friend/Foe and Fan/Freak icons? I would love one with Foe and Freak, to scare the other geeks away.

My awesome submission

[baggachipz]

http://elektron.its.tudelft.nl/~aakeur21/title.gif

Random t-shirt sighting...

[jerkychew]

Yeah, this is off-topic. Mod as necessary...

I was watching the news the other day, where some little girl drowned in a lake. The guy that found her was being interviewed, and he was wearing a slashdot shirt.

My first response when I saw the guy was, "Hey! Cool!", which was just a bit inappropriate for the situation, I was informed. :-)

Very simple

[mrpuffypants]

on the front a little "construction" style sign that says

WARNING!
If this shirt dissapears then it has just been slashdotted.

Back: Continue to hammer me until I respond.

This idea is free to anybody, unless it's chosen whereby it becomes prior art :)

Those aren't colors! Really.

[ChuckleBug]

I strongly recommend the use of Slashdot's favorite shade of green in any design submission. Slashdot's "Green" is 006666 in hex. 0,102,102 in RGB. Entries will not be excluded for failing to use the green, but I like it, and I'm the judge!

Actually, those values don't represent colors. They're device settings, and they will display different colors on different devices, since they all have different gamuts and different RGB -> Output color matching. This is the reason for ICC profiles.

If you want to define the color, you need to measure it and post Lab values, which represent actual color. So if the standard is, say, Taco's monitor, you should make a patch of the appropriate color in Photoshop and assign your montor profile. Then convert the image to Lab and report that color. Then you will have truly defined Slashdot green.

For further explanation, check out this article on our web site:

The Color of Toast [chromix.com]

Not a T-shirt...

[PCM2]

...a baseball cap.

Back has little Slashdot logo. Front reads, "Karma Cap."

Thankew, thankewverymuch, I'll be here all week...

/. hypocrisy

[gmhowell]

By submitting your Entry you hereby agree to the following terms: The Design will be deemed a "work made for hire", as that phrase is used in the United States copyright law, and all right, title and interest in and to the Design will vest automatically in Sponsor. To the extent the Design is not deemed to be a "work made for hire," You hereby assign, transfer and convey, and agree to further assign, transfer and convey, to Sponsor any and all your intellectual property rights in the Design. ...

You agree that if you are chosen as a Prize Winner you shall promptly sign any documents reasonably requested by Sponsor to evidence or perfect its rights in the Design, such as a hard copy of these Official Rules, before you are eligible to collect the Prize.

Entries become the property of the Sponsor and will not be returned. This Contest shall be governed by California law. By participating in this Contest, entrants agree that California courts shall have jurisdiction over any dispute or litigation arising from or relating to this Contest and that venue shall be only in California....

Ah yes, once again, CT doesn't practice what he preaches. First, it took him forever and a day to release the slash source. Now it seems that the open content license (and similar) don't really exist. The rules for this contest say, in effect, AYBABTU. Don't feed the trolls. Don't feed Rob. And tell the VA keiretsu to go fuck themselves.

Whatever, I'm sure the slashkids will submit and be bought out for $75 worth of overpriced stuff from ThinkGeek. You're the same people who scream about the MPAA, but line up for The Matrix. (Yes, I know slash is not some monolithic entity. Save it.)

Flame me, mod me down, but know in your heart that Rob (and his corporate masters) have just snubbed OSS and its principals. Again.

Re:/. hypocrisy

[SuiteSisterMary]

Yes, because otherwise, you submit your idea, they like it, you win, they print the tshirts, then you sue them for 'copying' your design.

Most of the laws on the books are of the 'once bitten, twice shy' variety.

Profit!

[neonstz]

1) Design T-shirt
2) ???
3) Profit!!!

T-shirt design, 3 colors, then 5

[kobotronic]

Only too happy to contribute, so here goes - t-shirt design entry, all vector, should print easy.

It started as a 3-color design, but ended up as a 5-color design [kobotica.com] once I read the happy-fun and absolutely agreeable T&C's. Yay! Lawyers!

Please don't...

[BigJimSlade]

I strongly recommend the use of Slashdot's favorite shade of green in any design submission.

I strongly recommend not using the bright fucking purple from games.slashdot.org [slashdot.org]. I don't want to burn out anybody's retinas.

Serious Question

[jcsehak]

If we don't win, do you still get the IP rights to the design? Because my idea isn't Slashdot-specific, and i'd like to make a shirt of it someday, if no one else does. So if you're going to claim ownership of something you're not going to use, then forget it - I'll come up with something else.

My entry...

[embobo]

A day in the life of /. [lanfear.net]

Re:006666?

[ePhil_One]

That last 6 set the evil bits.

Re:006666?

[Albanach]

Looking at the rules, the evil bits are in Vermont, Arizona, Tennessee, Puerto Rico and The Rest Of The World - all of whom are not allowed to enter the competition.

I'm sure we'll still be allowed to buy the t-shirt though.

Re:006666?

[Anonymous Coward]

There should be a Mod point of (-1, Didn't get the Joke)

Official Rules

[cruppel]

You hereby assign, transfer and convey [...] to Sponsor any and all your intellectual property rights in the Design.

I knew it!!! SCO is sponsoring this contest...

Re:My suggestion

[PapaZit]

Option 1: Implement it your own damned self.

Option 2: Shut up.

Sheesh. "I have an idea, but not enough talent to follow through. If anyone else does have the talent, I want something for spouting off for 10 seconds!"

Re:Would this be allowed?

[Creepy Crawler]

Cmon. It was a joke. A JOKE.

In large print

[pecosdave]

*Copy right of this T-Shirt in dispute, see SCO.com for details.

This shirt produced without patents, however Amazon has a few patents pending on the concept of printing T-Shirts.

UGH!!!!

[autopr0n]

Damn dude, you totaly fucked that up. Should have used some san-serif font like Verdana or Ariel for the exclamation point, not that fugly thing.