The next PSDTUTS design contest launches today! We’re announcing the "Solving Poverty" Button Design Contest. This is a fun contest to support this years Blog Action Day theme, raise awareness about the issues surrounding global poverty, and empower designers to make a positive difference in the world. Learn all about the contest and how to enter at the jump!

About the Contest

As visual artists we have skills that can help change the world. Poverty is not only a pressing issue, it is a complex one. It’s easy to think that there isn’t much an individual can do. Fortunately this isn’t the case at all. There is a range of activities one can contribute to a cause. In this contest we’ll be contributing our graphic talent to create buttons. These button designs will both raise awareness and contribute funds directly to help entrepreneurs in developing countries lift themselves and their communities out of poverty.

The contest involves creating Buttons that make a positive visual statement. The buttons may use the words "Solving Poverty," or another equally uplifting message on the theme of poverty, get creative with your design and statement. As usual, you should submit your entries to the PSDTUTS Flickr group. Be sure to use the tag "solvingpoverty" for your contest entries to keep everything organized. There are no limits to the number of buttons you can create as entries in this contest.

The top 10 Buttons will be profiled on PSDTUTS, and will be available for sale on Cafepress. These buttons will then be publicized as part of Blog Action Day too. The artists behind the winning entries will receive exposure through these channels and on the sales page of Cafepress. Any money raised from the sale of buttons will also go straight to Kiva.org. Let’s make a difference today!

How to Enter

To enter the competition, contestants must submit any number of Button designs within the uplifting themes of "Solving Poverty" You must:

• Submit a high quality JPG image at the size of: 3.5 inches by 3.5 inches at 200 pixels per inch. Here is the format link and the corresponding formatting page on Cafepress.
• You must submit the image using the dimensions above. If you want to show your submission as a mocked up button design go ahead (see the tutorial Photoshop Button Maker on how to do that), but be sure to link to the image at the correct dimensions as well (If your Flickr account doesn’t allow the size needed, then submit the size you can and link to the full-size entry).
• Submit the Button design via the PSDTUTS Flickr pool, tagged “solvingpoverty”.
• Be sure to submit your entry to the PSDTUTS Flickr pool before midnight September 28th, 2008, which is when the contest ends.
• There are some things to include in the description of your Flickr entry. Such as, your name and any URL you would like linked to in case you win.
• Also, include in the description of your Flickr entry any stock or source images you have used including URLs. Be sure to only use stock images that have Extended Usage licenses that allow for distributing the winning button designs, otherwise avoid use of stock images.

Prizes

• First Place Prize:
  • $300 towards micro-loaning through the Kiva.org site.
  • Your Button Design Featured on PSDTUTS, Blog Action Day sites, and sold through Cafepress with earnings being donated to Kiva.
• Second Place Prize:
  • $200 towards micro-loaning through the Kiva.org site.
  • Your Button Design Featured on PSDTUTS, Blog Action Day sites, and sold through Cafepress with earnings being donated to Kiva.
• Third Place Prize:
  • $150 towards micro-loaning through the Kiva.org site.
  • Your Button Design Featured on PSDTUTS, Blog Action Day sites, and sold through Cafepress with earnings being donated to Kiva.
• Fourth – 10th Place Prizes:
  • Your $50 towards micro-loaning through the Kiva.org site.
  • Button Design Featured on PSDTUTS, Blog Action Day sites, and sold through Cafepress with earnings being donated to Kiva.

Terms & Conditions

• Entries into the competition must be entirely your work. If you use stock images in the composition, you must have an appropriate and extended license to use the image (an extended license needs to include reproduction and distribution within the final design rights). Be sure to place a link to the image used in the description of your Button.
• By entering this competition, you consent to your entry possibly being offered for sale on the Cafepress site, with all money raised from sales, after fees associated with using Cafepress, being donated to Kiva.
• Entries must be submitted to the PSDTUTS Flickr pool before midnight September 28th, 2008.
• The cash prizes will be donated to Kiva in the winners name. The winner will be able to lend the money to any business within Kiva they wish.
• Staff or regular writers of PSDTUTS are not eligible to enter. Occasional contributors (i.e. people who have had less than 2 tutorials published on the site) are eligible to enter.

What is Blog Action Day? And this Years Theme?

Blog Action Day is an annual nonprofit event that aims to unite the world’s bloggers, podcasters and videocasters, to post about the same issue on the same day. The aim is to raise awareness and trigger a global discussion.

The theme this year is Poverty. We invite bloggers to examine poverty from their own blog topics and perspectives, to look at it from the macro and micro, as a global condition and a local issue, and to bring their own ideas, views and opinions on the subject.

Join us on October 15th to help raise awareness and take steps toward solving global poverty.

What is Kiva.org?

Kiva.org is one of the world’s first person-to-person micro-lending websites, empowering individuals to lend directly to unique entrepreneurs in the developing world. These entrepreneurs use their loans to start businesses that lift them and their communities out of poverty. It doesn’t take much and the majority of loans are fully repaid!

When signing up for Kiva please join our lending team.

Corresponding T-shirt Design Contest on VECTORTUTS

We’re running a similar contest that will work together with this one on VECTORTUTS. Jump over to that contest announcement. The 5 winning T-Shirt designs will also work the same way with Cafepress and have similar donation based prizes. The final image needs to be delivered in the format compatible with the Cafepress site, which is pixel based, so feel free to enter that contest as well. Entries for that contest will be placed under the same tag of "solvingpoverty" but in the VECTORTUTS Flickr Pool to keep things organized.

Sponsors

New Sponsors

If you would like to sponsor the next contest then let us know. We’ll consider adding you to the list. Let us know what you could offer as a prize to the members of PSDTUTS. Think of things that digital artists or designers could utilize. Use our Contribute Form to let us know.