Categories

Three Dimensional

Two Dimensional

Vehicles

Windows, Walls & Banners

Design & Art

Electric Signs

Miscellaneous

Design Workshop Challenge

Winners

How To Vote

A. Three Dimensional - Wall

B. Three Dimensional - Ground

These two categories will include all carved, sandblasted, and/or routed signs. Materials can include HDU, MDO, sculptural, play dough, plastic, wood, cement, wax, marshmallows, sugar cubes, etc. It can be painted, stained, gilded, vinyl, wallpapered, or covered with crayon... If it has dimension, it belongs here.

The Wall category will be for all signs mounted on buildings, whether they are flat mounted, projecting, or hung from a bracket. We call it Walls because we are too lazy to type anything longer.

The Ground category will be for all monument signs and signs mounted to poles, fences, trees, etc. Fire hydrants, however, are out of bounds. The Fire Marshall said so. Really. Don't try his patience.

C. Two Dimensional

This category will include all non-carved, sandblasted, and routed (other than outside panel shape) signs. Materials can include HDU, MDO, plastic, wood, etc. This includes wall mounted, freestanding, hanging, stuck to a post or posts, etc. It can be painted, stained, gilded, vinylled, wallpapered, or covered with crayon, too... If it has no dimension and is as flat as a pancake, it belongs here.

D. Vehicles

This includes all commercial vehicles, street vehicles, and race cars... roundy rounds and straightliners both. "Street Art" such as flame jobs, pinstriping, murals, etc. will also be included in this category. Yeah, tuners, too.

E. Windows, Walls, and Banners

Pretty self-explanatory to me. All window splashes, window lettering, wall lettering and murals, and banners of any type (vinyl, paper, sign cloth, etc).

F. Design and Art

This is where all logo design, business card art, flyers, posters, sign renderings, etc will be posted.

G. Electric Signs

This category is for all pylon signs, channel letters, neon signs, electric ground signs. If it is internally illuminated, has neon, or LED illumination, it belongs here.

H. Miscellaneous

This is for everything that doesn't fit into any other category. Here is where you will find Letterhead projects, glass art panels, striped panels, oil paintings, portraits, pinstriped teapots and toasters, etc... Body painting is definitely included in here... Yes, body painting would definitely be here.

There will also be an "Overall Winner" award. This will be the winner with the most votes cast in the "Overall Winner" slot on the voting page. This winner will be selected by your voting peers. In the event of a tie, the moderator will decide the winner with the tie breaking vote. No more mathematical formulas to figure out nothing! I don't get paid enough for this job to do that again.

There will be one winner each month known as the "Moderator's Pick" This is a selection that will be picked on overall quality, workmanship, appropriateness of design, color, etc. That's

Any winner of a category will be ineligible to enter that category for one (1) month. They will, however, remain eligible to enter any of the remaining categories. ie: The winner of Group B in January will not be allowed to place an entty in Group B in February but will be allowed a Group B entry in March. They will be allowed an entry in Group A, C, D, E, or F in February.

We will be limiting all entrants to one (1) entry per month in any of the six categories. This means only one, period. It doesn't mean one (1) per category. Just one, singular entry per person per month. No exceptions.

These rules are set this way to keep anyone from dominating the field in any of our categories. We can all make jokes about so-and-so kicking everyone's butts and cleaning up, but no one is going to enter a competition if they feel that they will not have a shot at winning. There are many art contests that have similar rules so, there is some precedent for this type of rule.

We will be accepting entries for the monthly contest up until the 15th of that month. They will be posted by the 20th. Voting will commence after that until the 25th of the month. Winners for that month will be posted by the 28th and awards will distributed accordingly.

All voting will be done by e-mail only. NO EXCEPTIONS. None. Nada. Zip. Zero. A link for the email voting has been supplied on the viewing website. The reason for this is to keep all voting personal and that no one sees who voted for who and to keep the voting uninfluenced.

If there is less than two (2) entries for any category, the one entry will be saved until there is another entry. No entry will be allowed to be exhibited unopposed for competition.

All entry photos are to be kept under 80K. They MUST be in a .jpg format. No other formats will be accepted. None! Photos should be pre-edited and cropped prior to sending. Images should be saved at a resolution of 72 dpi.  Higher resolutions just aren't needed for display on the web. Images should not be more than 600 pixels wide. Multiple photos of an entry will not be allowed and will not be posted. I am not responsible for poor quality photos. You send me crap, I will post crap. Remember, if it looks bad on your computer, it will still look bad on mine. That's just the way it is!

All entries should be no older than six (6) months old. We won't be asking for proof. It's an honor system.

Any project entered in previous SOTM contests will be ineligible for future SOTM contests.

We will accept the first six entries for every category. Any additional entries will be carried over to the next month. I am not going to judge any of the qualities of any of the entries. It is a "first come... first served" entry thing. Just like the dog shows. Not that any entries are dogs...

The moderator will have no influence on the outcome of the voting except for in the event of a tie in a first place of a category or a tie in the number of votes for "Overall Winner". In the case of that event(s), the moderator will cast a deciding vote.

When sending in entries, please include the following information:

Name of Project

Sign Company Name and City

Designer's Name and City

Brief description of project. This includes all materials used, techniques, types of coatings, and any other additional pertinent facts you want to include.

Design Workshop Challenge

This part of the SOTM is not part of the regular categories. This section was created to allow everyone an opportunity to showcase their talents or spread their designing wings a bit. It is a opportunity to also allow others to learn and see how different people will approach the same design issue from completely different ways.

This is meant to be a fun and creative thing for us all to participate in. A cool prize for the winner makes it nice, too! C'mon, admit... you like prizes... Who doesn't? Hey, you in the back, who asked you?

You will be given a scenario of a job and it will be your opportunity to show what you would do. Everyone is eligible to enter this challenge and are not bound by the SOTM rules above for entry. This is a separate section of the SOTM. All entries are going to be posted and voted on.

Please include the Sign Company and Designer's name and location.

Please follow the same guidelines for SOTM entries. All entry artwork is to be kept under 80K. They MUST be in a .jpg or .gif  format. No other formats will be accepted. Images should be saved at a resolution of 72 dpi. Images should not be more than 600 pixels wide.