HomeStation Presents: The Home Postcards Art Contest
by NorseGamer, HSM Editor-in-Chief
Home is more than just a game, or a platform for games. Indeed, its greatest weakness — the fact that it is a metaverse which tries to be all things to all people, and has no clearly delineated objectives to fulfill — is also what makes it so fascinating. Because, as a result, Home holds up a mirror to you: what you get out of Home is a direct reflection of what you put into it.
When measured thus, some people will find themselves lacking. And they deflect it by stating that it is somehow Home that is lacking. Yes, Home certainly has many social improvements still ahead of it, but I agree with Tony Robbins’ observation that complaining about a lack of resources indicates a certain lack of resourcefulness. Where there’s creativity and drive, humans find a way to express themselves.
It is in this vein that we introduce our latest community contest.
HSM has held contests before — a poetry contest, a couple of writing contests, various magazine-related challenges and so forth — and they’ve all gone exceptionally well. So we’re trying something new this time: an art contest.
“Art,” of course, is a highly subjective field. So we’ve decided to structure things a bit. We’re going with a theme of “retro” postcards from Home.
Eligible entries will be three inches by five inches in size; the artist may choose any current public space from any Home region and create a postcard in the “retro style” as interpreted by the artist from the samples you see in this article. These samples are merely a reference tool, and not criteria on how an entry will be judged.
Here are the rules:
- Must be 3 inches x 5 inches and no greater than 300 dpi, and submitted as a .jpeg file to be eligible.
- Must be original artwork, created by the entrant.
- Must be of a current active Home PUBLIC space, of any Home region – no postcards representing clubs, items, groups, games or private spaces will be eligible.
- Must be within the theme of, or an artistic interpretation of, a retro postcard.
- Must contain text with a inviting phrase, and/or the name of the public space, in a highly visible and legible manner.
- Entrant must provide PSN ID, and valid email address with each submission.
- HSM team members are eligible to participate as well as the general public, but HSM editors are barred from entry.
Note: preference will be given to original artwork over photography. Entrant may submit as many postcards as they wish, but is only eligible to win one prize. And if you want to participate but don’t have the software, our contest judge recommends SketchBook Express, a free graphic-design program by Autodesk.
And speaking of judging…who exactly is going to judge this shindig?
It’s time to bring him out of the shadows. You are already familiar with his work. You have read hundreds — indeed, thousands — of pages of it. He is the silent force behind HomeStation’s signature product. Ladies and gentlemen, your judge for this art contest:
HSM’s Art Director, MJG74!
Most of the work that editors do is behind the scenes; the HomeStation editorial team puts in an ungodly amount of work to keep this many-headed monster afloat, and Mike in particular has been practically invisible to the outside world — despite being the man behind HomeStation’s outstanding magazine issues. So it’s time to give him center stage.
Here’s how this is going to work:
1. Entries must be submitted to the appropriately marked thread in the HSM forum. No other entries will be considered.
2. The submission window will be from February 16, 2011 until midnight GMT, February 24.
3. Following the closure of the submissions window, Mike will announce five finalists in a separate article.
4. The five finalists’ entries will be put to a popular vote. Votes will only be counted if they are received in response to the article. No other votes will be considered. HSM team members may vote, but HSM editors may not.
5. The voting window will close at midnight GMT, February 27.
6. The two entries with the highest number of votes will each be awarded a code for a $20 PSN card! (Please note that prizes are limited to SCEA Home only.) Winners will be announced on or about February 28.
7. In the event of a voting tie, Mike will serve as tie-breaker.
We know that there are some amazing artists in the Home community, and we want to give them a chance to shine. Let’s put together some postcards from Home!
February 17th, 2012 by NorseGamer | 9 comments
NorseGamer is the product manager for LOOT Entertainment at Sony Pictures, as well as the founder and publisher of HomeStation Magazine. Born and raised in Silicon Valley, he holds a B.A. in English/Creative Writing from San Francisco State University and presently lives in Los Angeles. All opinions expressed in HSM are solely his and do not necessarily reflect the views of Sony DADC.
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i just love the idea!^^
Oh, I hope you do something with this!
This is a very interesting idea Norse, I like it. Hope a lot of you artistic people out there get into this and have some fun!
Very cool contest. Would you mind making an update to the post? It may be helpful to also post the pixel requirements. That would be 900x1500 max.
Pedantic silly stuff follows…..
In the age of digital media I really dislike the continued use of dpi (dots per inch). It is a holdover from quality specifications of dot matrix printers (how many dots the printer could make per inch). It has very little, if any, relevance to digital media.
I know, I know, that was unnecessary. I’m just putting it here for reference.
oops…I meant to add that in this case I see the use since it is meant to give a sense of proportion.
Sorry to keep commenting, but how many entries are allowed? I have tons of ideas.
there is no limit, enter as many as you would like.
how do i attach the art work?
If you go here: http://www.hsmagazine.net/forum/general-discussion-group2/main-forum-forum2/home-postcards-art-contest-submissions-thread-thread215.0/#postid-1460
You can post a reply to that thread with your submissions. You’ll have to host the images somewhere yourself -- like on a Photobucket account or something -- but that thread is the only place submissions will be accepted.