1. Make Something Awesome
Great designers (like you!) want to design in either a raster program like Adobe Photoshop or a vector art program like Adobe Illustrator. Templates for both are included in the Jersey and T-shirt Templates kits.
Copies of your design that you submit need to be jpeg, gif or png file formats. If your design wins, we will request a high-resolution file of your artwork for printing (yes!).
Designs should follow current contest theme. You do not need to include Crank the Earth or the CTE logo on your designs.
2. Upload Your Design
All filed image dimensions MUST be 400 X 375 dpi. All files also need to be under 250 KB. T-shirt designs cannot have more than six (6) unique colors. Jersey design colors are unlimited.
Upload RGB (not CMYK!) files only. CMYK files cannot be viewed by Windows and some IE users and will show up as a missing file with a red "x" in the corner. This will lower your chance of scoring five (5) cranks with voters (ya think!).
All designs must be submitted on one of our downloadable templates. See Example.
Declined Design
If your design gets declined, it could be for a few different reasons. Typically, a design is declined because of the following reasons:
- Duplicate or previously submitted designs. We will not accept designs that are resubmitted or slightly altered. Keep it fresh!
- You used too many colors to print on a t-shirt. T-shirt designs are limited to six (6) unique colors. If you use more than six, we can't really print it anyway, so we'll decline it.
- Your t-shirt design is too big to actually fit on a t-shirt. The max size print area on a t-shirt is 14"X15". We don't want to print only half the design, so keep it manageable for us.
- Design deemed inappropriate. If there's a theme or specific content in a design that weirds us out a little, we'll decline it. Remember our community starts at 13 years old – let's show a little respect.
Additional Design Information
Quick reminder: All files MUST meet the exact specifications to be accepted for voting in a contest. Previously submitted designs will be disqualified. All submitted designs are reviewed before posting. All designs deemed inappropriate will be disqualified. Also check out our Terms of Use and FAQs for additional information.