The 2016 Ai-Kon Mascot Contest is currently open!

 

We’re looking for a new design for Aiko, the Ai-Kon mascot, for uses on the convention’s promotional materials and merchandise. Aiko appears on a variety of Ai-Kon promotional materials, including t-shirts, posters, flyers, badges, programs, and the Ai-Kon website.

 

Presenting Her Royal Highness of Ai-Kon: Aiko! This year’s theme is Imperial/Royal Aiko.

 

Generally, Aiko is a cheerful, stylish, energetic anime girl with pink hair and blue eyes.  Please keep the eye and hair colour but feel free to change the attitude to suit the theme. Also remember that Ai-Kon is a family friendly convention.

 

What is "Imperial/Royal"? "Royal" is defined as "having the status of a king or queen or a member of their family". This year, we're looking for representations of Aiko as any type of monarch, including (but not restricted to) an empress, a queen, princess, etc. Designs are also not restricted to Japanese or British regal courts. A cool tidbit is that this is Ai-Kon's 15th year! 15 year celebrations are often represented by a rose or a crystal. Feel free to use these elements in your designs, i.e. rose queen or crystal empress.

 

When choosing an Aiko, the Ai-Kon committee considers many aspects, including relevance to the theme, colour palette, pose, lines, anatomy, and overall effect. We favour entries that appropriately represent Aiko in age, physical attributes, and personality and that will represent Aiko well to our audience. In addition, we look for an entry's ability to be placed on promotional media, including the badges, posters, and t-shirts.

 

Rules and Requirements

● Full-body entries only

● Entries must have no background

● No entries featuring poses, outfits and/or hair styles of copyrighted characters, or copyrighted characters themselves.  Any entries featuring copyrighted material will not be accepted.

● No adult-themed entries will be accepted. This will be at the discretion of Ai-Kon executives. Please ensure entries are suitable for all ages.

● A maximum limit of three entries per person will be accepted. Please note that all entries should be individual and not adjustments (i.e. palette swaps) of a previous entry.

● Entries must be full-colour, 300 dpi resolution or higher, and submitted electronically in JPEG, BMP, or Photoshop format. A smaller version of your entry may be submitted for judging as long as a higher resolution version is available.

● Do not use a watermark on your submission. 

● When submitting entries, please use the following naming format for your file: firstname_lastname_01.jpg.

● All entries and rights to the images become property of Ai-Kon.

 

How to Enter

You can now enter the contest online by clicking here.

 

Participants will receive a confirmation e-mail within a week of submission.

 

Entries must be received no later than Saturday, January 9, 2016 at 11:59 pm and will be judged by the Ai-Kon committee.

 

The winning entry and runners-up will be announced soon after.

 

Prizes

● The winner will receive: a free art table, weekend admission to Ai-Kon 2016, and an Ai-Kon 2016 t-shirt. The winning entry will be used for Ai-Kon 2016 promotional materials and merchandise.

● The two runners-up will receive:  A free half art table at and weekend admission to Ai-Kon 2016