About Our Calendar Contest
The only mailing Expert Support does is an annual holiday card to our clients and network. In producing our own design, we make a bigger statement about Expert Support’s skills, while also engaging our staff in the creative process. We began on Oct. 19, 2005 with a call for artists within Expert Support to participate in the cultivation of an image that would be the basis for the calendar card design. What arose has become an interesting collaborative tradition within Expert Support that showcases our talents and skills beyond the box of technical writing services we’re known for. (After all, we’re an interesting lot!)
By early October of each year, we put out a call for submissions. From 2005-2014, we invited interested employees to submit up to three images for the calendar art contest. The process evolved in 2015. Our customers (Doug & Denny) asked that the images center on a particular theme, and to modify the process to create a broader field of winners. A significant change was that if you had won any past contest, you could only submit two images. If you’d never won, you could submit up to ten images. That process worked out really well, so we’ve decided to go with it again.
After we get the images, the customers (Paul & Denny) and the designer (Keira Ehrenfeldt) review them and pare the large group down to a smaller group for voting. Adherence to the theme and suitability for a calendar design are factors in the selection. That smaller group of images is voted on by the Expert Support population.
A contest page goes up and all employees are notified and asked to vote for their 1st, 2nd, and 3rd favorites of the unattributed images. In 2012, we tested a new rule restricting participants from voting for their own submissions to enable us to arrive at the winner sooner. This helped narrow the field sooner. And, to be fair, we allow them to vote for themselves in case of a runoff, and they usually do. Each year many beautiful images are submitted, and usually after a runoff vote a winner surfaces.
When the winner is announced, the calendar goes into design and production, usually arriving from the printer just before Thanksgiving. This interim allows for review of our contact database and development of the current mailing list. Labels go on the envelopes, signing commences and culminates at our party, with the mailing usually going out in the 2nd week of December.
Immediately we reaped the rewards both internally and externally with positive feedback. Employees like having the invitation to exercise their creative muscles a bit in the workplace, even if they don’t participate. And each year we receive many expressions of appreciation and compliments on our work from our customers and colleagues on the mailing list. We also had a dilemma in the office… bare office walls and too many disparate interests in what to hang. Each year, for several years, we added another beautiful framed print for all to enjoy until the office was full.
Collaborators
The calendar collaboration has this balance: imagine a Venn diagram with the circles of contestants, all employees, client/owners, and designer, and in that center the collaborative calendar produced.
- All employees are invited to participate in submitting images and selecting a winner, they control whether they do.
- Contestants submit images, but have no control over whether any of theirs is voted for or which one wins.
- The customers (Paul & Denny) and the designer (Keira Ehrenfeldt) review all submissions and pares the large group down to a small group of strong images that they feel will work for the calendar.
- All employees vote, but have no control over which image, or if any image they voted for wins.
- The designer gets the winning image and makes the calendar design, having no control over which image wins the contest beyond the jurying stage.
- ESI owners pay for the program, and the program exists at their pleasure.
- All employees are invited to sign their clients cards, and celebrate the holidays at our annual card signing party!
Creative Input
- Winners get to choose what images of theirs they want to submit.
- Designer gets to influence the juried selection and design the best layout they can with the winning image.
- ESI owners get to influence the juried selection and the design’s evolution.
- Production supports the designer to ensure that the layout is error free and helps influence the design for best quality.
- ESI owners wield executive power when situations demand.
Who can submit images?
- Current staff members who are previous contest winners may submit up to 2 images total (including spouse’s entries).
- Current staff members who’ve not yet won the contest may submit up to 10 images total (including spouse’s entries).
- Spouses/partners of current staff members can submit artwork through their spouse.
Recommendations for Success
- Keep in mind the printed photo is going to be limited to 5-3/4″ x 8-3/4″, the size of the folded calendar.
- Your image doesn’t have to be exactly that, but should be somewhat close to work well.
- Orientation can be either horizontal or vertical.
- Generally, a vertical calendar uses a horizontal image, a horizontal calendar uses a vertical image, so if you like a tall calendar over a wide one, or visa versa, submit your images accordingly.
- Winners have always had an image that fit the folded scale above, those that have added on to create the whole background of the calendar haven’t won… even though the idea was to help people envision the result.
- Because the scale is fairly small and these are wall calendars, try to submit images that are readable well at 2-4 feet away and aren’t jammed with detail.
Image Specs
- Entries go to [email protected]
- Send in a high res jpeg to enter the contest, max dimension 1000px, with short title.
- A high res image (600ppi for a 5-3/4″ x 8-3/4″ print size) for use in final layout will be needed for the selected image.
- If it were just one image filling a third of the space, figure on a maximum of 8-3/4″ x 5-3/4″, bleeding edges. If you want to go for the full image with a floating calendar atop a faded background: 17-1/4″ x 8-3/4″, bleeding edges.
- Calendar dimensions: 17-1/4″ x 8-3/4″ flat, 5-3/4″ x 8-3/4″ folded.
Program Notes
- What it is: An annual tri-fold year-in-view wall calendar/card.
- An annual contest of art submitted by posting the anonymous entries for esi-all voting.
- Names of artists are not used in the voting stage, and we ask there not be lobbying for votes. Also, artists may not vote for their own images so we can arrive at the winner sooner. Artists can vote for themselves in case of a runoff contest.
- A current staff member has their art image or photograph featured, with credit appearing on calendar.
- The winner gets up to 50 calendars to use for their own holiday mailing if they desire.
- Keira Ehrenfeldt (Project Manager) manages the contest and holiday program.
- Keira Ehrenfeldt (Sr Designer) does the layout.
- Trisa Visser (AlphaGraphics) does the printing.
- Staff members light on billable work pitch in to fold, label, seal, and stamp.
Legal Bit
By choosing to submit images for consideration, you agree to allow Expert Support to publish the entered images on this website. And if you win the contest, you agree to allow Expert Support to publish the winning image in the annual calendar, and maybe an additional image(s) to support the design background if requested. Your name is cited as the photographer/maker/artist in print and on the webpage. And, Expert Support gets the right to distribute the calendars for its marketing purposes. As a reward, you get a small number of printed cards for your personal use. For those who submit, but alas don’t win, your submissions remain in the contest archive on this site with your names attributed to your images.