Compete-tee-tion

I forgot to mention the Shirt.Woot Derby when it opened to submissions this Friday (blame the release of Call of Duty 4, it ate most of my week). The theme is Information Graphics, and it has caused a lot of confusion and plagiarized concepts so far this week… as well as the occasional gem.

As always, the top three designs (as voted for by the Woot community) will be printed next weekend, with the printed designers earning up to $500 plus $2 for every shirt sold after the first day of sales.

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Shirt.Woot has announced the newest Derby theme: Time Travel Souvenirs. There are a few restrictions this time as well: 1) No designs may use the phrase “all I got was this lousy t-shirt” or anything similar, and 2) Stay far, far away from copyrighted imagery and concepts. Other than that, all of time is at your command- designs dealing with both the past and the future are encouraged.

As always, submissions and voting will open at noon on Friday. There is a definite advantage to submitting early, so keep that in mind. The top three entries will be printed next weekend, and each winner will receive up to $500 for the first night of sales plus $2 per shirt sold after the first day. If this theme isn’t to your liking and you can set up a print-ready design file, submit a design of any theme directly to Woot (pay is the same as for Derby winners).

Supplement the Derby fun with websites that support the Derby community: check Best Losers for news about non-winning shirts, or check ShirtDerbyStats and ShirtStats for the most up-to-date statistics on all the entries (including fogged designs).

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The theme for this week’s Shirt.Woot Derby has been posted: Nutrition. There are a few restrictions this time, as Woot is specifically outlawing shirt designs that refer to beer, drugs or porn. Good call, Woot.

You can enter any time after Friday at noon, though early entries have a decided advantage in the voting process. The top three entries will be printed next weekend, and each winner will receive up to $500 for the first night of sales plus $2 per shirt sold after the first day. If this theme isn’t to your liking and you can set up a print-ready design file, you can bypass the Derby by submitting a design of any theme directly to Woot (you’ll get paid the same as Derby winners do).

The Derby fun never ends, thanks to Woot members who have set up websites for the Derby community. Best Losers is the place to go for interviews with winners, honorable mention awards, and links on where to buy past Derby designs directly from the artists. Meanwhile, dueling statistic sites ShirtDerbyStats (which features individual design comment forums) and Shirtstats (with personal stat tracking) provide up to date information on how all the entries are being scored.

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Yes, I just posted about Shirt.Woot two entries ago. But there’s a new community site for Shirt.Woot users that I think merits an immediate mention. Woot user JCBarry has set up a site to track Derby statistics, Shirtstats.com.

This site’s benefits include personal logins and entry tracking, plus a really intuitive (and fast loading!) site design. It also benefits the community by hosting files such as t-shirt templates. More features, such as visitor polls, are planned for the future.

This is the second Derby tracker for the Derby, as Woot member cwarrington has a Derby tracker that has been in use for a few Derbies now. His tracker includes such benefits as entry comments, badges, and stored voting statistics from the last several Derbies.

If this isn’t enough Derby-related fun for you, then head on over to thatrobert’s site, Best Losers, where he takes a look at entries that didn’t win and interviews some of the Derby’s top artists.

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Shirt.Woot has announced the theme for this week’s derby and, to the surprise of no one, that theme is Halloween. Start working on your shirt ideas now, because submissions can be entered starting tomorrow at noon (and early shirts have more opportunities to get votes).

Shirt.Woot pays out $250 for any shirt they run that sells 500 copies or less. If you sell more than that, you’ll get $500. And no matter which category your shirt is in, you will get $2 per shirt sold after the first day of sales. The top three voted shirts will be printed next weekend.

And remember, experienced artists and designers can submit shirts of any theme directly to Woot (they receive the same compensation as derby winners).

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Shirt.Woot has another Derby underway, this time with the theme of Night. But be careful, they’re rejecting any entries with a Halloween connection (because that is next week’s theme). Designs can be submitted any time before Wednesday at noon, but earlier entries have the advantage because voting is ongoing.

The prize is pretty awesome: The top three shirts (as voted on by Woot members) will be printed, earning their designers $250 for up to 500 shirts sold or $500 for more than that sold on the first day. Designers can also earn $2 per shirt sold after the first day of sales.

Seasoned designers have the option of skipping the derby altogether and submitting their designs (of any theme) directly to Woot. They get the same prize as Derby winners, but submitting this way can be advantageous because the Derby voting process is very erratic.

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This week’s Derby theme is a doozy: Cryptozoology! Head over to Shirt.Woot and post your best shirt design featuring non-existent animals. Submissions and voting will open up Friday at noon, so start getting your designs ready now- fortune favors the quick.

The prize was upped last week and now stands at $250 for any winner that sells up to 500 units, or $500 for any winner that sells 501 units or more. As always, designers can earn more (in the form of $2 per shirt) when their design sells at the higher $15 price on the days following the first day of sales. As always, the three most popular Derby winners will be printed next weekend, and they’ll all be getting paid as described above.

Designers who are capable of setting up print-ready vector files of their t-shirt designs have the opportunity to bypass the derby and submit shirt designs of any theme directly to Woot. Check out the What is Woot? page for details. If selected, you’ll be getting paid the same $250 or $500 (plus $2 per shirt for shirts sold after the first day of sales) as the Derby winners receive.

If you’re a fan of the Derby, make sure you check out the Derby statistics page and the Derby fan blog Best Losers.

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