Welcome to the 2012 GUI Championships!
The GUI's is the ultimate Graphical User Interface (GUI) competition. Graphics
designers from around the world will be competing in four primary skinning
categories. It is a way to help support the community of individuals who create
alternative graphical user interfaces and also just to have some good old fun!
Details
The 2012 GUI Championships will cover Stardock's WindowBlinds as well as Static
and Animated Wallpapers. There will be three events per category; Most Usable, Most
Creative, Best Overall.
The contest will begin on September 4th, 2012. Starting on that date, submissions
will be accepted via the competition website. See the contest schedule below for
individual event cut-off dates and announcements.
Schedule
|
Event
|
Prizes
|
Cut-Off Date
|
Judging
|
User Voting
|
Winner Announced
|
Wallpaper
Most Usable
|
Link
|
10/31/2012
|
10/31/2012
|
11/01 - 11/06
|
11/07/2012
|
Wallpaper
Most Creative
|
Link
|
10/31/2012
|
10/31/2012
|
11/01 - 11/06
|
11/07/2012
|
Wallpaper
Best Overall
|
Link
|
10/31/2012
|
10/31/2012
|
|
12/12/2012
|
|
|
DeskScapes
Most Usable
|
Link
|
11/07/2012
|
11/07/2012
|
11/08 - 11/13
|
11/14/2012
|
DeskScapes
Most Creative
|
Link
|
11/07/2012
|
11/07/2012
|
11/08 - 11/13
|
11/14/2012
|
DeskScapes
Best Overall
|
Link
|
11/07/2012
|
11/07/2012
|
|
12/12/2012
|
|
|
WindowBlinds
Most Usable
|
Link
|
11/28/2012
|
11/28/2012
|
11/29 - 12/04
|
12/05/2012
|
WindowBlinds
Most Creative
|
Link
|
11/28/2012
|
11/28/2012
|
11/29 - 12/04
|
12/05/2012
|
WindowBlinds
Best Overall
|
Link
|
11/28/2012
|
11/28/2012
|
|
12/12/2012
|
Rules
- Eligibility
The 2012 GUI Championships is open to users from all around the globe. There
are three primary requirements to be eligible to participate in the competition:
- You must be a legal adult in your country of residence (i.e. 18+ in the United States)
- You must have an account on GUIChamps.com (or a general Stardock account) in good-standing
- You are not a full-time employee of any of the following companies:
- Stardock
- WinCustomize
- Logitech
- Registration
To submit an entry to the competition, you must have a Stardock.net account and
be logged into the site. Signing up for an account is free and takes just
minutes. Go here to
sign up. If you already have a Stardock.net account, you can use it
to login to this site. You must have a valid and current email associated
with your account as this is how you will be notified of entry acceptance/rejection,
and how we will contact you regarding any prizes you may win.
- Entries
- All entries must be NEW and ORIGINAL artwork that has not been submitted to any
other gallery or site prior to September 4th, 2012.
- Entries can be submitted to other sites once they have been approved and posted
publicly to the GUI Champs competition galleries.
- You may not obtain permission from other artists to incorporate their work into
your submission. Everything submitted, every graphical element must be entirely
the creation of the person submitting.
- No use of stock imagery, corporate logos, or other promotional material.
- No pornographic or copyrighted material will be accepted!
- Enter as often as you want, but every entry must be different. No variations
on the same artwork, please.
- Technical Requirements
The following are the minimum technical requirements for submissions. Failure
to meet these basic requirements will result in immediate disqualification of the
relevant contest entry.
- All Entries
- Must include a preview image 1024x768 or larger JPEG file. This image must
show off the entry accurately.
- If compressed, must be .zip files. No other archive formats are accepted.
No self-extracting executables
- Static Wallpapers
- Must have an accurate preview icon image
- Minimum resolution: 1280x720
- Multiple resolutions can be included in the same .zip file. You must note all resolutions
included in the skin description
- Animated Desktops
- Must be in .Dream format (use DreamMaker)
- Must have an accurate preview icon image
- Minimum resolution: 1280x720
- Multiple resolutions can be included in the same .zip file. You must note
all resolutions included in the skin description
- Animation must loop seamlessly
- Animation must be at least 5 seconds long
- WindowBlinds
- Must be created for WindowBlinds 7
- Submissions must be in .wba format
- Skins can either be built for Windows Vista, Windows 7, or Both. However,
you are required to note which OSes are supported in the skin name as follows:
- [7] - Windows 7 only
- [Vista] - Windows Vista Only
- [7/Vista] - Works on both Windows Vista and 7
- Example: My Skin of Awesomeness [Vista]
- Moderation
All contest entries are reviewed upon submission by the event organizers.
Prior to being posted to the competition gallery and formally entered for judging,
they are reviewed for technical completeness, compliance with all contest rules,
and for basic quality. Not all entries are guaranteed to be accepted into
the competition. If, upon review, a submission is found to not meet either
the technical or quality requirements for entry it will be declined and a note will
be sent to the author explaining why their entry was not accepted. At this
point, the author can revise their work to meet the requirements and resubmit.
Moderation of an entry can take 1-2 business days. Please be patient while
we review your work.
- Rights & Ownership
The author of an entry agrees to grant Stardock a license to use and redistribute
their skins and include their skins on CDs and other materials. Ownership
of the skin remains with the skin author.
- Prizes
- Prizes are awarded to individuals per the prize list.
- Winners will be notified by email within 4 weeks of the end of the competition and
the posting of the final winners on the competition website.
- Winners may be required to sign an affidavit of eligibility and a publicity/liability
release
- Winners have 14 business days to respond with shipping details and any signed documentation.
Failure to reply within 14 days will result in forfeiture of prizes. Forfeited
prizes will be awarded to an alternative winner at the discretion of the competition
organizers.
- By accepting the prize, winner agrees to the use of his/her name, photo and/or likeness
in any promotion/advertising activities related to this contest without further
compensation, except where prohibited.
- By accepting a prize, winner agrees to release the contest sponsors and its agencies
from any and all liability for injuries and/or damages of any kind sustained in
connection with the prize.
- Judging
Judging & the selection of contest winners will be handled in two stages.
- Critical Judging
All entries will be reviewed by a panel of three Stardock judges and assigned a
score in each event they are eligible for. At the end of the judge voting
period, the top 5 ranked skins will be designated finalists and move on to the
user voting round.
- User Voting
Users will vote on the 5 finalists as selected by the judges in each event.
Users will have three votes to cast in each event. Users can cast their votes
in any combination they choose; 1 vote per skin, 3 votes for 1 skin etc. Users
must be registered and logged onto the competition website in order to vote.
- The top three skins in each event will be awarded medals, each with an associated
point value to determine the top overall skinners and teams of the entire competition.
In the event of a tie, the winner will be determined by the competition organizers.
- Gold Medal (1st Place) = 5 Points
- Silver Medal (2nd Place) = 3 Points
- Bronze Medal (3rd Place) = 2 Points
- Notification & Late Entries
We are not responsible for lost or late entries. If winning contestants do
not respond to email notifications within 14 business days, the prize will be awarded
to an alternative winner chosen by the competition organizers.
- Rules Modifications
Stardock reserves the right to modify these rules at its discretion.
- Cancellation of Events
An event must have at least 10 entries to be considered viable. Non-viable
events will be null and void.