KATHYxx found an article worth bringing up from deviantArt - read here. It appears that the winner of the 'Iridescent' artwork contest that Linkin Park recently held may have broken the rules.

"Right so.. We all know they had a contest going on.

Most of you even submitted entries to this contest.

A few simple Rules:
- One per person
- TF3 has to be included
- No watermarks from the user
- Has to be 1200x1200 or higher
- Submission Deadline June 12th"

Click here for the pictures the post refers to when they say that the winner has submitted EIGHT images to the contest.

"Most of the entries were correctly done within the rules. Some uploaded more then what they should of (they just didnt read) but - this guy won it? So why did we spend all of our time on one submission when they wouldn't of bothered looking through them properly?"

What do you guys think about this?

I've already stated my views on Facebook (as Will) and Twitter; a lot of artists may have had many different ideas for the Iridescent artwork, but according to the rules they had to choose one and go with that. This individual uploaded ALL his ideas, which gave him more of a chance than everyone else to be spotted and chosen.
The fact that the judges of the contest didn't enforce the rules is really a shame because there were a lot of good alternatives there by people who DID follow the rules.

This sucks so much.
BUT were they really gonna look to see if the person only submitted one entry? They should have but it's doesn't surprise me that they didn't.

I'm still disappointed. Mine had no chance but this is still unfair.

Completely agree with the article at deviantart. I hope someone at least TRIES to clear this mess up. Because it's just not fair at all.

This is going to be harsh so I apologize in advance but:

I am more upset at the fact that the winning entry is terrible as opposed to them not following the rules. Sure, breaking the rules is BS and he should be disqualified but honestly, I think other entries deserved to win. There are some fantastic pieces that if they were to have been shown to me, I would've believed it was official artwork done by the band or someone involved with them.

Hopefully this gets sorted out. I can see this discouraging a lot of people from wanting to participate in future contests like this.

edit: I know I sound like a jerk concerning my opinion of the winning piece but come on! >.<

Actually, it wouldn't have been that difficult. Let's say they went through and picked 1 piece of artwork and chose 9 runner-ups or so.
All they'd need to do is look through the artist's gallery (not very difficult) to see whether there were other entries. If there were multiple entries, then that person would be disqualified, and they could repeat the process with the runner-ups.
If they weren't going to enforce the rules, then they simply could have not had the rule in the first place. Then no one would be complaining (well, they'd probably complain about the bad quality or whatever).

All the entries on DevianArt are definitely more impressive than the one what won (I'm not even mentioning the fact that rules were broken.) I hope Mike will address this issue. I guess Adam has something to say about it too.

all the complaining on how bad the ACTUAL ARTWORK reminds me of the Catalyst remix contest lol

I'd either like one of two things to have:
1) the band re-picks a new winner, or
2) we vote for a new winner

The ones posted on the article are fucking mind blowing.
http://th08.deviantart.net/fs71/PRE/f/2011...idz-d3ho33w.jpg

This one blew my mind especially,
http://th04.deviantart.net/fs71/PRE/i/2011...j_o-d3ig9bd.jpg

We should start a petition.

In this case, all they would have had to do is look at the TITLE of the submission to see something was up.
http://howazzim.deviantart.com/art/LinkinP...ent-4-211681032

I am more disappointed with the management here than the 'winner.' This is laziness in the extreme. I bet the band had some random person pick the final five and they didn't care about getting the best ones.


Next contest, every person's gonna submit 100 entries each in a spam attempt to be picked at random. That's what happens when this sort of thing is encouraged. Why bother putting any work into it?

Those are great. I especially enjoyed the other one with the Transformer and a girl. Ah, well.


Exactly, what's the point of these rules if they won't make sure they're enforced?
And it definitely seems like they didn't look through all the submissions if they picked this one...it wasn't bad, it just obviously wasn't the best, or well-suited to be the cover really.

Nobody should care. He submitted 8 so what...that doesn't mean that the band doesn't have a right to choose who they want on their cover.

I Think that Rick Rubin chose the cover haha
seriously, what happend? I saw really great works with more complex design.

It means he was eight times more likely to get discovered than someone who followed the rules.

It means that a lot of people wasted enormous amounts of time trying to do their best. I spent 8 hours on mine and mine is mediocre at best. I can't imagine the anguish of someone who really tried on this contest.

It means that, unless action is taken, all contests following this are going to be a farce, because it's going to become a spam hell if quantity over quality is what the judges are looking for.

It means that the contest wasn't fair and didn't follow it's own contract. The rules are written in lawyerese for pete's sake.

And finally, it means that the winner isn't a good of artist as the other participants. Choosing ONE and only one entry is the hardest decision in the entire process. It's a make or break moment. Allowing a cheater to win basically puts everyone else at a very large disadvantage as he didn't have to go through the most difficult part of the process.

If the band wanted to "choose who they wanted" they would have hired a graphic designer to do exactly what they wanted. Instead they did a contest and didn't follow their own rules in judging.

Well said.

Yes, quoted for truth.

What would be discouraging? The fact that rules weren't enforced properly or the fact that are some pretty savage LP fans who feel that it's in a completely mature manner to talk down about a piece of art that won a contest and potentially damage someones personality all because they were displeased that their hard work and efforts did not appeal to the band who hosted the contest to begin with?

Don't bash the artist directly as a way to vent the frustration that resulted from poor management in this contest.




We can't safely assume that though. They have always given the fans a chance to be a part of something related to the band.

Yeah I didn't like that, for many Reasons. all above, and for more reasons to add. I submitted my Iridescent artwork on the early days. When the music video came out which was all black and white all of the sudden everyone posted more black and white art. but as i follow the rules.. I already submitted one entry.. so i couldnt retry

And then to hear this. All just not fair

To those of you saying this person "cheated" and abused the rules:



That's all that I paid attention to when I considered entering. Now once again, should we be blaming the artist or the people who organized this event? Those are pretty simple steps to follow right there.

those two didnt win o.O
they are beyond awesome

Im really annoyed for two reasons.. the cover is pretty shit. No really.. im serious. They have used the old LP symbol and the MTM title. If i was picking the winner, anyone who used stuff (old symbol, old font, anything like that) from this album cycle should have been out, because this is for ATS not MTM. Its fucked that they picked that from some other master pieces.

Edit: sorry, I was looking at the one posted in that post. Not the official one.
This is the real one.

secondly, hes broken the rules. They are there for a good reason. Seriously really annoying. They arent even new ideas.. If he had made 2 or 3 good original ones, all different and one of them were picked i dont think people would be so up in arms about.

/rant end

They supplied that "old" stuff in the download package. Stop jumping the bandwagon. We all know that Gingers have souls.

That one should have won, hands down.

To be honest, at first I wasn't sure if we could submit more than one. But then I saw someone on LPA post a link to the rules. I read it there. But I don't know how they got to the rules I never saw a link any where. I'm sure a lot of people never even saw them.

They should have done it in a way that people could only post one. I'm just not sure how. :/

Those aren't the rules. That's a how-to / FAQ of sorts.

You follow the link that goes the the official rules. always. I'm guessing by the ignorance of it's location they should have blown up the size of the link more, because this was linked to right from the main DA page. I dont get how people missed it.
http://www.linkinpark.com/profiles/blogs/i...artwork-contest


And yes, I don't see many people here actually blaming the artist for this, except for not following the rules, which is dishonorable, but not as dishonorable as the people running the show. Well, and that the work genuinely isn't good. He basically took a stock photo of Optimus and put a grey filter over it. Took 30 minutes max.

You're linking the actual rules, but there was no easy way to find them that I could see. I still don't know how to get to them and that's my exact point on this. When you have a big banner that says "Here is all you need to do" and provides those few simple steps that I took a screenshot of, what happened should have been expected.

The rules were linked to from the DA page, On the other poster thing. The one that says "Contest Details" Reasonable sized font and blue contrasts with white, so they sort of... tried.


.. That's funny, the exact moment I go to screencap it, the link loads invisible. I wonder if that's the culprit. Even maor fail!!!


Anyway,
The first thing anyone does before doing anything like this is look for the lawyerese. While LP management failed at making it easy to find.. at all, 20% is bad parenting here. You should know what contract you're getting into before doing anything.


http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y213/KATHYxx/mah.png

From my perspective, the pic that I provided is all that the average user would probably take into consideration. I'm guessing that most of the people that are blowing up about this are people who are part of DA or at least visit the site on a regular basis. For me, I only go there occasionally and have no idea how the site works, so what I saw on that page is what I thought was the official rules. Think about it from a perspective of someone saying, "Hey! Check out this contest LP is having," and then they link the deviantart website and those same people see what I linked. The undeniable truth here is that even if the official rules were floating around on the official Linkin park site (which I didn't even know about because I NEVER go to Linkin Parks official site for anything anymore), they should have been clearly visible on the DA site as well.

Anyways, I'm probably not contributing much by spitting the same opinion out over and over. I am basically just pissed off at everyone who are saying hateful things about this persons artwork as a result of their frustration from a flawed system. If the person comes out and says, "HA HA! I PURPOSELY SUBMITTED THIS MANY PIECES OF WORK SO THAT CHESTER WOULD SEE MY POWERFUL PHOTOSHOP SKILLS OVER ALL OF YOURS! HA HA!" that's a different story. Until then, people should take into consideration that they may have been just as clueless to the official rules as I was along with many others.

Edit:



Well, there's the problem that caused this outrage. It's invisible for me too. I would have never guessed that was even there.

I think that when anyone puts a piece of art out there for the world to see, they should be aware that not everyone is going to enjoy it. Artists shouldn't be immune to criticism. Just take a look at all the people that think LP's music is terrible. The band doesn't care, they just keep on making music that they enjoy. My point in expressing my opinion of this persons art was to do just that, express an opinion, not to potentially damage their personality or anything else.

And as a disclaimer: I didn't take part in this contest. I have no artistic skill.

It was visible earlier today when I opened that into another tab to save. I hadn't noticed it disappeared like that. No wonder I was wondering why so many people were blind.

Still, doesn't excuse the management's decision.

Oh, I agree with you completely. I'm just bitching because I feel that it's unfair in the sense that it seems as if they are receiving this negative feedback NOW solely because of the rules that were broken as a result of an invisible link to the rules on DA. If the person was being critiqued on the site itself and being told what they could do to make the work better, etc, that's a different story. Either way, you're completely right. I'm just speaking my mind on this ordeal.

No problem man, I see where you're coming from. I would've felt the same way regardless of this ordeal. I'm not trying to be a jerk about my opinion, I just feel if he ever read this it wouldn't do him/her any good to receive false praise.

After looking at the other entries that were posted in that article, I'm kind of surprised LP chose that one as the winner. I mean, I'm not bashing the artist, who probably did the best he could, but it doesn't seem like they went through the entries very carefully.

But I wonder if they'll disqualify him and choose another winner (which would be embarrassing for artist who might not even have known the rules), or just ignore the problem altogether...

I will voice my opinion here as well, because I'm seriously disappointed in this contest.
I'm disapointed in the contest like most of you and especially how it's been handled.

1. The official rules were poorly displayed and most people obviously didn't read them at all, hence a flood of multiple submissions from each contestant and many more infringing upon third party rights (photomanipulations using copyright pictures of Transformers, Linkin Park, the moon etc.).

2. There was no feedback at all in between concerning the obvious breach of rules.

3. The only feedback that we got were a couple of features that were randomly chosen and a few of them also infringed upon third party rights (which really pissed me off since I'd have to assume that they're not sticking to their own rules here...).

4. I don't really get rid of the feeling that they didn't even look through the submissions carefully. And obviously they didn't even look through the submissions which had been most popular & with the most views/comments/faves (so WHY did people have to favorite them when it didn't matter anyway?).

I don't want to sound arrogant, nor do I want to boast when I say that mine is one of the most popular artworks (and I was actually one of the few who stuck to the official rules and created an ILLUSTRATED ARTWORK on my own without using any images that simply don't belong to me) in this contest, but when I attended that Summit in Hamburg I showed Mike my artwork. He had never seen it before and even asked me if I took part in the contest. Needless to say I was kind of disappointed by that reaction. They obviously didn't even notice it, although Mike loved it. His reaction to the piece itself was awesome at the Meet&Greet, but yeah...you get what I'm trying to say, right?

Here's My Artwork if you give a crap...

http://fc07.deviantart.net/fs71/i/2011/174...ock-d3ifdot.jpg


I'm not saying this, because I'm pissed that I didn't win (you can believe me or not, it doesn't matter). But I would really, REALLY love to know how they chose this winner! It seems to me it was too damn random and many good artworks I've seen on there have been simply ignored.

And these are just some of the important rules the 'winner' broke:

1. He submitted 9 versions! (only ONE was allowed!)
2. He also added a watermark which wasn't allowed either.
3. He didn't use ANYTHING from the download file. (The picture you see in the official announcement is NOT the original version he submitted. I'm guessing the band/management changed a couple of things or told him to change them afterwards)
4. He used an already existing wallpaper and just added a couple of Photoshop filters. Here's the wallpaper: CLICK!

I'm not okay with people bashing the guy who won though. It's not HIS fault that he was the lucky one who got chosen. What he did though was breaking the rules multiple times (even the ones that WERE displayed in an obvious way like the download file rule). I'm not saying anything against the artwork, although I have to say it's a kick in the balls/vagina for the great artists that took part to lose against something like THIS! People spent hours, even weeks to design/draw their stuff and I cannot wrap my head around this decision (especially with Mike AND Joe being artists themselves and should recognize a cheap Photoshop filter when they see one!).


But if this is the overwhelming design the band was looking for. Great. But in my opinion...I just don't get it. Sorry.

So, yeah. My two cents about the contest. I'm still kinda miffed about all of this, but nonetheless I'm proud of myself and about what I've created. It'll take a good spot in my portfolio. But needless to say, this was the last time I took part in a LP contest.

this contest sucked badly. winners uhhmm "art" does suck (no, not because I didn't won), it's suck because it's just a live trace of tf wallpaper. did the band even seen all entries? i really think that some person just picked at random, and didn't even seen all of works. nobody cared about the rules, that's lame. it feel like a slap for all the people who put an effort in this.

anyway, thought i share my art with you guys too. feel free to use it wherever you want.

Agreed.



That's really cool.

The person who entered may have not known the rules, but the BAND would've.

AHAHAH Same thing happened during a polish contest for an alternative ATS cover! haha
I mean people from Warner had no fuckin clue that their chosen winner broke some rules (copyrights). 2. they had 0 graphics knowledge. FAIL WARNER!

@ShireRock so you have an account here Wanted to say this to you: in my opinion your art should have won this shit People are either stupid or fuckin blind. That includes LP

The art was chosen by mrs Zofia, the local polish janitor in some school. Same with our contest

I don't get it. I think even an amateur can see that there're lots of arts on DA that can top this. I mean, except the Autobot in 'LINKIN PARK', there is actually nothing else worth to win. At least in the LP FEATURING YOU contest we know the band listened to some of the submissions, but this time..Hum..I don't believe it. You should choose something at least better than what you already have (that SPACENUCKLE one).
You submit more than 1 piece, you're no longer qualified. The deviants may not know, but the officials must know this. That,s why rules are here.
Well the good thing is, we can now pick any art we want from the 132 pages of submissions before the site closes down. I downloaded 3 as my back-up cover. LOL.

Having not entered this contest I'm speaking from a completely neutral point of view when I say the band/management need to make some form of apology. I'm not gonna bash the winner because at first glance I thought yeah that's ok but I hadn't read the rules or seen some of the mindblowing submissions! But the fact that an extremely talented piece was shown to Mike (one you wouldn't forget if you'd seen) and he asked if you'd even entered the contest isn't right. Either the band haven't actually chosen this or management picked out select pieces to show the band from all the submissions and the band narrowed it down from there I don't know. For me personally if I was a music artist and I asked fans to design something for me I'd want to show off some of their skill and really brag that my fans were outstanding artists and pick a winner that highlighted that, but this just doesn't :/ The rule-breaking is a shame but again if the guy couldn't find the rules (as above) it's up to management to enforce this and not ignore their own rules!

LIKE I SAID, my email worked during the polish contest and they took the announcement down in seconds. Anyone interested? Write an email somewhere explaining breaking the rules etc. should work...

I must say... Shire-Rock for the win!
http://shire-rock.deviantart.com/art/Linki...t-ART-212349197

Did you guys see the making of this art? A lot of time, a lot of work. I am graphic designer too, so I know what it's like. I'm really disappointed. Judges should be ashamed... and rules are rules!



Hell yeah. I'm with ya

Last thing about the winner's art. You can creat something like this between 30 min. to 1 hour. I found official graphic... and 5 min later... bam - http://radq.webd.pl/dl/trace.jpg (trace + a couple of filters). Did I say before that I'm disappointed? I saw a lot of, better than this one.



LOL! That's right Yo

I agree with radq.

I wonder if members LP will hear our protests : D

Mike will just post some good ones on his blog or something like that, unfortunately. Not that that is bad. Just, that winner shouldnt have been picked in the first place. I dont believe mike or joe saw them all.. So im not going to bad mouth mike or someone for picking a bad one.

Hm It seems like this contest ended up pretty unfair.
I didn't like the winning art either.

I understand the points everyone has made so far. I read everything in this thread before replying. Ravok I understand you. It's not necessarily the guy's fault because he honestly might not have known. I fully understand that part of the argument.

LP/Warner needs to make this right. Like KATHYxx said, if they just leave this alone, this further encourages cheating in the future whether the guy meant to or not. They should be the bigger man and fix this. Explain what happened and pick another one.

And then my personal opinion of the graphic: Cool graphic but I was surprised to see the MINUTES TO MIDNIGHT logo on there. This is A Thousand Suns and the band was so keen on having the ATS circle LP logo on stuff so I was shocked to see the MTM one. I knew when this contest started that an amazing graphic wouldn't win because it's too easy to pick something random, etc. The deviantArt post as well as the other posts in this thread contain AWESOME images. I guess the best person doesn't always win in this case but I definitely see ones out there that destroy what won. But that might be the favorite of the band, you never know so you have to respect it

Before verdict I laughed so much because of poeople who submited more than one entry. The rules were simple and easy... Now I'm confused and angry I'm not angry because of that I didn't win, I'm pissed off that contest like this honored the guy who submit 8 artworks...

This is not personal accusation, guy made nice artwork(s). Unfortunately he broke the rules, so I can't stand why nobody noticed it.

Wow - I hope that guy didn't know the rules.


Here's mine - I didn't expect to win at all.

Click to view attachment

There needs to be a response to this. No matter who is at fault.

A lot of people on this thread are being jealous and ridiculous. The band chose what they wanted, move on.

Are you not reading everyone's replies to this thread? It's not about winning or not winning, it's that the guy broke every rule on earth (alright, he missed the rules 'cause they where 'hidden' or whatever, either way it's not an excuse), and the 'judges' did too when choosing it as the winning artwork. It's not fair to us who submitted our artworks by the rules. This goes beyond jealousy! I don't care who wins it as long as it is a clean win.