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Smashing Textures Contest
May 9th, 2008 in Events | 60 Comments
Take a shot, send us the image and win a Canon Digital Rebel camera. In web design textures are needed in background-images and header graphics. Graphic designers use textures to transport some concrete aspects of real-life into the digital presentation. Textures are also used to create an atmosphere which fits to the main topic or idea of the site.
Such textures are usually extracted from photos. In fact, everybody can create them — apart from a camera no special devices or tools are necessary. You just need to find a texture and you make a shot of it. And here is where our readers come in. With this contest we want to encourage you to go out, take a camera with you, shot textures and send them to us.
What are we looking for?
We are looking for original, manually taken shots of textures. This contest is all about creativity. So take your camera, go out and shoot. Basically, almost everything can be a texture. Of course, walls, paper, ceramics, textile, wood, fabrics, metal, sand, plastic, wallpaper, stone and million of other motifs. Abstract or concrete, beautiful and strange — it’s completely up to you.
A good texture doesn’t have to be clean — on contrary, some beautiful textures can be found there where nobody actually looks at. Besides, some texture convey their beauty once you closely observe them. Just be curious and take a closer look around you. You may want to have a look at this article to get some more ideas: Where can I find textures and background images?
Clean fabric textures can be found everywhere — this shot is taken by Lucy Nieto
Water drops build a nice, irregular texture
This is glass fibre from a boat. Photo: Flickr
“Natural” texture photographed in a wood
Texture made out of bricks in a wall
A knot texture
Stone Texture from Ben Cloward
This one is from a burned down hut
Stones texture which can be found in many sidewalks…
…or buildings.
Sand texture photographed by Kydroon
Wallpaper texture
Vintage fabric found by Stephanie Cake
Contest Details
So what is required to participate? And which rules should you consider before sending us your textures?
Is there a reward?
Yes. The camera presented below can be yours. One of participants of Smashing Texture contest will win the Canon Digital Rebel XT 8MP Digital SLR Camera with EF-S 18-55mm f3.5-5.6 Lens. The winner will be determined randomly.
Deadline
Send us your textures until the 21st of May 2008. The winner will be announced few days after the deadline.
Formats
- PNG or JPG
- The size of textures is not that important, however they should have at least the width of 1000px.
- All images should be packed in a .zip-archive; the archive should have a specific file name, e.g. john-doe.zip.
- Every participant can send at most 5 textures. In this case every texture should be packed in a separate .zip-archive. Text-files with copyright information, your URL, country and a brief description of your texture should be placed in the .zip-files as well. Please don’t include any advertisement in the archives.
Copyright, labels, watermarks
Copyright information, water marks and URLs are usual for wallpapers, but they would disturb the texture. After all, designers should be able to work with textures after they are presented. Therefore please avoid everything which isn’t really a part of a texture. The participants should own the copyright for the textures they are sending. Textures should be photographed, therefore they shouldn’t be already available somewhere in the Web.
Winner announcement
All interesting textures will be presented as screenshots here, on Smashing Magazine and offered for free download to Smashing Magazine readers. The name and URL of participants will be presented, of course. If there will be enough participants, textures will be sorted and categorized.
Where should the textures be sent to?
Send your textures at sven@xxsmashingmagazinexx.com. Please remove all xx before sending your entries.
Get creative, folks!
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Dennis (May 9th, 2008, 5:29 am)
Interesting contest. Textures are very limited as they only have one specific theme.
Looking forward to the winner basically and see on what basis you judge as I couldn’t judge textures to be honest. Looking at the above examples, every one of those would be a winner for me as they come from totally different backgrounds and all have some beauty aspect.
Vitaly Friedman & Sven Lennartz (May 9th, 2008, 5:32 am)
@Dennis: there will be no “best” texture if that’s what you mean. There is just no way to somehow rank textures. You are absolutely right. Probably what you mean is the winner of the camera - a “winner” will be chosen randomly.
sneev (May 9th, 2008, 5:44 am)
@dennis … textures are not limiting at all …
that.s the beauty of textures .not only are they EVERYWHERE, but you can use them for EVERYTHING … so not sure why you think textures have only one theme …
good luck if you plan on entering .
David Dashifen Kees (May 9th, 2008, 5:44 am)
I must admit to being reasonably mystified by textures in general. Coming from a programming background rather than an artistic one, I’ve never really understood what they’re for, when to apply them, and in general, the stock textures with Fireworks, for example, are reasonably simplistic. I look forward to these contest results and, hopefully, learning more about textures between now and then.
Rogerio Caetano (May 9th, 2008, 5:46 am)
The contest is it allowed to foreigners? Or only US-residents?
Solaris Von Gäzebo (May 9th, 2008, 5:47 am)
How Exciting….!
Having a hard time choosing the good ones to send.
:-D
Vitaly Friedman & Sven Lennartz (May 9th, 2008, 5:49 am)
@Rogerio Caetano: it is allowed for everybody.
Sylvia (May 9th, 2008, 5:53 am)
So when sending in more than one texture, each texture should be zipped separately….Does this mean that each zip contains exactly one image, or that each zip can contain more images of the same texture (eg different angles, etc) (my understanding is that each zip contains 1 image, but I just want to be sure :) )?
Vitaly Friedman & Sven Lennartz (May 9th, 2008, 5:56 am)
@Sylvia: each .zip-archive can contain several images of the same texture.
SARAH (May 9th, 2008, 6:03 am)
Another great contest on the web.
Akino (May 9th, 2008, 6:23 am)
Great Post….
Benedict Aluan (May 9th, 2008, 6:24 am)
Exciting contest! :-)
Nicholas (May 9th, 2008, 6:38 am)
Great contest! Two quick questions: 1) In the text file, you ask for copyright information. Do you have a preference to what to put in here? Creative Commons, etc? 2) I went out and took some pictures just for this contest … Then, I read that we should zip more than pic of the textures. Is just one picutre okay, or does there need to be more than one?
Vitaly Friedman & Sven Lennartz (May 9th, 2008, 7:12 am)
@Nicholas: 1) the pictures should be avaiable for download, deviations, free and commercial projects. So you may write nothing or just some information about the person who has actually shot the texture. 2) You can zip more than one picture, but you don’t have to. One picture is OK.
nbb (May 9th, 2008, 7:17 am)
hey! Why you use use Canon camera image in post?
i hate Canon (I love nikon), and i think You should use canon or nikon image.. it;s provocation!
Please, it’s detail, but important for me.
I like smashing magazine, and don’t want stop.
Vitaly Friedman & Sven Lennartz (May 9th, 2008, 7:22 am)
@nbb: can you be more specific? What do you mean?
Tony (May 9th, 2008, 7:28 am)
So the winner will be randomly determined? So, you’re saying that it’s basically pulling a name out of a hat?
Jacob (May 9th, 2008, 7:52 am)
WebTager (May 9th, 2008, 7:59 am)
Thanks for this beatiful textures!
Ben Jacob (May 9th, 2008, 8:03 am)
I am so excited seeing this fabulous contest by SM… I am also participating ‘Only for that fantastic gift’ …
mary (May 9th, 2008, 8:49 am)
I’m getting to work!
Alain (May 9th, 2008, 8:59 am)
Now then, as for camera preferences.
I work with Canon and like the camera.
I don’t hate Nikon or any other brand. I just prefer Canon.
It is a matter of choice.
The Camera is a tool. So no matter what brand I prefer, it is still a tool !
So please…this is a great contest no matter what.
shannon palmer (May 9th, 2008, 9:59 am)
this will be fun! i give away free textures on my blog all the time (along with tutorials on creating your own), so I’m looking foward to participating.
armando fontes (May 9th, 2008, 10:18 am)
Sven,
Some expecific subject for submition?
Thomas Strobl (May 9th, 2008, 10:45 am)
great contest, maybe ’cause i’ve shot the perfect picture for this contest one month ago :>
already submitted it gladfully :)
gGus (May 9th, 2008, 11:08 am)
Question: by “texture” you mean a tile-able image? (to be used with background-repeat: repeat)?
johno (May 9th, 2008, 12:04 pm)
I’ve just mailed mine. Great idea.
Naren (May 9th, 2008, 12:47 pm)
It seems to be great thing
Shaun (May 9th, 2008, 12:55 pm)
Wow, very nice. I will definetly try and enter something.
mike (May 9th, 2008, 11:38 pm)
@nbb it is not imperative to use a canon, the canon camera in the picture is the prize
Mike different from the other one (May 10th, 2008, 1:52 am)
@gGus - I see no reason textures should have to be tileable. The images can fade out, or be used for specific-side headers.
tam (May 10th, 2008, 7:10 am)
Wooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooouuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu!!!!! I LOVE IT!
ehab (May 10th, 2008, 10:38 am)
cool !
Will send mine next week
FlashRipper (May 10th, 2008, 11:21 am)
Very interesting. Cool thing. I like this site
p.s offtopic:
Why you dont have a forum?
Hey, I’ have a design site for webmaster: Link [flashripper.net]
There a lot of icons i.t.p How is he?
Craig (May 10th, 2008, 1:37 pm)
Hi, great idea for a competition!
I have a number of textures on my Flickr account that are all under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works license. Would you accept them for entry into the competition if I waved this licence, or does the fact that they already are on my account mean that you still wouldn’t allow them?
Dionysius (May 10th, 2008, 2:03 pm)
Yay. Free camera. ^^_
Will send soon.
Ryan (May 11th, 2008, 3:53 am)
Picking the winner at random seems a bit pointless to me. You may have someone who created some stunning textures only for someone else to win who didn’t create anywhere near as nice textures. I think the owner of the most impressive textures should be given merit for their work.
BORA (May 11th, 2008, 4:43 am)
I agree with Ryan, there should be certain criteria. A Poll would be also a nice thing ;D
Picking just randomly isn’t the answer I guess.
Vitaly Friedman & Sven Lennartz (May 11th, 2008, 2:20 pm)
@Ryan, BORA: someone who didn’t create something anywhere near as nice textures won’t be featured and, consequently, won’t have a chance to get a prize.
mils (May 12th, 2008, 2:14 am)
Hi, is there any gallery of contest n3s?
Nice idea as well as this magazine :) thanx..
Dennis (May 12th, 2008, 4:28 am)
THanks for the reply Vitaly. Totally overread the point of randomly picking a winner. Kinda renders my point useless, so thanks for clarifying that bit!
Sarunas (May 12th, 2008, 6:00 am)
Hi,
When textures will be published?
Adam (May 12th, 2008, 9:33 am)
So when do we publish/link and announce the winner(s)??
prizma (May 13th, 2008, 7:04 am)
Do i get an answer that the mail has been recieved?
I have sent one mail, with a zipmap as im supposed to, but i have noe yet gotten a respond..?
Admins; please mail me =)