Entering a Design Challenge

Spoonflower Design Challenges are an opportunity to boost your creative skills and join fellow designers in a friendly competition around a specific theme. Check out the current and upcoming challenges on our site, or follow Spoonflower on Instagram and Facebook for challenge announcements and details.  Check out more information in our Design Challenge Voting and Results article as well.
 
Themes and Rules
Submitting Your Design
Confirming Your Entry
Editing Your Entry
Withdrawing Your Entry

Themes and Rules

Design Challenge themes are announced month by month. To make sure you have ample time to create, themes for the following month are typically shared on the first Friday of the current month. Click into the See Challenge Terms and Conditions link published within the call for each individual design challenge to learn specifics about the rules. However, it is also good to know the rules that always apply: 

• All designs will be eligible for public voting, and the popular vote determines the top 100 winning designs.
• Designs previously uploaded on Spoonflower.com prior to the announcement of the contest theme are not eligible for the contest.  
• You must be a verified seller to enter.
• A designer may enter only one design in each challenge.
• We moderate all entries before voting begins and may occasionally need to withdraw designs for a variety of reasons, including but not limited to: copyright issues, use of clip art, stock images, public domain content or text-to-image AI (Artificial Intelligence) generated images, inappropriate/vulgar content, swear words and political content.  We also may withdraw entries that do not align to that month's theme, so keep in mind that it is helpful to include language in your design title and description that clearly aligns to the theme. Note: If you have any questions about an entry that has been disqualified, please reach out to us so we might try and clarify the concerns.
   

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  Submitting Your Design

1. Sign into your account, or create an account if you don't already have one
2. Upload your design. Designs must be uploaded following the date of the announcement of the contest theme in order to be eligible.
3. Adjust your entry on the design edit page.
4. Digitally proof the design and set it For Sale. If you aren’t already, you will need to become a verified seller.
5. Click the Enter Design Challenge button (as shown in the screenshot above).
6. Select the correct Design Challenge from the dropdown menu under What challenge do you want to enter?
7. Review the voting preview image to make sure your design displays properly.
8. Confirm your design fits the prompt by clicking Yes and adding a thoughtful title and description
9. Happy? Click Submit Entry
   • Not quite perfect? Click Edit Design Thumbnail or Cancel and return to design library to adjust and re-save the settings and review the design until you are happy.
     
   • Designs must be publicly For Sale to be included in the challenge. If you mark your design as private after entering it, your design will be removed from being seen in the challenge.

Confirming Your Entry

Artists often write asking to confirm their design is entered. To confirm your design is entered:

• Hover over your profile icon in the top left
• Click My Design Challenges from the dropdown menu

• On the My Design Challenges page you will see the challenges you’ve entered, votes you've received and top ten wins

  

• You'll see a preview of your design for an upcoming challenge with the word Entered once if you have successfully entered.

Editing Your Entry

While we do not encourage artists to make changes to their designs after entering a challenge, we understand that sometimes it is necessary. If you need to make minor changes to a design you've entered in a challenge (i.e. fixing a pixel line or adjusting the scale), those changes will be reflected in your challenge entry. Visit Revising Your Design for more information on uploading revisions.

Withdrawing Your Entry

To withdraw your design from the design challenge, hover over your profile icon in the top left and click My Design Challenges from the dropdown menu. Then, click Withdraw under the design that you wish to withdraw. 

Ready to vote and learn more about the results? Check out Design Challenge Voting and Results next!