I'm seeking theme suggestions for this week's fabric of the week contest (which will go out tomorrow morning). As you may have noticed, we've had a LOT of submissions for the last two themes (Christmas and Halloween). That makes it really hard to get the contest together each week, so – in order to give ourselves a bit of a breather — this time I'm looking for a really narrow theme that will motivate only a small number of designers to tackle between Thursday and the deadline on Monday. Kim suggested acorns (too easy) and I countered with 'healthcare reform' or 'fingernails' (too abstract and gross, respectively). Any ideas from you folks before I pull together the weekly email tonight?
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Obviously, I’m going to suggest Goth, or, more narrowly, Subversive Goth, (designs that seem perfectly mainstream until you take a closer look.)
Other ideas… Hmm…
How about designs inspired by fairy tales, mythology or vegetables? How about a contest just for doll panel fabrics?
How about fabrics with a bird theme? Birds are really big now and some new prints that contain them would be a fun thing to have!
I would love to do a contest based on doll panel fabrics. That’s now on the
list. Not really appropriate for a short-turnaround announcement, however.
Bird-fabrics have won the contest so many times already that I wouldn’t want to use them as a theme. A really specific kind of bird might work, however… ostriches, maybe.
I’ve run into this a few times in various situations so this is why I bring it up. What about a Hanukkah fabric since you did Christmas? It’s not very narrow, but equal opportunity. Just a thought.
Otherwise, I personally would love to see some great knitting themed fabrics!
Great idea! I don’t want to get into too much of a holiday rut, but we’ve
seen a few lovely Hanukkah fabrics already.
I love the idea of a doll panel theme. I would love to see what people come up with and it is in time for gift giving (now that we have fabric to wrap things up with.) Even if it is not this week, maybe next time?
As for this week, maybe a harvest veggie or cornucopia theme?
maybe this is too specific, but i’d like to see an alphabet-themed or word-themed fabric contest in which entries are primarily designed with either letters or words or even numbers.
how about sock monkeys! lobsters! maps!
Dragonflies.
Golf.
Football- say specifically the Cowboys.
The number 12.
The word Shine.
crabs.
I could go on. But I won’t. 🙂
Limiting the design theme to a particular number — like 12 — has a
certain appeal. How different might the designs be?
I love some of the suggestions already given, but, since I already looked it up, how about the change of seasons? According to Wikipedia:
“For the Northern Hemisphere, as in the United States, Canada and most of Europe, Fall begins on September 22, 2009 at 5:18 pm EDT.
Spring in Australia begins on September 1, as it does throughout the southern hemisphere.”
Some ideas:
Owls
Snow
New Year
Mermaids
Paisley
7 Days of the Week
Can’t you just see it? Roman numbers, hash marks, beautifully different
fonts… I love the number 12.
If we did mermaids our middle daughter would be beside herself lobbying Kim
to make a dress from it.
I think it would be nice to choose an international theme though (for non US Spoonflower participants :). I for example don’t know what Hanukka is.
So how about a universal theme like, fruits, masks, insects, dots, butterflies, birds (as suggested above), jewels, autumn (mentioned above), cookies or pies or any other ‘neutral’ theme.
ooh, lots of good ideas – especially doll panels, alphabet, and fairy tales.
how about:
small scale designs
color schemes? (everyone loves aqua)
children’s
abstract/damask – there are already lots of good ones on spoonflower
job/work related (sewing, office, books, etc.)
SKULLS!!!
Please do skulls. There are not enough cool skull fabrics out there in the world. Please!!
oh what wonderful suggestions so far! i am so excited about doll panels!
i also love designs that have a theme of…
retro
kitchen/food
dogs
🙂 melissa
how about “spoons”?
Perfect! Spoons and flowers together!
On the list.
Awesome!! 🙂
If you want to narrow it down, grandparents day was Sept 13th. That would be an interesting theme to see everyone’s interpretation of.
So many wonderful suggestions, – but i do think the entries will be even more anyway.. 😉
Spoonflower just feeds the creative energy, – cannot be helped.
I’d suggest not only a specific theme but for instance particular colors to be used.
Perhaps a monochromatic theme – or two or three colors with down loadable chips so that they would be perfect for a color coordinated project later.
Just a thought! 😉
Best regards
I like the spoon idea, but you can expand it to “cookware” to keep it interesting. I idea of narrowing it to something so specific like “spoons”, flowers and etc…seems limiting.
I also like the world fabrics idea.But if we are going to continue with holidays…I thinks it’s best to keep them to be more thematic to the month, as oppose to the day. There are lots of holidays in each month and other special days to many of our diverse spoonflower members. So, something like, October Spoonflower Member Special Days Contest…who knows…we might learn something.
I’d love to make a throw blanket for my living room and I’d love an elephant theme print, so I’d like to suggest “elephants” 😉
Vehicles?
Insects?
Cupcakes?
People named Bob?
I really love the doll panel idea though…
What about mice!!:) Or things that eat cheese!
How about some Escher-esque designs?
I like the doll panel fabric idea, but I think there would have to be a 2-week warning for more creativity and quality designs, perhaps. As a former teacher, I like the idea of “handwriting” (which could go in a number of directions) and also love the idea of numbers/letters. I think there will still be a host of entries, even with obscure contests, because they are so much fun!!! 🙂
What about:
“lime” (color or fruit), “llamas” (what’s not to like about llamas, except maybe spitting?), “sounds,” “music,” “rockabilly,” “A B C,” “learning to read” (in honor of back-to-school), “cardinals,” “fabric designs using grids,” “diversity,” “red tape,” “planes, trains, & automobiles,” “turtles,” “books,” “vintage toys” (without logos), “snails,” “love” (and you can’t use hearts)… Maybe none of these ideas sound good to anyone but me! 🙂
Very interesting idea. Hadn’t thought of that at all.
In this case we are shooting for as narrow as possible. If we come up with a
theme so narrow that it only gets three or four entries I might actually get
a bit of rest next week.
i say ancient greece. it’s not gross, its fun, and it uses a lot of warm fall colors. i.e. ornge, terracota, yellow, saffron, and red. it also uses alot black mixed with thoes colors adding high contrast.
hmmm. Llamas. Snails are really good, too.
Seconded!
Here’s a slightly different idea: How about only letting people who’s birthdays are in the current month enter. Although I don’t think you require a birthday to join Spoonflower so you’d have to rely on the honesty system.
Or if you’d rather do a graphic specific theme:
Libations
Wind
Glass
Photography (without using a photo as the base image)
I’m thinking “toast”. I like toast and it could be interpreted several different ways…toast a glass, butter some toast, toast a marshmallow….mmmmm…..
I like that, too. When it gets cold (in the northern hemisphere, at any
rate), we’ll run toast as a theme one week.
What about food? You could narrow it down to “Sweet Treats” or similar…or “Savoury Snacks” even! Or maybe something like “Toys and Games”.
I second the suggestions of skulls, mermaids, abstract, paisley, goth, retro, fairy tales, mythology- all awesome suggestions! I don’t know how “narrow” of a theme any of them are, but I like them.
Also, what about Wild West, Fish, Faces, Monsters, Masks (I’m thinking something ala Mexican Wrestling masks!), Film, Doodles, Science (I’m thinking diagrams, #s, etc), Architecture (incl. blueprints), Numbers (rulers, etc), Zodiac signs, Geishas, Pop Art…..
OK I’ll shut up now.
🙂
Rita
The first thing I thought of was ‘coffee cup’ or cups.
Thanksgiving or Harvest would both be the next obvious seasonal direction.
But of the ideas submitted I like the dolls and the words best
I like spoons and skulls, thought about cupcakes too. How about candy corn?
I realize the contest has been announced – but I would love to see more around themes. The ones I like
urban
city
letters (font)
words
dogs
farm
country
woods
alternative modes of transportation (non gas powered)
With any theme around handwriting, fonts & numbers, you will invite major copyright infringements, though…. please keep that in mind. Most people think that fonts on DaFont (for example) are free, but of course they mostly aren’t… and yes, printing fabric is considered commercial.
I actually took the plunge and submitted a design; my first Spoonflower design for a contest. 🙂 Still hoping that I got the format and colors right; 120kb seemed such a small file for an 8″ TIF.
I know this is late but for future ideas.
Stick figures (there’s a great flickr page called Stick Figures in Peril)
Spirographs
Dance moves
Icons
Tribute to Pucci
Arts & crafts period
SciFi
How about ‘A knotty problem’?
I love peacocks! How about peacocks or maybe elephants!
I think something like totem poles could be a real challenge and could be cool to see people’s interpretations.
kt
Music!
Vegetables. Desserts. Handprints. Jewels. Dog breeds. Alphabet. Trees. Fruits. Ocean. Lace. Hearts. Playing cards. Geometry. Bears. Tattoos. Handwriting. Circus. Flying. Music. Rock’n’roll. Sherlock Holmes. Dragons. And certain decades (the Fifties, the Sixties) or even specific years. FRance and all things French. Italy/Italian. Etc. Books. Ice Cream. Snowflakes.