Announcing April 2023 Design Challenge Themes

Spoonflower’s Weekly Design Challenges encourage creativity by inviting our community to submit designs around a theme and vote on favorites to win weekly prizes. See what design challenges are coming up and which designers were crowned grand-champion in past challenges here.

Be sure to visit the blog to learn more about Spoonflower’s Design Challenge rules and moderation process.

We’re partnering with North Carolina-based pottery studio, East Fork, to celebrate the launch of their newest glaze colors, Butter and Piglet!

Behind Spoonflower and East Fork are a sense of place, and stories of people. The clay from the ground, the hands that brought the shape into being; the linen printed in Durham, the artist that dreamed the design. That’s where you come in! This week, we challenge you to create a design using Butter (#F4EDBA) and Piglet (#F2DDDD) that could be used as table linens alongside this beautiful pottery.

An Important Note About Your Entry:

Artists must use both East Fork glaze colors, Butter (#F4EDBA) and Piglet (#F2DDDD) as the main colors. Additional colors can be incorporated, but we recommend only adding neutrals and keeping it simple with no more than 4 colors total (not including black and white) to ensure your design coordinates well with East Fork products. Honoring the glaze colors is key!

The winning design, hand-selected from the top 50 by East Fork, will be printed on tabletop items and featured in the Spoonflower Pop-Up Shop at an East Fork retail location. Any design entered in the Design Challenge is subject to be included in any East Fork or Spoonflower retail location (in-person or online) and included in marketing materials at the sole discretion of East Fork and Spoonflower.

Each of the top 10 winners will receive products from East Fork and products from Spoonflower featuring their design—scroll to the bottom of this post for prize details!

Entries will be previewed on 21″ x 18″ fat quarter. Submissions close March 28 at 3 p.m. Eastern Time. Voting begins March 30. Winners will be announced April 6. See official rules.

Take a wild classic and add an abstract twist!

Rather than the common realistic leopard, zebra or giraffe prints we’re used to seeing, think outside the box for this challenge and add your own unique flair to your favorite iconic animal patterns. Things like distorted butterfly wings, tiger stripes with a wild color palette, or warped scales. Consider your design as a set of curtains that would bring life to any room.

Entries will be previewed on a Spoonflower curtain panel (50″ wide). Submissions close April 4 at 3 p.m. Eastern Time. Voting begins April 6. Winners will be announced April 13. See official rules.

The art of miniatures has experienced a resurgence in the last several years, and this week we’re celebrating these minis by challenging you to design small scale wallpaper to dress the walls of a dreamy dollhouse.

If you were a miniatures maker, what kind of style would you want reflected in your wallpaper? Whether you lean formal and Victorian or casual and quirky, envision your design being used in a dollhouse for both kids and adults to enjoy.

Loving your small scale design? Don’t forget to add a large scale wallpaper version to your Spoonflower shop as well for folks decorating their full-size houses!

Entries will be previewed on an 8″ x 8″ swatch. Submissions close April 11 at 3 p.m. Eastern Time. Voting begins April 13. Winners will be announced April 20. See official rules.

This week, show us drawings of bee-utiful bugs!

Will your entry buzz with beetles, ladybugs and dragonflies? Will it be crawling with centipedes, spiders and stick bugs? For this challenge, we’re looking for your design elements be hand-drawn—consider watercolor paints, textured pencils and other traditional art mediums when creating your buggy friends. Head to our popular Hand-Drawn Florals Design Challenge for some inspiration.

Entries will be previewed on a 21″ x 18″ fat quarter. Submissions close April 18 at 3 p.m. Eastern Time. Voting begins April 20. Winners will be announced April 27. See official rules.

One Grand Prize Winner each week will receive $200 in Spoondollars. The winner will also receive additional exposure in our email newsletters and social media mentions.

The 1st place winner of the East Fork: Butter & Piglet Design Challenge, chosen by East Fork, will receive a $200 Spoonflower credit, a Big Potter’s Nesting Set in the glaze color of their choice (from currently available glazes), one set of East Fork mugs in Butter and Piglet, one Spoonflower tablecloth featuring their winning design and will be included in Spoonflower’s Pop-Up Shop within an East Fork retail location. 

The 2nd place winner will receive $100 in Spoondollars.

The 2nd place winner of the East Fork: Butter & Piglet Design Challenge will receive a $100 Spoonflower credit, one set of East Fork mugs in Butter and Piglet and one Spoonflower set of dinner napkins featuring their design.

The 3rd place winner will receive $50 in Spoondollars.

The 3rd place winner of the East Fork: Butter & Piglet Design Challenge will receive a $50 Spoonflower credit, one set of East Fork mugs in Butter and Piglet and one Spoonflower set of dinner napkins featuring their design. 

4th through 10th place winners will receive a $20 Spoondollar credit.

Remaining top 10 designs of the East Fork: Butter & Piglet Design Challenge will receive a $20 Spoonflower credit, one set of East Fork mugs in Butter and Piglet and one Spoonflower set of dinner napkins featuring their design.

Each of the top 50 entries, determined as set forth above, not receiving one of the foregoing prizes will be automatically proofed for sale in the Spoonflower Marketplace (approximately a $5 value) (the “Runner Up Prize”) if winners are verified sellers.