Images via: (clockwise from top left) 
“bedroom chinoiserie screen” by lkonstanski (cropped from original), “Cherry Blossoms” by John Morgan, “Chinese panels” by NinaZed (cropped from original), “Chinese Wallpaper” by momo (cropped from original), “Le Chinois Toile” by PoshSurfside.com, “005161-F-2013LZ” by Christie’s Education (cropped from original)
If you follow our newsletter, a few weeks ago you may have seen us announce jovoto.com’s “Artificial Garden” design challenge, which wrapped up last week. If you didn’t have a chance to submit, don’t worry…today we are pleased to share their next textile design challenge, “Chinoiserie-Chic” which runs for the next month and is open to all! There are over 5000€ in prizes to be won and the opportunity to gain access to additional textile design challenges over the coming year.
Olof, jovoto’s Community Manager, was kind enough to write up a summary of the most essential information regarding this and future jovoto projects:
- The ‘Chinoiserie-Chic’ theme is the second project in a series of 12 (with equally exciting themes!) that will run on jovoto over the next year
- It opened for submissions on the 16th of June and closes on the 21st of July. Anyone who is a member of jovoto can submit their pattern designs. (It’s free to join jovoto!)
- There are two prizes to be won:
- 1) The Community Awards, where the community votes on the best designs ranking from 1st-8th place: 5000€ to be won.
- 2) The Client’s Choice Award, which the client decides: 100€ for a licensed design, plus 0.20€ per sold meter. (The client is a textile supplier who works with big international fashion brands and supplies them with patterns for their upcoming collections.)
- After this project, some of the best designers will be invited to a talent pool who will have the exclusive opportunity to work on above mentioned briefs on a monthly basis throughout the next year. This means that the projects no longer will be public. Anyone can of course apply to the talent pool via a link on the briefing by sending us their work samples or their portfolio.
Here are a few other important points to note: The designer who submitted a design owns the full rights to their designs until the client decides to license it. However, if you submit a design in the Chinoiserie-Chic project, you can not use that design for any other challenge/competition or such for a period of 6 months. You also can not sell that pattern to any other brand/company for a period of 6 months. The reason for that is because our client needs to have the possibility to select any design to present to their clients during that period. You are of course free to show those patterns in your portfolios since this is a public project and open for anyone. When the 6 months have passed and if your design has not been selected, you are free to use your design in any way.
For more information on this project including details on the target market, required file formats, and links to various inspiration sources visit http://goo.gl/XmQJda. Click “Read the Brief” and download their Moodboard, Pattern Handbook and Presentation Template to gain a full understanding of what’s required.
I also want to note that the Chinoiserie-Chic theme is doubling as our newest Chelsea’s Challenge in the Textile Design Lab. Chelsea’s Challenge is a monthly design challenge that I host which allows our students to work through a theme together as a group, and use our private forum as a resource for feedback and bouncing ideas off fellow students, Michelle, Jamie and myself. The jovoto contest is such a fabulous opportunity and for those of you looking for additional support and feedback through the design process, I invite you to join us in the Lab and workshop your designs before submitting to the contest. In addition to Chelsea’s Challenges the Lab also offers e-courses like The Sellable Sketch and The Ultimate Guide to Repeats, guest expert tutorials, member webinars and lots more!
Have fun and best of luck to everyone! -Chelsea
