Why Was My Design Rejected? UPDATED w/ TEMPLATES
Posted By
jimiyo
We don’t intend to offend anyone by declining their work for voting as we want to give all artists an opportunity, but due to our increasing traffic and submissions, we have now adopted a more stringent quality control guideline. It is difficult since alot of art is subjective, but when viewed in the context of apparel designs there are some definite metrics on which the art can be judged.
This is intended to spur artists to try pursue a higher level of craftsmanship. As an artist myself, I am in full agreement with this decision. An artist’s journey is not one of little resistance, in contrary, it is a difficult road of overcoming constant hurdles and challenges. ;j
Let’s cover the basics.
MORE TEMPLATES BY ODDETI http://www.designbyhumans.com/forums/show/579293
DOWNLOAD Model Template: http://www.designbyhumans.com/downloads/easy_template.psd
Just a basic drag and drop for creating mockups for entries.
DOWNLOAD Sizing Template: http://www.designbyhumans.com/downloads/size_template.psd
This one’s somewhat important. When you build a design, you want to ensure that the size of the design will fit well within the compositional space of all sizes of shirts. If you use this template, every 1 cm = 1 in. So the moveable 19×25 tile represents the space your design would take up at a maximum without going to an allover print. The placement of the placeholder can only vary slightly as well. If you use this while designing, it will ensure that it will look good spanning all the sizes. The sizes shown are small, to XXL.
DOWNLOAD Flat Shirt Template: http://www.designbyhumans.com/downloads/flat_template.psd
More realistic than dropping on a model template as when you drop a flat jpeg on the 3D model template you actually dont get to visualize how it is on the shirt.
Ideal art sizing
RGB 8bit, 300 DPI,
Standard 17.5×19
Oversized 19×25
All Over 40X33 (includes sleeves) base central imagery refer to oversized
Pantone Color Approximations – WIll probably add to submission/design guide page if I ever get time, until then:
Kelly 362
Light Purple 2577U
Burnt Orange 1595
Burgundy 492
Mint 621 (slightly more white)
Red 1797 or 200U
Yellow 7401
Oatmeal 406
Navy 5395U or 296U
Silver CG4U or CG5U or 421
Lt Blue 290C or 7457U
Turquoise 7466U
Grass 7489U
Hunter 5535U
Olive 448U
Taupe 410C 411C 437U
Chocolate BlackC 412C
Lead 419U 433C
Before you submit, please review our Design Guide: (Click Here For More Info)
- We are a PG-13 website. We have young people and families surfing. Sexually overt imagery is typically rejected immediately.
- Please save your work in RGB mode jpegs. Some browsers have issues in showing CMYK saved images, so they will not show up properly depending on the viewer’s browser. This is not DBH specific. If you intend to be a graphic artist, make sure your portfolio images are in RGB mode. Google “CMYK images browser issues.”
- If your submissions, whether it be the art or mock is low quality, as in pixelated, distorted, etc, we will reject your submission.
- Low quality filtered images will be rejected. ie) Cutout/threshhold filtered photos with no effort to clean up linework. Some artists will do collage work in this manner, provided it is aesthetically appealing, there will be some exceptions.
- Not using our shirt colors – If you use a shirt color that we do not have, there is a chance that your design may get rejected.
- If you do not use a model or shirt template of some sort to show placement on the 900 × 500 jpeg submission image, you will get rejected.
- If the design is a rectangular image pasted on the chest without concern for the t-shirt canvas, it will be rejected, unless it’s intentionally made to work compositionally as a pasted image.
- If we cannot print as mocked, and it cannot be reduced in size or altered to fit our printing ability, we will reject it.
-
No more front and back hit designs will be approved for voting unless the designs specifically requires a back and front print conceptually. There will also be a more stringent level of judgment for those designs.
- The following are general guidelines:
We can print all over, but there is a limitation on how many colors we can print on an allover. Currently we prefer to choose designs that are 3 or less. Allover prints are hard to register and keep lined up so images with tight line work typically gets passed over.
Designs that are grungy and tonal are easy to print all overs.
Great examples:
http://www.designbyhumans.com/product_images/0001/6537/thenNow_m_f_detail.png?1241550580
http://www.designbyhumans.com/product_images/0001/6521/thenNow_m_b_detail.png?1241550575
We do not prefer designs with:
Bleeding hearts, emo hearts, or similar.
Wings pasted on the back of the shirt, although conceptually interesting, has been done and done.
Designs depicting violence is typically frowned upon.
Our market is predominantly male, so although we love feminine designs and may eventually cater to that market specifically, an overly feminine design, ie) flowers, might get allowed into the voting pool, but probably has a significantly reduced chance of winning.
We do not prefer TEXT shirts specifically slogan tees. Text may be incorporated into a design, but if it seems as if the text is part of the brand name, we reject it as we do not want brand confusion.
ie) A shirt says, Live Strong as a main focal point with some small doodle. A person seeing the shirt may think the brand is Live Strong, not DBH.
If we can tell what Photoshop filter was run on a photo, it’s indicative of art created by somewhat inexperienced artist. These typically do not print well as it’s very Photoshop-y. We reject those. This also applies to smudge tool, gradient tool (used incorrectly), and other various entry level design methods.
Typically, although this does not get rejected, but a person’s face as a focal point, do not sell well unless its a famous person, caricature, etc.
More to come…
Comments
Hhahaha. I clicked expecting it be broccoli that had Obama’s likeness. Thanks for the laugh.
I got my Incubus sub rejected too. I’d really love to get insights as to why it was. I submitted it as a PNG, is that a factor as well? Can I post it here? How do I do that (sorry for all the questions, I’m still getting the hang of things here). Thanks!
You should submit them as jpegs.
Post it here, just upload the images to imageshack ( http://imageshack.us/ ) and post the links here.
geode said: I got my Incubus sub rejected too. I’d really love to get insights as to why it was. I submitted it as a PNG, is that a factor as well? Can I post it here? How do I do that (sorry for all the questions, I’m still getting the hang of things here). Thanks!
Read Jimiyo’s post again mang. RGB jpegs.
Also, your mockup looks a bit sloppy and lowquality. Read rule number 3. Read all of it so you’ll be less confused in the future.
Thanks for the comments. I must admit I’m really new about this, and self-taught. I only came upon this forum through the rejection email, so I didn’t know about these specs before I submitted. Thanks for the enlightenment. I’ll work on something new soon.
I’ve got two designs rejected.
It’s not up to me to judge, but I think guidelines for submissions are VERY generic in some points:
“Your design has already been submitted or published at another location.”
what is meant by published? it the artwork is also featured in my blog or website that means it’s been “Published”? for me the sentence is quite vague. I think it would be better to ask people to submit ONLY original artworks expressly done for this place and CLEARLY say not to discover the artwork within a given date/event. I say this because the only reason I can think of for the reason of the rejection is that my artwork is featured on my website (obviously, I would say…).
I’ve seen very beautiful artwork on this site but also some real crap. I’m quaite curious to know what’s exactly your idea of “quality standards”.
It should be alot clearer – might be an idea to mention in the design guide that designs are limited to 8 colors. This is the reason i think my design just got rejected. However, looking at other designs for sale, it looks like some of them use more than 8.
By published they mean that it’s not simultaneously up for vote somewhere else or being sold or previously printed. It doesn’t matter if it’s on your site, and it doesn’t have to be somethings you made just for here, it could be some old illustration you thought could work well on a shirt. Or it could be a design that was voted on elsewhere (Threadless or what-have-you) but didn’t get printed and is no longer up for voting.
As for color limitatons, to qoute Jimiyo:
"It’s generally unlimited for standard or jumbo prints without sleeve prints because our separator is a Level 70 Magi.
In the case of an All Over print though, the process is not conducive to printing more than 4 colors, although 3 is best since we might need base.
And, if a design has more colors than we can handle, we will sometime request a slight shift in the color if approved for print worst case scenario."
As for quality standards. It’s up to the art director, so do your best to impress. Instead of saying “I see some crap here, what’s up with that?” Make something that’s too good to reject. I think I’m noticing a trend though with a lot of stuff that is rejected, they’re relying too much on photoshop and it’s filters and effects. There are so many things that can be done with photoshop, but you don’t want it to call attention to itself.
yo stray…is there any full guidelines here that i can check out regarding color limitations or other usefull info besides the one’s that jimiyo already posted?…much oblige stray….
That’s pretty much it I think. As long as you’re not doing an allover print, printing on the shoulders, or going from seam to seam with your design, you don’t have to worry about color limitations, as many as you want.
I just know this stuff from past forum discussions. I think you can find everything you need to know in this thread really.
thestray said: That’s pretty much it I think. As long as you’re not doing an allover print, printing on the shoulders, or going from seam to seam with your design, you don’t have to worry about color limitations, as many as you want.
I just know this stuff from past forum discussions. I think you can find everything you need to know in this thread really.
some people don’t really go to the first page when reading posts, from past expereance.
This is a good comp!
Three versions on one composition. This will result in more votes IMO because if a person doesn’t like one version, they have two others to look at. Primo presentation!
Nice, will be making use of those templates. Will also be making use of the advice of alternate versions in my comps.
hi!
i would like to ask questions.
Standard 17.5×19
Oversized 19×25
can u print Standard as 19×17.5
and Oversized 25×19 (landscape)?
and can u print one color as All Over 40X33 as a background then print more than 3 colors of Oversized 25×19 over the background?
and i downloaded a dbh DarkChocolate t-shirts template but i can’t extract a DarkChocolate_M_F file because its file name has a valid character for pc. i can open the rest of DarkChocolate but the DarkChocolate_M_F file.
can anyone send me an email for just only the DarkChocolate_M_F file?
thank u
GB_ENIGMA said: hi!
i would like to ask questions.
Standard 17.5×19
Oversized 19×25
can u print Standard as 19×17.5
and Oversized 25×19 (landscape)?
and can u print one color as All Over 40X33 as a background then print more than 3 colors of Oversized 25×19 over the background?
and i downloaded a dbh DarkChocolate t-shirts template but i can’t extract a DarkChocolate_M_F file because its file name has a valid character for pc. i can open the rest of DarkChocolate but the DarkChocolate_M_F file.
can anyone send me an email for just only the DarkChocolate_M_F file?
gb_enigma@yahoo.co.th
thank u
Those dimensions mean 17.5" wide x 19" tall, and 19" wide x 25" tall. Therefore, no the numbers cant be switched.
My guess is that if any colors run in the All-Over dimensions, then the entire piece would be printed All-Over. So that would one color too many.
And i haven’t had that problem with the image file, but I run on a Mac so that may be why.
Oddeti said: can anyone send me an email for just only the DarkChocolate_M_F file?
gb_enigma@yahoo.co.th
thank u
Those dimensions mean 17.5" wide x 19" tall, and 19" wide x 25" tall. Therefore, no the numbers cant be switched.
My guess is that if any colors run in the All-Over dimensions, then the entire piece would be printed All-Over. So that would one color too many.
And i haven’t had that problem with the image file, but I run on a Mac so that may be why.
could you send me an email for just only the DarkChocolate_M_F file? and please rename it as a simple name to avoid the mac-pc name problem.
thank u
Thanks for good guide.. But It’s difficult for me limitation on many colors.
They should have a forum team to answer everyone’s questions. Even though they kinda do already have an unofficial one of me and you, stray ha.
Oddeti said: They should have a forum team to answer everyone’s questions. Even though they kinda do already have an unofficial one of me and you, stray ha.
word!
Oddeti said: They should have a forum team to answer everyone’s questions. Even though they kinda do already have an unofficial one of me and you, stray ha.
We’re like an awesome tag-team!
Question about this raising the bar and rejecting designs above (and others mentioned within the forums) and even a couple I submitted. Where does this fit in to this? No disrespect to the artist since she deserves her chance too, but why accept this and reject others? Please explain.
BenjaminPhantom said: Question about this raising the bar and rejecting designs above (and others mentioned within the forums) and even a couple I submitted. Where does this fit in to this? No disrespect to the artist since she deserves her chance too, but why accept this and reject others? Please explain.
http://www.designbyhumans.com/vote/detail/59302
I kinda hafta agree with you on this one benjamin lol.
BenjaminPhantom said: Question about this raising the bar and rejecting designs above (and others mentioned within the forums) and even a couple I submitted. Where does this fit in to this? No disrespect to the artist since she deserves her chance too, but why accept this and reject others? Please explain.
http://www.designbyhumans.com/vote/detail/59302
It entertained me.
I agree with you both. I think it’s a great idea. But the pink outlines aren’t necessary.
jimiyo said:BenjaminPhantom said: Question about this raising the bar and rejecting designs above (and others mentioned within the forums) and even a couple I submitted. Where does this fit in to this? No disrespect to the artist since she deserves her chance too, but why accept this and reject others? Please explain.
http://www.designbyhumans.com/vote/detail/59302It entertained me.
Fair enough, you silly guy.
1.couple of questions. if i want to promote on facebook or myspace is that doable?
like hey this is my design come login and give me a vote does that count?
2. can it be my design was too colorful and because of that it was rejected?
3.is it ok to use some random pics thats been modified from google as metaart?
4. how long it takes for me to resubmit the design. so it wont appear as i’m spamming.
5. can DBH make a extra page after submitting so it will appear as if they got it.
like hey thanks for the design we will review it within 72 hours bla blah?
because it just seem to be uploading and then just refreshed the page without any notice
so i resubmitted again , was that the reason why it got rejected?
6. can dbh give a small explanation why it was rejected Rather then throw us into the pool and by any means try not to drown.
i wish i could post a link here to my design by i have no clue how to do this. can someone help please.
1. We encourage self promotion.
2. Only if it’s an allover print. Then colors are limited to 3.
3. Most often a strong No.
4. You can resubmit soon. However we do not want to have 5 subs in a row by the same artist.
5. Once a submissions is accepted we do send an email, and once submitted, there’s a box that says, design submitted. Although this is a good point. It could be more clear.
6. Most likely not. With the volume of submissions, unfortunately we do not have the time. You are free to post in the forums for critiques.
thanks alot. point number 6 is a good idea… and i think thats why got rejected in the first time.
sometimes the browser times out and it just ignores your request thats what i thought happened.
but yeah a little notice from the website would make this whole thing much clearer.
thanks guys for answering my questions
I’ve seen alot of bleeding heart/heart designs recently, and to be frank, I can’t stand them.
Would you guys think it’s horrible if I put it on the list?
jimiyo said: I’ve seen alot of bleeding heart/heart designs recently, and to be frank, I can’t stand them.
Would you guys think it’s horrible if I put it on the list?
Not even a little. You’re the gatekeeper man, lay down the law. I’ve been seriously considering making a bleeding spleen design to make fun of them.
Does anyone know how to get DBH t-shirt colors out of the layer in photoshop elements 5?? Yes i know its old.
oldsk00l said: Does anyone know how to get DBH t-shirt colors out of the layer in photoshop elements 5?? Yes i know its old.
Best thing I can say is take a screenshot of your layers panel. That way we can see whats on it.
true story: I just got a 10K sub rejected the other day…to be honest I’m relieved it was something I rushed to make the deadline but I had serious issues with the quality…I was going to request that DBH kill it but they beat me to the punch!
FluentSword said:jimiyo said: I’ve seen alot of bleeding heart/heart designs recently, and to be frank, I can’t stand them.
Would you guys think it’s horrible if I put it on the list?Not even a little. You’re the gatekeeper man, lay down the law. I’ve been seriously considering making a bleeding spleen design to make fun of them.
why not have a giant boxing glove punching the spleen? lol
WinterArtwork said: true story: I just got a 10K sub rejected the other day…to be honest I’m relieved it was something I rushed to make the deadline but I had serious issues with the quality…I was going to request that DBH kill it but they beat me to the punch!
FluentSword said:jimiyo said: I’ve seen alot of bleeding heart/heart designs recently, and to be frank, I can’t stand them.
Would you guys think it’s horrible if I put it on the list?Not even a little. You’re the gatekeeper man, lay down the law. I’ve been seriously considering making a bleeding spleen design to make fun of them.
why not have a giant boxing glove punching the spleen? lol
That one got rejectorated cause of the multiple colors making it an allover print if I remember correctly.
forgedvisions said: How do you post a rejected submitle for critique
Upload it somewhere (like http://imageshack.us ) then copy and paste the link here. You can put an exclamation mark on both sides of the link and it’ll show as a picture.
As a newbie, this is great information. It is a pity that I stumbled upon it rather than having a link to it from the FAQ or from the Submit Artwork page.
Thanks to qetza for the bump! Are there any other Must Read articles like this before I start submitting?
Awesome info man. Thanks very much for all this. I’ll look out next time, because i really like the over-sized —> allover print designs.