Designer Code of Conduct
We want to give Designers these 4 things:
- Top awards for great logo design
- Fair treatment and the utmost respect for intellectual property
- Recognition and promotion of great design work
- Professional, friendly community for design professionals
Suspected Copyright Infringement
Please respect all community members, but in particular please treat Contest Holders as if they are your own customers and you are interacting with them face to face. The customer isn’t always right, and the customer probably doesn’t know as much about logo design as you do, but remember: the customer is ALWAYS the customer and should be treated with respect.
Do not publicly criticize the Contest Holder’s decision, and do not attempt to influence their decision by anything other than your designs. It is acceptable to make clients aware of general design issues without specifically identifying any other design entries. For example, it is OK to point out the general fact that logos with heavy graphic effects tend to work better on the web than in print.
Individual issues should be resolved personally and politely through the PM (private message) feature first. Always do this before posting anything in the Forums.
You may not make private arrangements with Contest Holders such as offering free services if they select your logo. While a winning Designer may offer additional services outside the LogoTrader site, other private arrangements before a contest ends are not allowed.
The Contest discussion area is not to be used to post messages regarding either your own or anyone else’s entries.
Submission Requirements
VECTOR FILES ONLY. The final artwork must be submitted in EPS with fonts converted to outlines. NO CLIP ART. This means no iStockphoto, Shutterstock, etc., even if you have purchased a user license.
NO TRACING OR VECTORIZING INTERNET CONTENT OR PHOTOGRAPHY. There are two exceptions: 1) You must own FULL copyright to the image, must not have used it before, and must agree not to use it again and 2) The Client is given FULL copyrights to the image.
IMAGE DIMENSIONS MUST BE 500x400. Or they must have a width / height ratio of 1.25 to 1 in JPG, PNG, or GIF format.
ONE CONCEPT PER SUBMISSION. This means that if you want to show a logo design in 3 different colors, you need to create and upload 3 separate files. NO WATERMARKS (whether your design firm or any other’s).
IMAGE MUST BE CENTERED. Both horizontally and vertically, with sufficient surrounding space.
NO BORDERS. We want to build a clean and consistent portfolio of our community’s work.
BACKGROUNDS. White, black, or otherwise solid backgrounds are best. Complicated or elaborate backgrounds are allowed, but not recommended because they do not show up as well on buildings, vehicles, and other media. Moderators may choose to remove designs that do not look professional.
The staff and moderators of LogoTrader may remove entries without notice if they violate the submission rules.
Moderator Code of Conduct
Our moderators are volunteers who are nominated to represent the Designer community. They help make LogoTrader a positive and fair experience for Designers and Contest Holders.
All Moderators must follow these rules:
- Moderators may not remove a logo entry in a contest in which they are participating. Rather they should post a message in the Moderator forum requesting someone else to handle it.
- Moderators may not remove any logo that is involved in a Logo court case.
- Moderators may not take any action that could be interpreted as a conflict of interest. In such cases they must defer to another Moderator, or to LogoTrader Support staff.
- Moderators should be less strict in the Designer forums.
