Hugo Award Logo Contest

It’s time the Hugo Award had a signature bit of art to strengthen its identity in all media. That’s why the Hugo Awards Marketing Committee is offering $500 in cash and assorted other prizes to the person who submits the winning logo design between now and May 31.

The selection will be made by Chip Kidd (Graphic Designer/Writer/Editor), Irene Gallo (Art Director at Tor Books and Tor.com), Geri Sullivan (Fan & Graphic Design pro) and Neil Gaiman (Hugo Award winning writer).

The cash prize is being provided by SCIFI, the group which ran the 2006 Worldcon.

The committee hopes to announce the winner at Anticipation, the World Science Fiction Convention in Montreal, in August.

The full press release appears after the jump.

HUGO AWARD LOGO DESIGN CONTEST ANNOUNCED

The World Science Fiction Society (WSFS) has announced a contest for a design for an official logo for the Hugo Awards. The Hugo Awards honor the best in written and dramatized science fiction and fantasy, as well as other categories, and are the highest honors in the field of science fiction and fantasy. While the streamlined rocket that is a common feature of the Hugo Award trophy is well known within the field of science fiction and fantasy, there has never been an official logo suitable for designating that a work is a Hugo Award winner. WSFS, through its Hugo Awards Marketing Committee, is soliciting designs for such a logo, which would be suitable for use in the publishing and film/television industries, and in solidifying the Hugo Awards “brand.”

The contest is open to individual designers. Full submission guidelines are available on the Hugo Awards web site at http://www.thehugoawards.org/logocontest.htm. The major points that a successful design should contain are:

* The design must work well at a variety of sizes and in both black & white and color;

* The design must include something clearly recognizable as the classic four-finned Hugo Award rocket;

* The design must include the words “Hugo Award”.

Deadline for submitting entries is May 31, 2009. Entries must be submitted on-line at [email protected]. Entrants should check the submission guidelines carefully for acceptable file formats.

The winner will be selected by a jury and by the WSFS Hugo Awards Marketing Committee. The members of the jury are Chip Kidd (Graphic Designer/Writer/Editor), Irene Gallo (Art Director at Tor Books and Tor.com), Geri Sullivan (Fan & Graphic Design pro) and Neil Gaiman (3 time Hugo Award winning writer). WSFS hopes to be able to announce the winner at the World Science Fiction Convention in Montreal (“Anticipation”) in August 2009.

A condition of proposal entry is that all rights to the designs become the property of WSFS for its sole use. The intention is to register the design as a service mark. As the Hugo name and rocket image are trademarks, unsuccessful designs are unlikely to be usable in other ways

The winner will receive a special trophy incorporating the winning logo design, a $500 cash prize, and signed copies of Neil Gaiman’s Hugo Award-winning novel AMERICAN GODS and novella CORALINE, and the collection FRAGILE THINGS, including Hugo Award-winning short story “A Study in Emerald”. The winning designer will have the right to use the logo and identify him/herself as its creator. The logo is intended to be used widely on the Internet, news releases, and on the covers of Hugo-winning works.

The cash prize has been donated by the Southern California Institute for Fan Interests (SCIFI). This is a non-profit organization that has run many conventions including the 1984, 1996 and 2006 World Science Fiction Conventions.

The Hugo Awards are named for Hugo Gernsback, who, in 1926, launched Amazing Stories, the first major American science fiction magazine. First presented in 1953, the Hugo Awards are presented by the World Science Fiction Society (WSFS) (http://www.wsfs.org/ ). The members of each year’s World Science Fiction Convention (“Worldcon”) nominate and vote on the awards, which are presented at a ceremony which is the high point of each year’s Worldcon.