There's an exciting competition going on hosted by the brilliant woman who created the Make Art That Sells e-course, Lilla Rogers! It's a world-wide talent search comprised of three rounds of creative assignments, professional judging, a public vote, and a final interview with Lilla herself to determine the winner.
The lucky duck who wins the whole thing gets a FREAKIN' AMAZING prize package: two years of representation from the Lilla Rogers Studio along with a stellar list of licensing gigs already lined up! To say winning would be a dream come true would be an understatement!
The first assignment in the competition was a creative brief for the company, Paperchase. We were to design a journal cover inspired by playground equipment. It could be any subject matter, any layout, and any medium as long as there was reference to a playground and contained the word "Journal".
I came up with two different designs.
My first design was inspired by the feeling you got as a child as you went higher and higher on the swings. You felt like you could almost touch the clouds you were going so high. I wanted it to be narrative, sort of like a page from a children's book, and to contain a little girl with a giant smile on her face, head tossed back, eyes closed, filled with joy.

My second design was inspired by two things- kaleidoscopes and sherbet ice cream. I liked the idea of creating a design that, from far away, looked like an abstract pattern filled with reflections and symmetry, but when you look closely you find that it's all little icons of playground equipment and elements. The colors were inspired by sherbet. Pinks, purples, and oranges!

In the end, I decided to go with the one that I felt was most different and original-- the kaleidoscope design. I felt like it was a creative take on the assignment and that the mirror image-style design would look cool on a shelf or when browsing online.
Now, we wait to see who the lucky 50 are who move on to the next round! Wish me luck!!