Mouse Mat Competition

General

Use the GIMP to design a mouse mat that can be used as a give-away to promote UCC's Computer Science degree to prospective students.

A winning design will be chosen by Derek Bridge and the Computer Science Department's PR Committee. We are in negotiations with a printing company to print the winning design as a foam mouse mat. A copy will be given to each member of the CS1102 class; and the rest will be given away to prospective students, etc. (If the negotiations fail, an alternative prize will be awarded.)

Details

Deadline

5 pm Friday 30th November 2007

Submissions

There is no limit on the number of entries that you may make. We welcome entries both from individuals and from small teams. All entrants must be currently registered for First Science CK401 in UCC. Read the legal stuff at the end of this web page. Email your entry to Derek Bridge, with the phrase "mouse mat" in the Subject line and team members listed in the body of the email.

Content

• Keep it relatively simple with not too many colours.
• By all means be witty but avoid anything that might be defamatory, offensive or obscene.
• At a minimum, include the Computer Science home page address somewhere: www.cs.ucc.ie
• By all means include your name(s), e.g. "Designed by Donna Kebab, UCC Computer Science student, 2007-2008".
• You can use logos from the UCC web site. But if you do, you must adhere to the University's Visual Identity Guidelines.
• All other artwork should be your own. Do not infringe anybody's copyright, trademark or other rights.

File format

Prepare your entry using the GIMP. In general, do not flatten layers. Save and submit in the GIMP's own format (XCF), e.g. as mousemat.xcf, rather than GIF or JPEG.

Image dimensions and resolution

The final mouse mat will be 9.25 inches x 7.75 inches. But, you must create a larger image: 9.5 inches x 8 inches. Obviously, don't put anything important into this extra space, but don't leave it blank either: make sure your artwork goes all the way to the edge of the image. After printing, the mouse mat will be cut to the correct size. The extra space gives some room for error in the cutting process.

Anything that's really important (e.g. text) should be at least 1/2 inch in from the outside of the image.

Here is an illustration (not to actual size) that may make this clearer.

The resolution of your image needs to be 300 dpi.

Suppose you've launched the GIMP and selected File > New. The Create a New Image dialog will appear. Look carefully at all the boxes in this screenshot; make sure you fill in the boxes in the same way.

Finally, when working with the Image window, be aware that the GIMP will probably not be displaying your design at full size.

Legal stuff

By entering the competition, and as conditions of eligibility,

• participant(s) agree to grant to UCC a non-exclusive, irrevocable, worldwide, royalty-free license to any and all intellectual property rights the participant(s) may have relating to the participants' submission(s) including but not limited to copyright, moral rights and a license for UCC to adapt, edit, modify, publish, promote, reproduce, distribute, publicly display and perform and make derivative works of the participants' submission(s) in any and all media as UCC sees fit, to identify the participant(s) as authors of the submission(s), and to authorize others to do any of the above without any obligation to compensate the participant(s);
• participant(s) certify that any identifiable individuals appearing in the submission, or their guardians if the individuals are minors, have given their written consent to use of their image as set out in these rules; and
• participant(s) certify that they are author of the submission and that the submission has not been published previously elsewhere or submitted to any other competition, that all releases and authorizations were duly obtained, which are the sole responsibility of the participant(s), and that nothing exists that may interfere with their entering said submission in this competition or granting of authorizations in relation thereto;
• participant(s) agree to indemnify, defend and hold UCC, its employees, agents and representatives harmless for any losses or expenses arising from claims contrary to the above.

UCC reserves the right to use any technique to verify the accuracy of the information that participants provide when they enter this competition.

No responsibility is assumed for lost, late, incomplete, stolen, misdirected, or illegible submissions; or for any computer, telephone, cable, network, satellite, electronic or Internet hardware or software malfunctions, failures, connections, availability or garbled or jumbled transmissions, lack of Internet accessibility or availability, or technical failure of any kind, or unauthorized human intervention, or the incorrect or inaccurate capture of entry information, or the failure to capture any such information.

(This legal stuff is based on that used in the 'Challenging Perspectives' Equality Photo Competition organized by the seven universities of Ireland in Autumn 2007.)

Help

Clarification can be sought from Derek Bridge by email or in CS1102 labs.