Celebrate QuarkXPress Postcard Competition

This Competition Has Ended and is No Longer Accepting Entries. View the Winning Entries Below.

Everyone knows that the last time post­cards were used to pro­mote soft­ware they weren’t exact­ly a stun­ning suc­cess. Quark VS InDesign​.com thinks you can do bet­ter. At least, that’s what we keep telling every­one. If you can prove us right, your work might be fea­tured on Quark VS InDesign​.com and you could win your share of US$15,500 (approx­i­mate val­ue) worth of some seri­ous­ly cool stuff.

Our name may be Quark VS InDesign​.com, but these twin con­tests are about show­ing appreciation—ours and yours—for QuarkXPress and InDesign. These con­tests are not about which one you don’t like; they’re about which one you do like, which one you can’t work with­out, and, hope­ful­ly, which one excites you. They are not about bash­ing the com­pe­ti­tion or prov­ing which is bet­ter. And, this is not about the com­pa­nies; it’s about the appli­ca­tions, each on its own mer­its, sep­a­rate from the other.

This is about cel­e­brat­ing and hon­or­ing two incred­i­ble tools of our trade, tools that spare us from the gru­el­ing labor of hand-cutting ruby lithe and wax­ing up head­lines, tools that save us from hav­ing to get real jobs.

The Competition

These are two sep­a­rate, con­cur­rent­ly run­ning design com­pe­ti­tions, with sep­a­rate and inde­pen­dent entries, win­ners, and prizes.

The “Celebrate QuarkXPress Postcard Competition” from Quark VS InDesign​.com is a design com­pe­ti­tion to cre­ate a mar­ket­ing post­card pos­i­tive­ly pro­mot­ing or fea­tur­ing Quark’s QuarkXPress® prod­uct (ver­sion 6.x or 7). The pur­pose and intent of the con­test is to encour­age cre­atives to have fun while sup­port­ing and cel­e­brat­ing QuarkXPress. Each per­son or team may sub­mit a sin­gle, two-sided post­card design in cel­e­bra­tion of QuarkXPress.

One win­ning design and two run­ners up (col­lec­tive­ly “win­ners”) will be cho­sen from the qual­i­fy­ing entries to occu­py First Place, First Runner-Up, and Second Runner-Up. The prizes list­ed below for each place will be award­ed to the cre­ators of the win­ning entries. 

Qualifying is easy. All entrants must agree to the “Celebrate QuarkXPress Postcard Competition” Official Rules and com­plete a reg­is­tra­tion form to accom­pa­ny an orig­i­nal entry design that meets the fol­low­ing sim­ple cri­te­ria. The entry must:

  • Be an orig­i­nal design cre­at­ed by the entrant (an indi­vid­ual or team) sole­ly for the pur­pose of enter­ing this con­test and can­not have been pre­vi­ous­ly pub­lished or used for adver­tis­ing or pro­mo­tion­al purposes;
  • Be rel­e­vant to its sub­ject mat­ter (QuarkXPress 6.x or 7);
  • Not dis­par­age or neg­a­tive­ly por­tray any brand, includ­ing, but not lim­it­ed to, Quark, Adobe, QuarkXPress, InDesign, Quark VS InDesign​.com, or any per­sons or per­son­al­i­ties asso­ci­at­ed with them;
  • Free from pro­fan­i­ty, vul­gar­i­ty, and nudity;
  • Adhere to the mechan­i­cal spec­i­fi­ca­tions below;
  • And, of course, the entry must be from eli­gi­ble entrants.

Additionally, each of the first fifty entrants (deter­mined by time­stamp of entry e‑mail) in the “Celebrate QuarkXPress Postcard Competition” will receive a com­pli­men­ta­ry 1‑year sub­scrip­tion to X‑Ray Magazine (PDF edition).

1st Place

Matt Bargell

QuarkMan Delivers
Matt Bargell
Rodderboy LLC
Sterling, CO

QuarkMan Delivers 1st Place

Click thumb­nail to view actu­al size front and back (2.5mb PDF)

How long have you used QuarkXPress?
Since QXP ver­sion 2.12 (16 years)

What is it about QuarkXPress that makes you a pas­sion­ate user?
QuarkXPress gets the job done. It’s user-friendly and fast. Final out­put? No surprises.

What inspired your win­ning design? How did it come about?
My 6yr old son’s recent robot fas­ci­na­tion and the film “The Incredibles” were my inspiration.

How was it cre­at­ed (soft­ware and ver­sions), what tech­niques did you use?
With the excep­tion of 2 small images, this design was cre­at­ed entire­ly with QuarkXPress 6.5’s built-in bézier tools.

Tell us about your best design assign­ment. Include as much detail as you like (client name optional).
I must say that I’m hav­ing a blast design­ing my own com­pa­ny’s prod­uct line and mktg collateral!

Tell us about your worst design assign­ment. Include as much detail as you like (client name optional).
A cor­po­rate stan­dards man­u­al. I under­stood it’s neces­si­ty but it was a rather tedious undertaking.

What’s next for you? Where do you want to go in your career?
Youth appar­el and acces­sories design + mrk­tg col­lat­er­al for surf, skate and hot rod culture.

What is your dream assignment—a type of project or for a spe­cif­ic client or brand?
Design and build my own home includ­ing fur­ni­ture. 20’s Streamline mod­erne ala Robert Mallet-Stevens.

1st Runner-Up

Michael Piperno

Redefining Layout
Michael Piperno
Imbue Creative
New Hope, PA

Redefining Layout 1st Runner-Up

Click thumb­nail to view actu­al size front and back (2.5mb PDF)

How long have you used QuarkXPress?
11 years

What is it about QuarkXPress that makes you a pas­sion­ate user?
While both pro­grams have unique ben­e­fits, I find QuarkXpress to be both reli­able and powerful.

What inspired your win­ning design? How did it come about?
I envi­sioned a clean design with a quick, strong mes­sage cre­at­ed entire­ly in Quark. 

How was it cre­at­ed (soft­ware and ver­sions), what tech­niques did you use?
Created entire­ly in QuarkXpress 6.5, this post­card exem­pli­fies the pow­er of sim­plic­i­ty in design.

Tell us about your best design assign­ment. Include as much detail as you like (client name optional).
Meeting iden­ti­ty and col­lat­er­al for a med­ical edu­ca­tion pro­gram. Fun to design and well received!

Tell us about your worst design assign­ment. Include as much detail as you like (client name optional).
Tri-fold invest­ment brochure art direct­ed by 4 peo­ple who did not like each oth­er! (Took 14 months.)

What’s next for you? Where do you want to go in your career?
Run a small, award-winning agency with a team of cre­atives that love to stretch their imaginations. 

What is your dream assignment—a type of project or for a spe­cif­ic client or brand?
A com­plete cor­po­rate brand, from logo to web site to col­lat­er­al, and every­thing in between!

2nd Runner-Up

Stephen Cheslik

Definition
Stephen Cheslik
Casper Star Tribune
Casper, WY

Definition 2nd Runner-Up

Click thumb­nail to view actu­al size front and back (2.5mb PDF)

How long have you used QuarkXPress?
Since 1996

What is it about QuarkXPress that makes you a pas­sion­ate user?
I love Quark. I love that the pro­gram offers me a dozen dif­fer­ent ways to accom­plish each task.

What inspired your win­ning design? How did it come about?
When you sit on a chair you can’t feel the quarks. When read­ing a paper your can’t see the software.

How was it cre­at­ed (soft­ware and ver­sions), what tech­niques did you use?
Ironically, I used Adobe InDesign CS. No tricks, just sim­ple design.

Tell us about your best design assign­ment. Include as much detail as you like (client name optional).
I’m exhaust­ed but exhil­a­rat­ed after just fin­ish­ing the redesign of the Casper (Wyo.) Star-Tribune. 

Tell us about your worst design assign­ment. Include as much detail as you like (client name optional).
My first job was in Georgia’s water­mel­on fields. Gnats, bad pics and three sto­ries a day. I miss it.

What’s next for you? Where do you want to go in your career?
I haven’t fin­ished what I came to Wyoming to do. I want my small paper to earn a reputation.

What is your dream assignment—a type of project or for a spe­cif­ic client or brand?
Doomsday type used to be my dream — done it. Now, I sim­ply want to work with a great team.

Prizes

The fol­low­ing prizes will be fur­nished to the win­ning entrant in each place.

First Place Winner

First Runner-Up

  • QuarkXPress 6.5 by Quark
  • 1‑Year Print Subscription to X‑Ray Magazine
  • X‑Ray Magazine T‑shirt
  • FlightCheck Studio (Mac only) by Markzware
  • Spellbound with Webster’s Dictionary xten­sion by Compusense
  • Choice of MIF Filter or Text Count xten­sion by DTP Tools
  • ProPack xten­sion by Gluon
  • Commercial Press Template of choice by StockLayouts

Second Runner-Up

  • QuarkXPress 6.5 by Quark
  • 1‑Year Print Subscription to X‑Ray Magazine
  • X‑Ray Magazine T‑shirt
  • 1‑Month Stock Photography Subscription to AbsolutVision
  • explainIT xten­sion (Mac only) by Alef
  • ProPack xten­sion by Gluon
  • Commercial Press Template of choice by StockLayouts

Acknowledgements

Quark VS InDesign​.com sin­cere­ly thanks the com­pa­nies and pri­vate par­ties who fur­nished prizes for their gen­er­ous con­tri­bu­tions. Each of these com­pa­nies is com­mit­ted to serv­ing the graph­ic com­mu­ni­ca­tions indus­tries and their peo­ple, as plain­ly evi­denced by their gen­eros­i­ty. We hope you will sup­port these com­pa­nies and turn to them to answer your soft­ware, stock pho­tog­ra­phy, news, and oth­er needs.

Pariah would espe­cial­ly like to thank a few indi­vid­u­als in par­tic­u­lar for their invalu­able assis­tance in help­ing launch two con­cur­rent con­tests on such short notice: Christy Siebler, Samuel John Klein, Cyndie Shaffstall, Michael Taylor, and a few oth­ers who have asked not to be embar­rassed by being sin­gled out—they know who they are, and Pariah hopes they real­ize how much he appre­ci­ates their help.

Quark, QuarkXPress, and their relat­ed logos and indi­cia are Registered Trademarks of Quark, Inc.