DREAMS

The current Design Challenge theme is Dreams.

What is a dream? Is it a place, a goal, a fantasy? Is it a nightmare, a desire, an in between? Are we awake or are we asleep? Is this a dream? What do we keep?

Using the current theme and challenge limitations, design and market a t-shirt to be run on our site as a 6 week preorder campaign.

This challenge is limited to black ink on white shirts or white ink on black shirts.

Free to enter, artists retain all the rights, and you will make money for every shirt that sells. The top sellers will win additional cash prizes and eternal victory.

RULES

Limit one submission per artist.

This challenge is equal parts a design and marketing challenge for artists.

Designs must sell a minimum of 10 shirts to be screen printed. All designs that do not reach 10 will be digitally printed.

Shirt designs must remain unreleased until launch day. Previews and teasers for your design are encouraged as long as they don't show the full artwork.

DEADLINE

Deadline for submissions is Monday, July 15th at 12pm (noon) CST.

Designs will go live the following week on Wednesday, July 24th. The preorder campaign will run for 6 weeks.

The Dreams Design Challenge will last until September 4th at 12pm (noon) CST. Winners will be announced the following day.

PROFITS

Shirts sell for $26 USD.

*profits are in USD. You will earn a code for a free shirt after you hit 25 sales. All other prizes will be sent after the Design Challenge ends. 

1 COLOR PRINT

PRIZES

Top sellers will be awarded special cash prizes in addition to profits earned!

*prizes are in USD

BADGE

All participants will receive a Dreams badge for this challenge.

PREVIOUS BADGES

Have you earned a badge from a previous Design Challenge? For every Design Challenge badge earned, you will receive a $5 Raw Paw gift card per badge after submitting your design for Dreams. All gift cards from badge benefits may be redeemed immediately. Badges are linked to your email, please use the same email as previous submissions.

DESIGN TEMPLATE

Sign up to download our design template here.

SHIRT OPTIONS

Pick between a Standard or Classic Shirt Style.
Standard Shirt is Gildan 5000 - heavy cotton, boxy
Classic Shirt is Bella Canvas 3001 - soft cotton, lightweight

INK OPTIONS

ART GUIDELINES

For the Dreams Design Challenge choose between black ink on white shirt or white ink on black shirt.

Design for the front of the shirt only and consider the shirt color and how it can be incorporated. The shirt color does not count as an ink color and can be used to break up space in the design.

Files that work best for screen printing are a Photoshop (.psd) document sized for printing at 300 dpi. 

*Most art programs like Procreate can be exported as a .psd file. If you can't export as a .psd then Illustrator (.ai) or a high-res .png file with transparent background, or a .pdf also work. Specific export instructions in FAQ.

Size: Front designs can be any size within 12.5 inches wide x 14.5 inches tall.
The example below shows the correct file size and resolution at 300dpi.

For halftone images, please include the areas to be halftones in a separate layer. This means any soft brushes, or any non-solid brushes or textures should be separated on their own layer like the below example.

Our team will expertly halftone any non-solid areas into halftones for screen printing.

If your design was created traditionally instead of digitally, please send in a high-quality scan of your image at 300 dpi at print size.

PRINTABLE AREA

Standard print size is within 10" wide x 12" tall
Max print size is 12.5" wide x 14.5" tall
Left Chest size is 3.5" x 3.5"

MARKETING TIPS

Post on social media consistently and often
• Have your preorder link in an easy to locate spot for customers (in your bio or use LinkTree).
• Create unique content on Instagram, X, TikTok, Pinterest, Tumblr. Focus on one platform and work to build a community, entertain, and find your supporters.
• We have found that Instagram is great for communicating with your existing audience while TikTok can be more effective for sharing your story with a larger audience that might be meeting you for the first time.
• We have seen short videos be prioritized over still images and gain more traction in the last few years.
• Update your audience with reminders: “1 week left,” “1 day left,” etc.

Engage in Storytelling
• Share the story behind your design or the broader narrative of your artistic journey. Create compelling comics, animations, or short videos of you that build and communicate your artistic vision.
• Chat about what inspired your design, a glimpse into your studio, or a time-lapse of your creative process.

Interact with Followers
• Respond to comments, host Q&A sessions, or go live to discuss your design inspirations.

Collaborate
• Partner with other artists for shoutouts or cross-promotions.
• Check out our discord to chat with other artists.
• Tag us @rawpaw so we can share too. We can only share so many before our feed is flooded so we will do our best to curate your amazing content during our working hours (Monday through Friday 10am-6pm CST).

In Person Events
• Engage in Local Communities and Participate in art fairs, pop-up shops, or craft markets.
• You can create a QR code that links to your shirt and create handouts, posters, or display at your booth.
• Physical fliers at common spots like coffee shops, book stores, etc are great for connecting outside your audience.

Paid Advertising
• Use platforms like Meta Ads, Google Ads, or Instagram promoted posts to find specific people interested in your style.
While this can be challenging and expensive to get going, we have really grown our brand with ads on social media and we always view it as investing in ourselves. Plus sometimes a design can take off if the right people see it or the algorithm shows you love.

Remember to post as your authentic self. When you care about something, your audience will too!

TERMS

Artists retain all rights to their artwork and make profit for every shirt sold.

A minimum of 10 shirts must be sold in order for shirts to be screen printed. You can do it!

If less than 10 shirts are preordered upon conclusion of your campaign, we will print the shirts with high quality digital printing.

Production begins after the challenge ends.

Payouts are sent via Paypal and will happen after preorder ends.

Raw Paw crew members are encouraged to participate in the challenge. If a Raw Paw crew member wins in any category, the prize will go to the next non-crew participant and the Raw Paw crew member will win an additional prize.

Users under the age of 18 must have permission of their parent or legal guardian and all financial information must belong to a parent or legal guardian. Age is verified through use of PayPal since users must be over the age of 18 to have an account.

CUSTOMER SERVICE

Raw Paw handles all customer service inquiries.

Due to the small size of our business, all sales are final.

CONTENT LIMITS

Abusive, threatening, defamatory, or harassing designs are prohibited. This includes anything that is discriminatory or promoting harm. Show us what you are thinking, we have an open mind.

Nothing in violation of someone else’s privacy or intellectual property rights. No AI-generated art. 

Raw Paw reserves the right to decline any designs for any reason.

SHIPPING

Design Challenge shirts will go into the production queue after the preorder period ends. Please note any orders for shirts that are part of our Design Challenge will take longer to print and ship due to increased demand.

Production begins after the challenge ends, and orders will go out as they are completed.
Updates will be provided via email to artists and customers.

Shipping fees are calculated based on current USPS rates and are applied at checkout.
Standard shipping times apply once shipped.

We are a small artist run studio that cares about your artwork and our craft. We appreciate your patience as we work hard to print and ship out your shirts as soon as we can.

FAQ

Don't see your question here? Send us an email.

How many shirts must I sell in order to have my design screen printed?

A minimum of 10 shirts must be sold in order for your design to be screen printed.

If less than 10 shirts are preordered upon conclusion of the Design Challenge, we will print the shirts with high quality digital printing.

Check out our "Marketing Tips" section for helpful notes on promoting your design to make that goal.

How many colors can I use in my design?

For this Design Challenge, Dreams, you are limited to a one color print for this challenge. Choose between black ink on a white shirt or white ink on a black shirt. 

How much does the shirt sell for?

Shirts sell for $26.

What is screen printing?

Screen printing works by using a mesh screen, fabric ink, and printing press. Designs are burned into the screen to create a stencil. Then screens are set up manually on the press, and inks are pushed through the screen onto the fabric below.

Screen printing works best with solid flat colors and halftones. Since screen printing requires each ink to get its own screen, the number of color layers in a print are based on screen count.

What is digital printing?

Digital printing works by jetting ink onto the shirt with a printhead similar to an ink-jet printer. Inks soak into the fabric to create an image.

What are halftones?

Screen printing can only print solid areas, so halftones (solid dots) are used to replicate shading.

Make sure areas that need to be halftones (like soft brushes, non-solid brushes or textures, low opacity, gradients, etc.) are on a separate layer from lineart / solid fill colors. Raw Paw will convert these layers into halftones that work best for our print process.*

*If you use a halftone brush, the brush must be solid pixels and on its own separate layer. (No fuzzy edges!)

File Format & Export Info

Save your working file with layers still separated; this helps us easily process the different ink colors (or halftones) for print. Keep the layers you want printed turned on and visible. If you used an uncommon typeface please rasterize text (right click layer and select Rasterize Type) or send over the font file. For vector files (like Illustrator) please outline your fonts.

Photoshop
Photoshop: File > Save As > Format: Photoshop

Procreate
Procreate: Click the Wrench Icon > Share > Share Image > PSD > Click "Save to Files" to save to iCloud or Google Drive
*Please note: Do not select one of the options under "Share Layers" as this will separate each layer into its own image, and the file will have to be reconstructed. And do not select "Save Image" as it will flatten into an image file.

Illustrator
Illustrator: File > Save As > Format: Adobe Illustrator (ai) > "Create PDF Compatible File" should be checked on when saving
*Please outline text and strokes before sending over the artwork.

Clip Studio Paint
Clip Studio Paint: File > Save Duplicate > select Adobe Photoshop Document .psd

ibisPaint
ibisPaint: Click the Share Icon > PSD (Preserved Layers) > Click "Save to Files" to save to iCloud or Google Drive
*Please note: Do not select "PSD (Flattened Layer)" as this will flatten the file.

Send your file to Raw Paw
Attach your art file when filling out the submission form.
If your file is larger than the upload limit, reply to submission email with a google drive link.
*Please make sure Google Drive link sharing permissions are on and shared with us.

Can I buy my own shirt?

Yes, if you’d like to get a shirt for yourself, just purchase through our site before the Design Challenge ends. As the artist you will be paid out for this sale, the same as you will be for all other orders of your design. Payouts will be at the end of the campaign.

Why are the designs run as preorders?

It's more eco-conscious and cost-effective. We have also found that you are more likely to make sales of your designs by focusing your efforts on one strong push.

Minimal Waste: Running a preorder campaign allows us to collect all the orders upfront, so we are able to sustainably produce only the shirts that have been ordered and not create extra waste.

Free Service: The preorder model allows us to offer this as a free service to users to sell their designs on shirts. There are no upfront costs, no money down, and it is completely risk-free to use.

Fulfillment and Shipping: Many artists want to sell their shirts but do not have the infrastructure for fulfillment and shipping. We take care of this for you, along with customer service!

How is my art protected from design theft?

We do our best to protect artists’ intellectual property, and artists’ retain full rights to submitted designs.

In an effort to combat theft of artwork, we have disabled the ability to right-click save images off our website. Images on product pages are lower resolution files and not the original design file. The original high resolution design files sent in via submission are unaccessible from our website, and designs will be printed high quality from these files.

We trust our audience, buyers and artists, to support and buy from legitimate sources.

Size Chart

Can I see who has ordered my shirt?

In order to protect customer information we do not share personal information of who has purchased your shirt.

Do you ship internationally?

Yes, we ship worldwide. 
Please note we ship out of Austin, Texas. International shipping costs are set through the post office and are outside of our control.