Designer Code of Conduct

What LogoTournament strives to give Designers

Great logo design contest prizes
Fairness and the highest possible respect for intellectual property
Recognition and promotion
Professional, friendly community

Designer Standards

Respect all community members but, most importantly, treat Contest Holders like they are your own customers standing face to face with you in the same room. The customers is not always right and probably doesn't know as much about logo design as you do, but the customer is always the customer.
Do not publicly criticize Contest Holder decisions or attempt to influence them through anything other than your designs. This includes positing negative comments about a fellow designer or their entries. Making clients aware of general design issues is acceptable without specifically mentioning any other entries.
If you have an issue with an individual, contact them politely through a direct message first. Do this before posting anything in the Forums.
Demonstrate flexibility and cooperation when resolving issues with other designers and staff.
Private arrangements with Contest Holders are unacceptable. (Example: offering free services if they select your logo) It is fine for a winning Designer to offer additional services after the contest is over.
Do not post messages in the Contest discussion area regarding yours or others' entries.
Do not post designs submitted to a Private contest anywhere public. Please respect the privacy of the client.

Submission Requirements

Basic rule: If you did not make it from your brain, a reference you own, or your own unique fusion of many references - DO NOT post the design.
DESIGNS and CONCEPTS must be significantly different from designs already submitted.
VECTOR ONLY - No Photoshop; use Adobe Illustrator, Corel Draw etc. (Final artwork submitted in AI, EPS, PDF, SVG with fonts converted to outlines)
NO AI GENERATED LOGOS - strange artifacts, odd perspectives, haphazard vectorization, and inability to consistently evolve client requests is unacceptable.
NO CLIPART - this includes images, silhouettes and other imagery from sites like SHUTTERSTOCK and images packaged in ADOBE ILLUSTRATOR, COREL DRAW etc. (even if you have purchased a user license)
NO 'FONTS' (DINGBATS) that have complex images of animals, things, or swirl accent shapes, silhouettes etc.
NO HAND TRACING OR AUTO-TRACING OF INTERNET CONTENT OR PHOTOGRAPHY Exceptions: 1) You own FULL copyrights to the image and have not used it before and agree to not use it again 2) The Client owns FULL copyrights to the image if it is used on the winning logo.
ONE CONCEPT PER SUBMISSION - if you want to show a logo in red, blue, and yellow, create and upload 3 separate files.
NO WATERMARKS - your design firm or other.
IMAGE CENTERED - balanced horizontally and vertically with sufficient spacing.
NO BORDERS - we are building a clean and consistent community portfolio.
BACKGROUNDS - White, Black, or Solid is best. Elaborate backgrounds (ie grunge, painted etc.) are allowed but not recommended. Do not show designs on buildings, vehicles etc. We may remove designs that look unprofessional.
Logos submitted to LogoTournament can NOT be submitted to any other websites. If you are selling or submitting your unsold logo on another site you must remove it on that site if you plan to submit to a LogoTournament contest.
Submitting very similar designs to multiple contests on LogoTournament is not allowed.

LogoTournament may remove entries without notice for violating the submission requirements.

Copyright Issues

Designers own all rights to their contest entries on this site and can withdraw them at anytime unless they have won and received payment.
Copyright ownership is only transferred to the Contest Holder when the contest has been paid for.
Any concept or idea mentioned in the contest Brief by the contest holder is fair game for all Designers. The exception is if the contest holder has updated the brief based on an individual Designer's concept, which is against the Site rules.
Obvious concepts are considered fair game for all Designers. Examples might include: a dog & cat for a pet hospital, shopping bag for an e-commerce company, a tooth for a dentist, initials for a lawyer, etc.