The Official 2014 RTT T-Shirt Design Contest

Those of you who've been around for awhile know that we've published a Tennessee football preseason magazine every year since 2009. We'd always wondered why it had an on-sale date of mid-July when all of the other preseason magazines came out in early June, but from 2009-2011 (when it was actuallly published by someone else and we were merely editors and authors), it wasn't our call, and when we started publishing it ourselves in 2012, well, inertia is a strong and sneaky foe.

But not this year. This year, Rocky Top Tennessee 2014 is hitting the newsstands on June 3. Incidentally, I think we may have learned the reason for the later street date. Getting the thing to the printer between the day your basketball team isn't selected for the NCAA Tournament and the first week of June like we did the last two years is much easier than getting it to the printer between February and Easter when spring practice is still going on and your hoops team is actually still playing.

The copies are now en route from the printer to the newsstand distributors, so that means that it's time for the annual RTT T-Shirt Design Contest. You may recall that we start offering the official tee each year at the same time that the magazine goes on sale (and lately as part of a special package deal).

We know from experience that this community has serious talent in the graphic and creative arts department. In 2012, _trey_ won with the official campaign logo, which was awesome except for the fact that it was a year in which we were rooting for Derek Dooley's success. Last year, Adam won with this submission, which served as the basis for the final modified version and was sold in conjunction with the magazine. I'd link to that, but it's no longer available. All of these are going to be limited-time-only items.

So today, we're calling on all of you for design ideas for the 2014 official RTT logo/graphic. If your design is chosen, we'll give you the magazine and one of the t-shirts for free.

A few ground rules: No trademark or copyright infringement, no infringement of publicity rights (meaning no player or coaches' names), and nothing that's going to set off the Fulmerizer. Also, bonus points if you can limit your design to black or dark ink on a Tennessee orange tee, although that's not absolutely necessary. It just makes it cheaper to produce and therefore cheaper to buy.

It would be best if you posted your ideas and submissions in the comment section below so we can all see them, weigh in on them, and extend them. But you can also just email your ideas/designs to me at rockytoptalk@gmail.com if you like.

So brainstorm away. We hope to keep submissions open all week and then post them for voting next Monday.

Good luck.