And here are the submissions, and what submissions they are! Not only do we have more participants than last year, we now also have double-sized wraparound covers to present. Click on a submission to see a larger version.

Like last year, we are opening up the con book for direct contributions, while the T-Shirt artwork is commissioned. This way, we will have more variance, more color, more possibilities, more styles in the con book.

And yes, "contributions" includes the cover! To select the con book cover from the submissions, a contest will be held. All artists looking for a challenge are invited to take part! The winning artwork will be reproduced in a high quality offset printing process (just like a glossy magazine cover). Every visitor of the convention will receive a copy, 600 copies will be printed in total. A great opportunity to showcase your art!

Update as of 2008-07-10:: The cover artwork contest has been open since January, but as of June 10th, we have not received ANY submissions, although the contest closes in about three weeks. In order to raise the chance of getting at least both sides of the con book filled, we have decided to make a little change to the rules: It is now allowed to submit wrap-around cover artwork, that goes around the back AND the front of the book.

We know that a full-sized illustration suitable for a cover takes time and effort, and we want to honor as many artists as possible for their work. Therefore, we have decided to expand the con book by at least four additional, interior, full color pages to show all the top entries in full glory, not just the first winner!

Naturally, all featured artists will receive proper credits, and retain the full rights to their works.

Of course, there is more than just the cover to the con book. We also need black and white or greyscale illustrations in various formats to bring life to the book's pages! Interior illustrations do not need to follow the stricter requirements for the cover but enjoy artistic freedom. In previous years, runners-up from the T-Shirt contest graced the interior pages of the con book, bound by the formal requirements and with a lot of repetitive text - now, you can run wild with ideas! You have a humorous illustration, a cute one, an artistic one? Landscape format, quarter page, greyscale? Try your luck; everything is possible!

Please note that the selection of interior illustrations depends on several factors: the quality of the piece, the idea, the suitability for a certain position in the book, and last not least the con book layout itself with its fixed page count and predefined sections. We will try to include as many quality submissions as possible, as we did with the T-Shirt imagery in previous years, but we cannot guarantee a place in the book.

There are three requirements for all submitted artwork (cover contest and interior illustration):

• it must be suitable for general European audiences ("PG Rated" by American standards);
• it must meet the technical specifications laid out below;
• it must reflect this year's theme, "From Dusk Till Dawn". Artwork may be inspired by the movie of the same name, or by general vampire or other 'classic' horror themes. Please keep it suitable for general audiences, though.

To give you an idea what kind of illustration we are looking for, here is a selection of con book artwork submissions from previous years:

Taking part is easy, all you have to do is send us your finished submission by email. By sending us your submission, you agree to the contest rules; see further below for details. We will then put up a low resolution version of your submission up on this webpage. If you want to send us your work in progress or sketches ahead of time that's fine too. We'll gladly give you our comments. It's not a requirement, though.

In order to be usable as a con book cover, your work has to meet some simple technical criteria, which we'll explain here:

1) Book size and margins

The con book is standard ISO A4 size (210mm x 297mm). The artwork must fill the entire page; it will be printed "full bleed" (to the edge of the page). In the printing process, the edges will be cropped - up to 1 cm of your cover art may be cut off on each side!

2) Cover size

From these prerequisites, the ideal size of the cover artwork is 230mm x 317mm (cover size plus margins) or 5400 x 7500 pixels at 600 dpi. You do not need to adhere to these mm/pixel measurements to the last digit; we will resize your art as necessary. You need to use the aspect ratio of 1:1.38 though, since the con book format is not negotiable.

Update as of 2008-07-10:: For wrap-around cover submissions, double the horizontal dimensions. Just make your artwork twice as wide, and keep in mind that there will be a fold in the middle. It's like two A4 sheets side-by-side. If your artwork ends up on the cover, the RIGHT half of it will become the front, the LEFT half of it the back cover. So don't put anything important right in the middle or it will end up halfway on the front and halfway on the back.

Remember the margins! Do not put any important picture elements into the 1 cm zone (236 pixels at 600 dpi) near the border, or they might get cut off!

Also, try not to use a frame element in your cover image since those easily conflict with the layout format, and make the printing process more difficult.

3) Caption Area

In order to be usable as cover art, your picture must leave some room for the title caption. There must be some "free" area in your picture that can be covered up by the title text without destroying the artwork, e.g. some area that contains no important details, or just background, preferably at the top. Think how your submission would look on the cover of a magazine, with the magazine's title overlaid on it.

However, please do not include the caption itself in the artwork! We will add the caption ourselves to meet the general book layout specifications. If you want to make a suggestion for the caption, that is fine, but please always make two versions ... one with, and one without caption, or add it as a separate layer in your graphic program. We will consider it a suggestion and not part of the submission.

4) Digital Format

We need a copy of your submission in electronic form. We accept all common digital formats, but we prefer either JPG, compressed TIFF or Photoshop format. No RAW, HDRI or proprietary formats please. 24 bit color depth is required, so no GIF either.

As stated above, the preferred resolution is 5400 x 7500 pixels at 600 dpi. The minimum resolution is 2700 x 3750 pixels at 300 dpi. The required color depth is 24 bit RGB (8 bit per color). Do not bother with CMYK, we will do all conversion necessary for the printing process ourselves.

If you want to send in your submission in JPG format, please use the highest possible quality setting, even if it results in a very large file. If the art contains high contrasts (e.g. visible line art) do not use JPG but a lossless compression (TIFF).

5) Interior illustrations

If you want to submit interior illustrations, you will not need to consider space for margins or caption, obviously. Interior illustrations are not printed "full bleed", and not captioned; nor do they need any "Eurofurence" text as part of the illustration.

Due to the page margin whitespace and the page header and footer graphics present on every page, the available area for interior illustrations is considerably smaller than for the cover illustrations. The maximum area is 165 x 240mm or 3900 x 5650 pixels at 600 dpi (equalling an aspect ratio of 1:1.45). This measurement is valid for full-page illustrations only; horizontal or vertical half-page illos, quarter-page illos, or horizontal one-third height illos are also perfectly fine.

Again, do not bother adapting your image to the last digit of the measurements; we will resize your art as necessary. The measurements should give you only a hint of what ratios and sizes are preferred.

If you submit pure black and white images, or greyscale images with high contrasts (line art), please do not use JPG format, and scan the art at no less than 600 dpi.

If you submit greyscale images like pencil drawings, you may use a scan resolution between 300 and 600 dpi and use any of the formats under 4).

If you have any questions, please do not hesitate, and write an email to conbook@eurofurence.org

The deadline for submissions is Sunday, 3rd of August, 2008.

By taking part in this contest, you agree to these rules:

• You grant Eurofurence e.V. an irrevocable, non-exclusive right to use and reproduce your artwork. Of course you retain all rights to the original, and are free to do with it whatever you like.
• Eurofurence e.V. reserves the right to reject submissions for any reason.
• Submissions made after the deadline might still be printed in the con book if there's space left, but will not take part in the contest.
• Eurofurence e.V. reserves the right to make modifications to the submitted artwork, including (but not limited to) adding text, cropping, resizing, and color correction and conversion.
• Only submissions meeting minimal artistic standards will be published in the con book. The jury decides.