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The Winter / Christmas Decorative Flag Art Challenge got over 60 submissions from portfolio members. The Sr. Director of Product Development and her team at Studio M have made their final selections for the Top Six Flag Design Winners!

We’d like to thank all of the Art Licensing Show (ALSC) Portfolio Members that participated! This was a tough art challenge and with many great designs submitted! Some really amazing artwork did not make the Top Six Winners but it’s still wonderful! Outdoor decorative flags are a popular category in the retail market. All of the submissions show a nice range of ideas and themes for flags.

We teamed up with one of the premier companies in the outdoor and garden market that judged this art challenge for us — Studio M, led by their Sr. Director of Product Development, Anne McFarland Brown. They chose this Winter / Christmas category because it’s their best selling season. Thank you to Anne and her team at Studio M for helping us judge this art challenge! Studio M selected the Holiday / Christmas Decorative Flag Top 6 Winners based on what they consider the most commercially viable designs. People seem to really love their seasonal house flags, so it’s a great market for manufacturers. Here is what Anne Browne had to say about what you need to keep in mind when designing your art for decorative flags.

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“This was tough! The ones we selected we feel are the most commercially viable for the market. Honestly, the flag customer is very traditional. They like traditional, bold color….especially for holidays like Christmas, Easter, Valentines, etc.. When designing product for outdoors, the designer should keep in mind the environment in which it would be placed. Light, pastel colors look washed out in the sun and do not add contrast against a house, bushes or trees. Also, some people tend to think that the flags are “faded” if the colors are too light. Any flag design needs to be read from 20’ away. It also needs contrast, a focal point, depth and a strong theme/subject matter. Sometimes what works on a greeting card, does not always work on a flag design. Everyone did a great job!”

Here are the Top Six Winter / Christmas Decorative Flag Art Challenge Winners! Congratulations!

Annie Troe, Dale Simpson, Madiha Yearwood, Rose Mary Berlin, Sydney Wright and Wendy Wiinanen.

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Wendy Wiinanen

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Madiha Yearwood

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Dale Simpson

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Rose Mary Berlin

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Sydney Wright

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Annie Troe

Here are all of the member Winter / Christmas Decorative Flag Art submissions…

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Joan Beiriger

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Leticia Plate

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Barbara Lanza

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Jill Craig

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Julia Valenza

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Rebecca Baer

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Becky Schultea

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Laura Smith

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Lori Nawyn

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Michelle Goggins

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Cheri Turk

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Vicky Yorke Designs

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LuAnne Payne

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Lilian Cohen

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Laura K. Bray

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Lisa Peruchini

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Kristi Caterson

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Janet Hild

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Valerie Hart

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Marion Richardson

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Tracey Wirth

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Kimberly McSparren

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Barb Tourtillotte

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Molly Robbins

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Sally Springer

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Marta Munte

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Nancy Archer

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Alyson Chase

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Debi Payne Designs

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Sarah Hudock

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Jeanne Rollison

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Judy Sorrels

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May Leong

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Pam Vale

28 responses to Winter / Christmas Flag Art Challenge with Studio M ~ Top 6 Winners!

  1. Another GREAT challenge!!! . . . Thank YOU Valerie & Cherish!!! CONGRATS to all . . . so many GREAT designs!!!

  2. Congratulations to all the winners! Something I hadn’t thought about- using brighter colors so it the flag “pops” against all the other background such as the house, snow, foliage…. etc…Thanks Anne Brown- very good suggestion!

  3. Can I ask a quick question – we were asked to create art at 8″ x 11″ for this challenge – I work digitally in photoshop always at 300 dpi – is that size going to be too small for a flag that would be produced at 30″ x 42″ at 150 dpi? ( I have tried converting it myself and is doesn’t look blurry when it’s enlarged but I fear all my future new work should be created much larger in photoshop). Do you ladies who only work digitally in photoshop have a standard size you create all artwork to so you know it will suit as many products as possible?

    • Here is some info that Joan Beiriger gives on her “licensing Art to the Flag Industry” blog post:

      “Good question Leyla! Ideally you would like to create art at least the same size needed for the product so that you don’t have to increase the size in Photoshop and thus lose resolution. However, that isn’t very practical because most scanners can’t scan a 28 by 40 inch painting and the file size in Photoshop would be huge. Also manipulating huge files in Photoshop takes too much time.

      I create all my art with a minimum size of 12 inches at 300dpi (12 by 16.8 inches for a vertical format – greeting card format). That means the image would be enlarged 2.3 times to fit a 28 by 40 flag. Surprisingly even though my art is enlarged that much, the detail in the images still looks good when printed. Do some test runs of your art and see what happens when you enlarge a pic to fit on a large flag. You may be able to use a smaller size than I do. Good luck, Joan

      To read the whole post, click the link here:
      http://joanbeiriger.blogspot.com/2010/02/licensing-art-to-flag-industry.html

      • Thank you SO much for locating that info Valerie. That’s the info I needed as working in photoshop at a huge flag size isn’t practical as Joan says. I’ll stick to the 12 ish by 16.8 ish at 300 dpi then and see how that goes. Thanks Joan and Valerie!!

  4. May said on July 14, 2017

    Wow, so many beautiful art here. Congratulations to all the 6 winners !

  5. WOW, I can’t believe my art is in the top 6, a long side such awesome talent. I’m so honored, Congrats everyone!!

  6. Thanks for choosing me in the final 6! I’m thrilled to be included in such a talented group! WooHoo!

  7. Thanks so much for choosing my art as one of the final 6! I’m thrilled to be included in this very talented group of artists! Woo hoo!

  8. Congratulations to the winners, as well as to everyone who posted their beautiful flag designs! It’s a great learning experience to see what designs win and what art directors are looking for.

  9. Congratulations to the winners! And also to everyone who entered their beautiful flag designs. It’s a great learning experience to see what art directors are looking for.

  10. Congratulations to all the winners!! Beautiful work!

  11. I really had fun looking at this today – I love looking through garden flags when I visit my parents local flower nursery in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. It’s a lovely way to encourage an appreciation for art. Congrats to the winners!!

  12. Congratulations to all the winners!

  13. HEY! What wonderful designs submitted! I am over the moon to be in the top 6 – Cool Beans! Thanks a bunch Anne and the amazing Studio M gang.

  14. Oh Wow – Thank you So much for placing my art in the top 6 of so many wonderful pieces of art – it’s been a lovely little boost to my confidence to tell myself to “Keep going Dale, don’t give up!!”

  15. This was another great experience being among so many talented artists. I’m learning a lot!

  16. Rose Mary Berlin replied to one of your updates:

    “Thank you so much for choosing my Santa for the top 6!! I’m really honored to be a part of this talented group- always inspiring & full of opportunities!”

    • Congrats Rose! I think I was sending you a last minute email to get your design submitted! haha!

  17. Congrats to the winners! All the flags look fantastic!

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