Quark VS InDesign.com announces simultaneous design competitions celebrating InDesign and QuarkXPress. Creative pros to compete for US$14,000 worth of prizes.
Yesterday Quark VS InDesign.com, The Authority for News and Opinion on the War Between Desktop Publishing Giants QuarkXPress® and Adobe® InDesign®, announced two simultaneously running design contests to create promotional postcards celebrating and honoring InDesign and QuarkXPress.
According to the website: "This is about celebrating and honoring two incredible tools of our trade, tools that spare us from the grueling labor of hand-cutting ruby lithe and waxing up headlines, tools that save us from having to get real jobs."
In a 29 March 2005 exclusive report, Quark VS InDesign.com brought to the attention of a worldwide audience the existence of questionably written promotional postcards distributed by Quark, Inc., publisher of veteran layout software QuarkXPress 6.5. Following that report, the website received tremendous and impassioned response from creative professionals who use Quark and/or InDesign. The level of response gave editor-in-chief Pariah S. Burke an idea.
”There are millions of QuarkXPress and InDesign users out there, and, like Ford and Chevy, Pepsi and Coke, people get fired up about their favorite design tools,” he said. “A Mustang or Camaro is just what you drive; people’s jobs depend on how well they use InDesign or Quark. They depend on one or the other—or both—anywhere between four and sixteen hours every day—how can that kind of involvement not breed passion?
”I said to myself,” Burke continued. “I bet our readers could turn their passions into postcard designs that successfully promote either QuarkXPress or InDesign without resorting to attacking or even mentioning the other. I got excited. With a few calls, I had infected everyone I talked to—half the companies that support InDesign and Quark users—with that excitement. With the assistance of some wonderful and generous people, I lined up roughly $14,000 in incredible prizes and got the two contests launched in a week.”
Among the prizes to be divided between six winners (three for each contest) are plug-ins and xtensions from a dozen top developers, InDesign CS and new Photoshop CS2 training videos, stock photography and design templates, autographed copies of the leading InDesign and Quark reference books, InDesign CS2 Expert Support contracts, subscriptions to X-Ray Magazine and InDesign Magazine, the official publications of QuarkXPress and InDesign, respectively, high-end pre-press software, 3 copies of QuarkXPress 6.5, and 5 copies of InDesign CS2, whose release is expected to coincide with the announcement of the winners.
Both the “Celebrate InDesign Postcard Competition” and “Celebrate QuarkXPress Postcard Competition” began Monday, and accept entries until Monday, 2 May 2005. Judging will take up to two weeks following the deadline, after which winning entries will prominently display on the Quark VS InDesign.com website.
Burke added: “We’re ecstatic to launch these contests! This is a chance for every Quark and InDesign user to have fun shouting about her favorite tool in the way she communicates best: graphic design.”
For more information, and to enter either or both competitions, visit the official website at http://quarkvsindesign.com/contests/.
