IMPORTANT: If you are a model and you've already been on the cover of ANY print magazine go no further, this is for models who've never been on a cover.
So we kicked this around, we asked many of our supporters (patrons) their thoughts and after absorbing this and finding out what people like and dislike about contests we've arrived at the following:
We want to showcase new talent on the cover of Retro Lovely #4 ( Jan 2011, New Year, New Model, perhaps a tradition is born )
Rather than calling it a contest we're going to call it a search. This because we have learned everyone is pretty unanimous about disliking those promotions where the participants go berzerk bugging the devil out of everyone they know and barely know with "vote for me" pleas.
We realize this means we lose a potentially phenomenal amount of advertising as a result, but so be it, we feel Retro Lovely is winning an audience regardless and we'd rather do this with a bit more consideration for our supporters as well as remove the "popularity contest" element virtually everyone seems to dislike.
Issue #4 will have two covers. At least two...
There will be two ways to participate for models.
First is the wide open anyone, anywhere can enter. Full rules will be forthcoming but the most important is this, to participate the model must never have graced the cover of another magazine previously. Any magazine, not just pinup, to include print on demand varieties.
This contest will have an ocean of submissions we are certain.
The second cover will be by way of submissions provided to us by members of our Pinup Syndicate.
This will be a much much smaller pool of entries, so those models who patronize these artists have a significantly increased chance of being selected. We're doing it this way as the feedback we obtained from our customers ( a group of people responsible for Retro Lovely and this opportunity existing ) was split between a promotion where it was open to all vs. open to submissions by these artists. The other thing we can not stress enough is this; Retro Lovely would not exist were it not for the members of the Pinup Syndicate. There would not be an issue #1 or #2 or #3 or this promotion many of you will now be able to take advantage of if it were not for this group of artists' hard work, generosity and exceptional talents.
www.retrolovely.com/syndicate.html As we are well aware of this group's capabilities, the model selected from amongst these entries will also have 4 full pages of images featured in issue #4 to include an interview. Why aren't we doing this with the other contest? For starters we're pretty sure we're going to get some great submissions that look fine on the computer, but when we see the files larger in size, as required for high quality printing as we produce, the files may not be up to the task. Additionally where a great image worthy of a cover exists there may not be sufficient high quality additional images available from that shoot to do a feature. We know those in the Pinup Syndicate produce imagery up to the task. It's that simple.
This promotion will need to be completed by the end of November so an initial target cutoff date for submissions will likely be somewhere near the end of November. Models serious about improving their chances who even now are thinking about booking a shoot with a member of the Pinup Syndicate... you may want to contact them quickly, many book up their shoots as it is, this promotion will likely result in few openings remaining.
Images submitted for consideration would be THE images used as the cover.
This puts significant demands on the file. Retro Lovely is printed with state of the art presses and production values that require very large files of the highest quality, so while some images may be cute, of a terrific model with great styling and wardrobe they will not work if the files are not clean, sharp, large, well lit and of a cropping suitable for a cover. We will post examples and guidelines on our site very soon.