What a crushing disappointment. Is the Cardano Foundation so strapped for cash they can’t honor their commitment and part with $5,000?
I can understand designs not meeting your standards, but understand the contest only gave artists 1 month! During the December holidays!
Creating vector art is not like putting pen to paper, you are plotting points on a Cartesian plane to create shapes. Hours of creating layers to give depth. For my part I entered what I had at the deadline, not what I envisioned.
As a cardano believer and Ada holder this really takes the wind out of my sails. Sadly most art contests are exploitative and this lack of respect is on a new level.
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There is a potential claim here for bad faith, misleading terms and/or unfair competition. I will draft a formal complaint. For those with either modest or substantial following I recommend drawing attention to this matter on X.
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That’s what you call “celebrating creativity”
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To everyone who participated in the Cardano.org design contest. I see your effort, and I know how much time and creativity you put in. Please don’t stay silent! Share your experience so other designers won’t waste their time like we did, and so the community gets treated better in the future. Let’s speak up together!
https://x.com/YaoHuynh/status/1894593030994497775
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Hello all,
I was hoping to avoid going into detail so this doesn’t turn into “design bashing” 
, but some context is needed. The jury didn’t rate a single submission as better than what we currently have. The highest rating was 2 out of 8 members thinking a design was an improvement.
One of several issues: many submitted vector files were far too large-1MB, 2.4MB, 8.9MB, 11.4MB, even 14.6MB! It turns out many SVGs weren’t true vector files but encoded JPEGs as text. This was likely unintentional, but raster images exported as “vectors” can’t be accepted.
A contest like this needs a minimum bar, and unfortunately, we didn’t see that met. That said, we appreciate the effort, and we’ll be sending store vouchers to the top submissions. We can also share a detailed assessment in the forum.
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These are just meaningless technicalities. The jury should not have rated any submission as “better than what we currently have”, they should have rated the submissions against each other, period. Do not try to justify failing to honor your commitment with such flawed logic.
Did you specify an SVG size limit in the original post? I don’t think you did, but correct me if I’m wrong. And even if a design did not follow the guidelines outlined in the original post, you should have excluded it from the competition gracefully. You had plenty of submissions to choose a top three from!
It was never mentioned anywhere that we would have to compete against the current banner or that the jury would judge submissions only if they were “better” (whatever that means) than the current banner. Again, not using the designs is one thing, but weaseling out of giving away the prize money to the top three is disgusting.
It’s truly baffling that such a simple design contest could be so poorly executed by people running a massive organization. Your comment is proving our point, and making things worse.
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You know what? You could have handled this better if you truly appreciated the efforts of the participants.
After completing the judging process, you could have asked the top 3 contestants to provide a better SVG file. If they couldn’t, then you would have had a valid reason not to recognize their entries. From the very beginning, you could have provided a sample file, set a clear file size limit for SVGs, or specified the exact requirements needed for the design to function well on your website.
I’m certain that the designers here would have been willing to refine their work with you rather than having their designs immediately dismissed because they didn’t match your current header banner. And in fact, I voluntarily withdrew my own submission when I saw other promising banners, I only wanted to see those deserving entries receive proper recognition.
Instead of blaming the submissions, take a step back and evaluate the way you organized this contest. Why didn’t it yield the results you expected, despite the prize? Next time, be clearer about your expectations and find a better way to acknowledge the time and effort the community put into promoting and participating in your contest.
I still hope that there will be some form of recognition for the top entries because you had many better ways to resolve this issue. But after reading your response, I honestly don’t understand how you approach problem-solving or contest organization at all.
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Adding to Yao’s comment, I want to point out that you had four or five code-based entries (which are not size-dependent) to choose from. I doubt the size of the SVG is the real reason behind your decision. We are dismissing your “design bashing” tactics.
If you genuinely care about your community and want to make this right, you should either:
- Select the top three submissions regardless of technicalities and award them their prize money.
- Split the prize equally among all participants.
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Thank you for hosting & the opportunity to participate 
Q. Why not make the assessment results public and list the top 5 submissions instead of privately emailing them? By doing so you’d provide transparency and an opportunity for them to be recognised and celebrated. Some people cite these results as part of their portfolio - so it’ll also add value to them there.
Albeit not the outcome desired, congratulations to the top 5 submissions, whoever you are.
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Thank you for your feedback - we hear you.
To clarify a few things: this is not about file size limits but about the fundamental difference between vector files and pixel graphics. Some submissions were not true SVG files but pixel-based images embedded in an SVG container. This is not something that can be refined into a vector - it would require starting from scratch, as these are completely different file types.
Additionally, many submissions came in close to the deadline, which is understandable but also made it difficult to provide feedback during the contest. With more time, we could have flagged some of these issues earlier.
That said, we are reviewing all submissions again with the jury to assess whether we can adjust the criteria or determine the best way to proceed. Our goal has always been to find a design that meaningfully improves what we have.
Regarding the vouchers: This is not about money - distributing vouchers to five people would be close to the prize money itself. We genuinely appreciate the effort that went into the submissions, and that’s why we’re offering them as a gesture of appreciation, not as an alternative to a winning design.
We also acknowledge that clearer guidance on what vector files are at the start could have helped, and we’ll take this as a learning experience. We’ll provide a more detailed assessment soon.
I’m sorry for all of this and I’m looking into a solution within the next 12 hours.
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The solution couldn’t be simpler. Reinstate the prize money that you promised, and as you aren’t going to use any of the designs you can pick a top 3 without having to worry about these technical requirements that weren’t properly communicated.
The voucher offer doesn’t make any sense. For one, you say it isn’t about the money and the vouchers would be close to the prize money anyway. So sticking with the original prizes is a much better solution. But also, what is one supposed to do with a ~ $1000 voucher in a store with only 7 products? Buy everything twice?
Here’s your chance to do the right thing!
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I understand the admins.
The quality of submissions was poor, and most should be disqualified for using pixel graphics. Others used stock vector files, and some even relied on AI. You could also argue that some should be disqualified for exceeding the stated maximum text length. To be honest, there aren’t many valid entries left. 
Looking back, this might not have been the best type of contest for a community. To do this properly, you need professional design skills and direct communication with the client. The admins seemed to have unrealistic expectations. I can create WebGL animations, but we’re talking about weeks of work—no way I could do that for free. My wife would kill me! 
If I were in charge, I’d relaunch the contest with clearer guidelines. Extend the submission period by a month, set a strict max file size, and so on. But canceling it entirely? That’s probably the worst move possible. People will resent Cardano for it—it goes against Cardano’s core values, and everyone reading this thread will leave with a bitter impression of the brand.
Now imagine if every contestant shared their experience on X/Twitter. A negative Cardano story spreading to tens of thousands? Not a good look. As a longtime holder and Cardano supporter, I urge you: take better care of the brand.
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Hello all,
the jury voted in favour of awarding the prize as planned, but not to use the designs as a replacement of the current header on cardano.org.
The winners have been announced. Please see the announcement here: The winners of the Cardano.org Artwork Contest
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Well done.
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Great move, much respect! Congratulations to the winners!
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Another community victory!
I’m laughing in my bed while reading this update but yeah this is what we live for. Flexibility when dealing with the community as “they” make and can easily unmake you.
Kudos to the jury for making the right choice even though I think it could have been communicated as part of the very first announcement to avoid these bitter sentiments, especially the ones that found their way to X.
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A little sad I did not win, but I think it was way more important to have real winners.
Huge congratulations to the winners! 
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oh，I just saw this competition, but congratulations to the community for another victory.
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Hi, as I replied in your announcement thread, I would like to thank to organizers for picking my design and also big thumbs up to community for showing honesty and unity 
How should I claim the prize @adatainment please? There were no information about it in the announcement thread and I also didn’t get email.
Thank you again 
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Hi! We will be sending the emails with the instructions next week.
Congratulations for your design.
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