Joomla! 1.5 Template Contest

[RobS]

With the release of the eagerly anticipated Joomla! 1.5, the time has come to allow one of the skilled designers in our midst to become a part of the success that will be Joomla! 1.5.  The Joomla! 1.5 Template Contest is open to anyone with a passion for design and a desire to have their design seen and used by millions of people globally as they download and install the stable release of Joomla! 1.5.

Contest Prizes

• The five finalists will each receive a Joomla! prize package that includes a Joomla! laptop bag, Joomla! shirt, Joomla! hat, and a Joomla! 256MB USB memory stick.
• The grand prize winner will have his/her template added as the third template to the Joomla! 1.5 core distribution to be downloaded in every Joomla! 1.5 package.

Contest Timeline
The Joomla! 1.5 Template Contest procedure will be very similar to the Joomla! Logo Contest from 2005:

• Contestants will have until the 22nd of September 2007 to submit their designs via a contest thread set up in the Joomla! forums.
• Entries are submitted by way of a post titled "Template Contest Entries" which includes a brief introduction to your design and a link to the template package.  The template package must be available without registration and must be available until the five finalists have been announced.
• At 23:59 GMT on the 22nd of September 2007 the thread will be locked and no further entries will be allowed.
• The Core Team will go through all contest entries and create a short list of their favourite 5 designs that meet the design and technical requirements of the Template Contest.
• At 23:59 GMT October 6th 2007 the contest finalists will be revealed in a poll thread on the Joomla! Forums and all five templates will be made available via a demo site provided for the duration of the voting period.
• Forum members will have exactly one week, until the 23:59 GMT October 13th 2007 to cast a vote for their favourite design.
• The winner of the competition will be revealed in the final release of Joomla! 1.5.

Contest Rules and Requirements

• Template packages must be installable via the Joomla! 1.5 extension installer.
• All template files must be licensed under the GNU/GPL version 2.
• Templates must be an original work of the person making the design entry.
• Templates must run natively in Joomla! 1.5.  They must not require Legacy Mode in order to function.
• Templates must use the Joomla! sample content as-is and not require any moving/modifying of modules/content.
• Templates must utilize at least one Joomla! 1.5 template parameter.
• Templates must provide an example of custom module chrome or template overriding.
• Templates must be valid XHTML 1.0 and CSS.
• Templates should look and function similarly in Internet Explorer 6+, FireFox, Safari, and Opera.
• Templates should not break with any of the sample content.
• Core Team members may not submit entries in the template contest.

Discuss this announcement here: http://forum.joomla.org/index.php/topic,205477.0.html

Edit: Added "Core Team members may not submit entries in the template contest."