Hi there all you Springleap designers!

Here is some great news - We have just activated our New Springleap.com Submission Kit!

This is very important news, because it will update you with everything you need to know about submitting your designs to contests on our platform.

We are pleased to announce that this is a much slicker version than the original and we are sure that you will find it very ‘user friendly’. Our in-house designer has really gone the extra mile to ensure that it is visually appealing and simple to follow. Thanks Robin!

In order to download the New Springleap.com Submission Kit, please go to our SUBMIT PAGE.
You will find the download on the right hand side of the screen in the box entitled “How do I enter?”.

One of the most important aspects of the new submission kit is the fact that it shows our new list of t-shirt colours. Please get acquainted with the new list of colours because it will save you a lot of time and effort in the long run. There is nothing more annoying than creating a design, only to have it sent back under ‘Need Work’ and then find that it doesn’t suit any of the official colours.

If you are having absolutely any problems with the New Springleap.com Submission Kit, or don’t understand something, please drop me an email at: Duncan [at] springleap [dot] com.

We are always happy to get feedback from our community.
We want to make sure that we grow in the right way and always keep our members informed!

Let us know what you think…and most of all ENJOY.

Hi there guys and girls.

As you have probably already realized we have not yet announced our winner for the November 2 Open Theme contest.

The announcement should have gone live on Monday, however due to circumstances beyond our control we have not been able to do so!

Firstly, please accept our apologies for this issue. We are sorry for keeping you waiting like this!
We have just changed over to an entirely new development team who are in the middle of streamlining our website processes.

For the moment we ask you to please be patient while the new team gets everything 100% right.

Thanks for understanding and please know that we are doing everything we can to expedite the winner announcement!

SL Team

Time for something special!

Get ready to break in the festive season with an amazing summer market which will set the tone for the rest of an amazing year-end!

Come and join the Springleap team as we light up the Fringe Handmade Creative Goods Market with the very best of our awesome t-shirts on offer, as well as a few of our very cool hoodies.

The Fringe Handmade Creative Goods Market has been created through the partnership of the most important stakeholders in the area, such as, the Cape Craft and Design Institute and the Cape Town Fashion Council (CTFC), Woodheads and the Fledge Creative Catalyst for young designers.

This market sets itself apart from other ‘typical’ summer markets by placing a huge emphasis on locally produced, highly original handmade products. If you are looking for mega unique items that you won’t find anywhere else, such as crafts, fashion, decor, jewellery and accessories, this is the place!

This is not your average market with the same ‘yawn worthy’ offerings that you find at any given ‘flea market’, this is a celebration of South African ingenuity, creativity and pure design magic.

The ‘Fringe’ for those of you who don’t know is the area in Cape Town that lies on the outskirts of the major CBD. It has fast become a Mecca for up-and-coming artistic types and is home to forward thinking design institutions such as the CTFC. Springleap is proud to be part of this funk-tastic design zone, which stands in company with some of the finest creatives in South Africa.
 

The Fringe Handmade: Creative Goods Market
Date - 03 December 2011 (10:00 - 18:00)
Place -  Harrington Street Parking Lot, cnr Harrington & Caledon Street , Cape Town, South Africa
*Find map below...logo marks the spot

We hope to see you all there!
Come say hi and share in the fun with the Springleap team. It would be great to see as many Springleapers as possible.

Don’t miss out!

Hi there guys and girls,

We are truly blessed on Springleap to have such an astounding and supremely talented group of designers.
Just lately we have received so many amazing submissions and it is becoming more and more difficult to choose a winner.

This is by no means a bad thing!
Not at all, in fact it’s great that we have such an array of design.

We heartily support design resubmissions. If your design does not win the first time around there is no reason why it won’t walk away with a victory in another competition.

We have had many cases where designs that are sent in for ‘branded contests’, which don’t manage to win, are then sent in for our Open Theme contests and fair much better.

Here are four fantastic designs, submitted into past branded contests, which have now made their way into our November 2 - Open Theme.
Voting has just started, so get involved and let these awesome designers know how you like their changes.

ABOVE - Helping hand by Zenstudio & Be Alive! by Dewedhe
BELOW - Super Salvador & Where's my jane by Matsanni

Remember that designs constantly have room to evolve and be improved upon. If your design doesn’t win it is not the end of the world, merely a stepping stone to future glory and a big phat cash prize, hehe!

Here are a few things to consider before you resubmit a design:

1. Read through the comments your received from other members. Some of our members give amazingly insightful feedback. We as artists need to be able to take criticism and apply it to our future work.

2. Ask another designer for technical help. Yep, they may be after the same prize, but you will be surprised at how helpful designers can be when they are helping out a fellow artist.

3. Try not to resubmit the exact same design with no tweaks. This is a tricky one – The best thing to do (after reading through comments) is to check your final score and see how close you were to the top of the pile. This should give you a rough ‘guess-timation’ of how close you came. Some designs require elements to be tweaked/added/removed….others just need to be placed on a different colour t-shirt.

4. Collaborate. This is a slightly different method which few on Springleap have tried. Take your design, team up with another designer and perhaps make a mash-up of your respective work. You will be amazed at what can come from this. Sure you will have to split the winnings, but this could open the doors for future work and a whole new amalgamation of shared knowledge. We all have our separate strengths, combine them and win!

5. Don’t resubmit the very next contest. People don’t want to be bombarded by the same designs back-to-back. Give it at least a 2-3 contest ‘breathing gap’ before resubmitting.

I hope this gives you a bit more insight into creating successful design resubmissions.
Don’t be afraid to ask for help!

If you have absolutely any questions about resubmitting, or would like some advice on how to tweak your resubmission, please drop me an email: Duncan [at] springleap [dot] com

D

Movember is upon us guys!

It’s that time of year when men (and a few courageous women) let their mustaches grow free and wild to their hearts content – and their ladies’ despair from prickly grief. All this upper-lip hair cultivation happens in support of raising funds and spreading awareness around men’s health, and more specifically prostate cancer.

Springleap is spreading the Movember message by launching its very own Facebook app in support of MOVEMBER.

This year Springleap has gotten involved in this fun cause with a serious purpose. Thanks to evly.com, we’ve launched our very own “Mo or No?” Facebook contest!

It’s really easy and fun to use:

1. Proud ‘tache cultivators go to the Mo or No app on the Springleap Facebook page
    
2. Each week they submit a photo of their mo – to track the growth progress
    
3. They get buds, peeps, babes, bros, Facebook stalkers, Burt Reynolds look-alikes & the Springleap fans involved in voting for their mo & cheer them on;
    
4. At the end of Movember, the ultimate Mo-grower will be chosen & rewarded for his (or her’s – shudder) outstanding Mo-spreading efforts with awesome Mo-inspired tees, free beer & other cool ‘manly’ stuff.
    
5. To not make the ladies & the guys with yet-to-develop mo-growing powers feel left out, we will also be giving away spot prizes throughout November for the greatest Mo supporters – supporters who vote, comment, share & spread the word to the max.

It’s time to get your MO on!
Spread the word and get your friends and family to get involved and vote for your mo.

If you would like to know more about the history of this worthy cause please check out the original Movember website, as well as the South African Movember page.

Come on guys, stand up for men’s health and join the rest of your furry lipped brothers in raising awareness and funds for prostate cancer!

If you would really like to get into the Movember spirit you should check out our official Movember tees - Still Life with Mustache & Guns and Epic Battle 

These super cool t-shirts are perfect for the Movember vibe and will let everybody you meet know that you care about this awesome cause.

Get a mo-ve on and grab them while we still have stock!

Time to ROCK Movember…PROPERLY!