The Book 9 Cover Design Fan Art contest was held by author Chris Bradford on Facebook from March to April 2013, in lieu of the winning title "Circle of Life" in a previous contest held.
Prizes
- Best Design (chosen by judges) - Bryan Wong
- Fan Favourite (most likes) - Sakura Calibur
Bryan Wong's winning entry for Best Design.
Sakura Calibur's entry won Fan Favourite with the most likes.
Allegations of Plagarism
During the contest, one of the male contestants was found to have taken elements from Sakura, another contestant's entry, and used it on his own. When confronted about this issue, that contestant staunchly defended himself, saying that "everyone has the right to have an idea and to be creative". He apparently did not know that the parts he copied originated from Sakura's entry, and states that he found the image on Google, thinking it was something designed by the official YS staff.
Upon demand, he took his entry down soon, but to date has still not apologized to the original artist for his actions.
A second incident occured when a female contestant submitted an image from another artist, Michael Matchack's Ghost Ship She was found to have merely changed the colors of the image and cropped it, claiming it as her own work, which took her "lots of time and effort." The post, which has been deleted since, had plenty of comments, with some aruging that she isn't exactly wrong, but the vast majority concluded that she was guilty of plagarism. Michael, having been informed of his work been stolen without permission, wrote to the contest organizers asking them to take action.
Chris Braford has promised to deliver clearer guidelines on such competitions in the future.
Gallery (Other Entries)
