Are you a creative designer passionate about open-source, technology, and aesthetics? Do you enjoy crafting stunning visual experiences that define the look and feel of operating systems?
If so, KDE has an exciting opportunity for you! The community is thrilled to announce its Plasma 6 wallpaper competition, inviting designers worldwide to showcase their talents and contribute to the next generation of this much-loved and widely-used desktop environment.
KDE has long been renowned for its user-friendly and customizable desktop. Moreover, the upcoming Plasma 6 release, built on top of Qt 6, increasingly takes shape and promises to raise the bar even further with enhanced performance, features, and visual appeal.
The release is expected to be a turning point in the evolution of the desktop environment, so expectations and eagerness for its debut are high. The good news is that the Plasma devs are working hard on it, with all signs that they will please us with the new Plasma 6 release by the end of the year or early 2024 at the latest.
True to their tradition of always being close to the Open Source community, the Plasma devs are reaching out with the possibility of one of you becoming the author of the Plasma 6 default wallpaper that will delight countless users worldwide.
Guidelines
Purely indicative, the wallpaper entries should somehow suggest the following themes:
- Trustworthy (i.e., reliable, stable, dependable)
- “A reflection of me” (i.e., personalized, familiar, comfortable, “fits like a glove”)
- Personal growth (i.e., independence, level-mindedness, critical thinking)
Immediately add, however, that this is entirely indicative and should in no way limit your creativity. On the contrary! The Plasma developers encourage that if you have a good idea, you should just go for it.
However, the recommendations are to refrain as much as possible from using text elements, logos, and numbers, going for a more abstract look.
Finally, given that Plasma 6 is an entirely new release, there’s no need to stick with the existing look and feel used in Plasma 5. Let your imagination run wild and create with panache.
Plasma 6 Wallpaper Contents Submission Requirements
To ensure a fair and consistent evaluation process, the Plasma devs have established some guidelines for participants:
- The wallpaper must be original, created specifically for this contest, and released under the CC-BY-SA-4.0 license. Therefore no submissions using AI art will be accepted.
- The minimum required size for wallpapers is 3840x2160px, though 5120x2880px is preferred. Vertical wallpapers should be at least 1080×2280 px.
- Every artist is allowed to submit up to 3 wallpapers. Entries can be made publicly here, but you can also submit them privately to niccolo.venerandi at kde.org.
Moreover, each submission should include the wallpaper itself, the name of the wallpaper, a dark mode version, and a vertical version of the wallpaper. The latter two are not mandatory but recommended.
Of course, if asked, you should be able to provide the source files used to create the wallpaper in a non-proprietary format, such as SVG (Inkscape), BLEND (Blender), KRA (Krita), XCF (GIMP), etc.
Selection Process
The committee judging the selected wallpapers will be the KDE Visual Design Group members and some community ones specially invited for this task.
Six finalists will be chosen for a second round at the end of the submission period, starting now and opening for the next three months. Although there can only be one winner, each artist in the final six will receive as a gift KDE t-shirt.
This stage will take one to three weeks as, in the end, a winner will be chosen and announced.
The Grand Prize: Framework Laptop 13 DIY Edition
As if the chance to leave an indelible mark on the Plasma 6 desktop wasn’t enticing enough, the winner of the competition will receive a Framework Laptop 13 DIY Edition, featuring a 13th Gen Intel Core i5-1340P CPU, as their well-deserved reward.
It is a revolutionary technology that allows users to customize and upgrade their laptops easily.
Featuring a sleek design, high-resolution display, and exceptional performance, the Framework Laptop embodies the spirit of technological empowerment and user-centered design.
Of course, as you expect, its hardware and software compatibility are tailored to accommodate various Linux distributions. You can choose your flavor from Ubuntu and Fedora to Manajro, Linux Mint, and beyond without worrying about driver issues or compatibility hiccups.
So, what are you waiting for? The KDE Plasma 6 wallpaper competition presents you with a golden opportunity to showcase your artistic talents and win the groundbreaking Framework Laptop 13 DIY Edition. Unleash your imagination and creativity. We wish you luck!
You can find detailed information about the competition at discuss.kde.org.
