2014 Icebreaker Episode Design Contest

When we do our themed episodes of our podcast, iTunes lets us feature them with a special banner. We’re about to release our next icebreaker episode to celebrate our 250th episode – and we want to give our talented fans a chance to share their work with us (in exchange for credit and a one-of-a-kind DPD Prize Pack). The winning design will be featured on the iTunes podcast homepage for a week in the big, scrolling window, in front of hundreds of thousands of eyes.

This episode gathers together all of the funny, ridiculous, and groan-worthy jokes told by our guests into a single all-jokes podcast.  It’s like binge joke-telling… and it’s been a huge hit in past years.  Guests include Jonah Hill, Margaret Atwood, Arctic Monkeys, Jim Jarmusch, Carrie Brownstein, and Gary Shteyngart, among many others.

What we need:

A single image conforming to the iTunes Design Specs. (See: “Using One Piece of Artwork on All Platforms and Devices”). Send us a Photoshop file with separated layers, in case we have to make any last-minute changes.

Design-wise, you can take inspiration from the great work done by our previous illustrators (but don’t assume it has to be quite as elaborate as what they did). The key is a design that is horizontally centered, with long tails built into the design’s left and right which can be cropped/re-sized for various devices. We are not expecting something hyper detailed, just something that evokes the fun of joke-telling. (iTunes prefers simple, clean designs anyway – so just go with that.)

Your graphic must include all of the following text elements:

• The Dinner Party Download
• All-Icebreaker Episode
• Famous folks telling jokes
• Laffs, gags & groaners from: Jonah Hill, Carrie Brownstein, Lars Ulrich, Arctic Monkeys, Tavi Gevinson, and more

It is not a requirement to contain the show’s graphic logo/identity.

Deadline: Monday, April 21 at 5pm Pacific (8pm Eastern).