Submit your design for the Santa Rosa Junior College Mascot Design Contest!
SRJC Mascot Design submission Form
Mascots can be the heartbeat of a school, bringing the community together and forging bonding experiences and a sense of identity for students and alumni.
Rosco, Santa Rosa Junior College’s mascot, was established in April 1950 through a student naming competition with the name Rosco, with ROS for Rosa; and CO for College. The brown bear cub was chosen as the mascot to recognize SRJC’s transfer destination of UC Berkeley, whose mascot was a bear. The Bear Cub was a symbol of a ‘young community college student growing up into a Cal Bear student’. The college colors, red and blue, also recognized the historic transfer path to UC Berkeley (blue) and Stanford (red).
As SRJC embarks on its second century under a new president, we are updating Rosco’s appearance through a competitive design contest. Rosco will serve as a unifying force to build community, increasing student retention and belonging on campus. The mascot is used college publications, advertisements, website, clothing, facilities, athletics, and more. In this process, Rosco’s name will not change and Rosco will remain a brown bear cub.
The Rosco Redesign Workgroup, with input from the SRJC community, has defined the Rosco personality as Strong, Encouraging, Proud, and a Leader. The winning mascot design must reflect this personality.
I. Recommendations for Design
- Image should be original work only. Clip art images/illustrations are not permitted.
- Image should be a character, not an abstract or depersonalized image
- Image should be able to be manipulated into facing head-on, profile, and/or full size
- Image will be used to create a walking mascot costume
- Primary graphic should be a Brown Bear Cub face
- Secondary graphic should be a Brown Bear Cub full body
- SRJC colors, if chosen to be incorporated, are blue and red:
SRJC BLUE
Pantone: 282
CMYK: 100, 87, 42, 52
RGB: 1, 30, 65
HEX#: 0D1D41
SRJC RED
Pantone: 187
CMYK: 23, 100, 88, 15
RGB: 171, 26, 45
HEX#: AB1A2D
II. Submission Process
- Multiple submissions are allowed, but each design must be submitted individually.
- All artist entrants are eligible to apply if they live in the United States and territories. Preference will be given to artists from the San Francisco Bay Area, broadly defined, and the counties of Lake, Napa, Mendocino, and Sonoma.
- All design entries must be submitted electronically by completing the Mascot Design Contest form. There will be a field on the form that will allow you to upload your design. Once the submission is complete, you will receive a confirmation email. For questions, please contact the SRJC Office of Marketing & Communications at 707-527-4679.
- All entries must be received by midnight, February 23, 2024.
- Artist Entrants may NOT post their submissions on public websites or social media or use them in their portfolios until an official winner has been selected and announced.
- All mascot designs must adhere to the following requirements:
- Placed on a white background
- Designs should fit within the space of an 8.5” x 11” sheet of paper, with the ability to be legible at both very large and very small sizes.
- Appropriate for all ages. Mascot designs and/or names containing nudity (implied or actual), drug paraphernalia or other content deemed as inappropriate by the Workgroup will be removed from the contest.
- Create as line art or other digital media format
- Submit in high-resolution, 300 dpi jpg format
- File must not be larger than 7 megabytes
III. Publicity and Intellectual Property Release
Except where prohibited by law, by participating in this contest, Artist Entrant consents to the use by Santa Rosa Junior College and its authorized employees, representatives, contractors, or those acting at its direction, of the entrant’s artwork for advertising and publicity purposes in any and all media, now known or hereafter developed, worldwide without additional compensation or notification. Artist Entrant hereby waives any right to inspect or approve the foregoing, any materials that may be used in connection with the foregoing, or the use to which they may be applied.
Artist Entrant hereby grants to Santa Rosa Junior College and its authorized employees, representatives, contractors, or those acting at its direction, nonexclusive, irrevocable, worldwide license to the entry and any other communications, creative suggestions, ideas, notes, concepts or other materials that Artist Entrant may submit to Santa Rosa Junior College or post in connection with this contest (collectively with the entry, “submissions”) to edit, modify, publish, reproduce, use, disclose, disseminate and distribute the submissions for purposes of executing the contest, including to conduct the selection process described above.
If any use by Santa Rosa Junior College of the submissions causes it to be liable to any third-party, e.g., due to Artist Entrant’s plagiarism or infringement of another’s intellectual property rights, Artist Entrant agrees to indemnify and defend Santa Rosa Junior College and its agents, employees, affiliates, subsidiaries, representatives and all related parties from and against any and all damages, costs, judgments and expenses (including reasonable attorney fees) which it incurs as a result of Santa Rosa Junior College’s use of the submissions.
IV. Limitation of Liability/Release
The selected artist will have to agree to an Intellectual Property Release below. Artist Entrants over the age of 18 years old are eligible to submit. If the artist is under 18 years of age, a parent or guardian will be required to sign an Intellectual Property Release Agreement.
By participating in the Competition, Artist Entrants and the winner individually and on behalf of their relatives, heirs, assignees, successors, executors, and administrators, and employers (if applicable) hereby permanently, irrevocably and forever waive and release any and all rights, demands, losses, liabilities, claims and causes of action whatsoever which you may now or hereafter be entitled to assert against Santa Rosa Junior College, as well as all others associated with the development and execution of the Contest (collectively, the “Released Parties”), including, but not limited to (i) harm or loss of any nature whatsoever caused by, contributed to, or arising out of the Contest and/or any prize awarded, (ii) any claim or demand for additional compensation or any other claim or demand related to the Contest or what Santa Rosa Junior College provides, (iii) any claims related to errors in the administration of the Contest, (iv) any claims or allegations that the artist’s entry infringes any copyright, trademark, or any other intellectual property right, (v) disputes between Entrants, (vi) disputes between Entrants and their employers, (vii) claims relating to damage to persons or property relating in any way to your participation in the Contest, and forever release and discharge the Released Parties from any and all liability with respect thereto. The Released Parties assume no responsibility for any error, omission, interruption, deletion, defect, or delay in operation or transmission; communications line failure; theft or destruction of or unauthorized access to the Website or any other website involved in the Contest, or any registration, voting, judging or winner selection.
The Artist Entrant will further agree that in no event shall Santa Rosa Junior College be liable for any indirect, punitive, incidental, special, or consequential damages arising out of or in any way connected to participation in the Contest or the use of any Santa Rosa Junior College’s materials by the Entrant or anyone else, whether based in contract, tort, strict liability, or otherwise, even if Santa Rosa Junior College has been advised of the possibility of such damages and even if such damages are foreseeable.
V. Costs Associated with Submission
Any costs incurred by any person or entity in preparing, submitting, or presenting a proposal are the sole responsibility of that person or entity, including any requests for additional information or interviews. Santa Rosa Junior College will not reimburse any person or entity for any costs.
VI. Representation of Ownership
By submitting artwork to this design contest, the Artist Entrant hereby declares that the artwork is original to the artist, that artist holds exclusive and perpetual rights to all intellectual property in the work and that participant has the right to grant and does so grant, all intellectual property rights to Santa Rosa Junior College. Further, the Artist Entrant represents and warrants that the design that they submit is an original work that is, to their knowledge, not confusingly similar or substantially similar to any existing design.
VII. Rejection of Proposals
Santa Rosa Junior College reserves the right to reject any or all proposals, or to award the contract to the proposals that Santa Rosa Junior College deems will meet its best interests. Santa Rosa Junior College reserves the right to select more than one artist/team of artists, and if that is the case, Santa Rosa Junior College reserves the right to decide the full scope and award for each. Santa Rosa Junior College reserves the right to re-advertise for additional proposals and to extend the deadline for submission of the proposals. This Design Contest in no way obligates Santa Rosa Junior College to award a contract.
VIII. Use of Submitted Documents
Any materials submitted to Santa Rosa Junior College in response to this will be used by Santa Rosa Junior College for the process of selecting an artist, including sharing the documents via email, online, or any other private or public platform for this purpose.
NOTE: The winning design shall become the exclusive and perpetual property of Santa Rosa Junior College; by submitting the design entry, the Artist Entrant agrees to assign all rights to Santa Rosa Junior College in the event that the artist's submission is determined to be the winner. Furthermore, Santa Rosa Junior College reserves the right to alter and create derivative works from the design entry.
IX. Public Records
Any and all records submitted to Santa Rosa Junior College, whether electronic, paper, or otherwise recorded, are subject to the California Public Records Act. The determination of how those records must be handled is solely within the purview of Santa Rosa Junior College.
X. Judging
All submissions will undergo a blind review—without name—by the Rosco Redesign Workgroup. Submissions will be judged on creativity and artistic quality, as well as how well they represent Santa Rosa Junior College and encourage school spirit. Santa Rosa Junior College shall have the sole discretion to select the winning design based on this and other criteria that it feels, in its sole discretion, appropriate.
The winning design becomes the property of Santa Rosa Junior College as stated above.
XI. Winning Design
The artist with the winning design will be initially credited for their work on the Santa Rosa Junior College website, as well as various communications channels (social media, press releases, school's website, athletics website, etc.) used by Santa Rosa Junior College. Not all uses of the design by Santa Rosa Junior College will carry attribution.
Upon notification of the winning design, the selected artist will be invited to work collaboratively with the Workgroup and Office of Marketing & Communications to refine the design and prepare it for use in publications, the website, and other communications channels. The winning design, as it may be altered, also becomes the exclusive and perpetual property of Santa Rosa Junior College.
XII. Prize
The winning design will be proudly displayed throughout Santa Rosa Junior College —from the website to clothing. It will encourage the entire community to share their school spirit! The winner will receive a monetary award $2,500. The winner will be required to complete state and federal tax documents, and the prize will be reported to federal and state tax authorities via a 1099-MISC form or similar form. Artist is responsible for any taxes that may be due; portions of the prize may be subject to withholding requirements. As a condition of receipt of a prize, the winning artist may be required to submit additional information to the Santa Rosa Junior College.