Thank you for your interest in submitting art for Critshow Studios!
This page contains guidelines for fan artists as well as for professional, commissioned artists. Please jump to the appropriate section and read the guidelines carefully to ensure we are able to use your work.
- Guidelines for Fan Artists
- Guidelines for Commissioned Artwork
- Download our Brand Style Guide and Official Logos
Guidelines for Fan Artists
We adore fan art and are thrilled to see whatever you’ve created, be it illustration, cosplay, physical media like painting or embroidery, or anything else; featuring moments or characters from any of our shows!
In most cases, submitting a PNG or JPG file is sufficient. These formats are great for display on our website and social media, though we do recommend your submission be no less than 1200px on its shortest side. It’s easy for us to reduce large images for display, whereas it’s almost impossible to scale them up.
If you would like to include our logo in your artwork, you may download our official brand imagery from the bottom of this page.
To submit your art, use our Contact Form and select “Art Submission” as the reason for your message.
Guidelines for Commissioned Artwork
For commissioned designs for use on our website and merch, artwork needs to meet stricter guidelines. Please read these instructions completely or we may not be able to use your art.
If you are unclear about any of this, please contact our lead designer, Nyx, via the Contact Form (select “Question about art specifications”) before you begin your artwork. It can be very difficult, if not impossible, to resize or recolor something that wasn’t originally created with print-ready specifications.
Color
Please create and provide your artwork using CMYK so we are able to print your design with accurate color. We will convert to the correct RGB profile where necessary. It should also be an 8 bit image so we are able to retain color accuracy when printing.
File Type and Resolution
If possible, our first choice is to receive your design in vector format (either .AI or Illustator PDF) with all fonts converted to outline and all layers preserved.
If vector is not possible, your art must be provided in PNG format at 300dpi and a minimum of 12 inches on the shortest side. This means the shortest side will be set to a minimum of 3600px (300 dots per inch x 12 inches). Please do not use a higher or lower DPI unless specifically instructed by our design team.
Layers
Whenever possible, please preserve layers in your image. If adjustments are needed to fit a certain layout, this is much easier to accommodate if various elements of your artwork are still in their own layers and can be modified independently.
Social Media and Website banners
If you’ve been commissioned specifically to create banner art for our website or social media, there are a couple additional considerations.
Banner sizes for can be incredibly frustrating to design, because every site has different size ratios, and mobile ratios also differ from those on desktop displays. Please focus the primary action of your image in the center, with a significant extension of your background (whether a scene, texture, or solid color) much further than you think necessary. This allows us to crop your image to the various required ratios without losing the most important parts.
If you want to ensure your design will work on a particular platform at both mobile and desktop ratios, we recommend consulting an always up-to-date social image size guide like this one.
Brand Guidelines and Logo Files
To use any of our official logos or marks in your design, please download them – along with our Style Guide – using the button below. Illustrator PDF vector files are contained in the “For Print” folder at that link.
Questions and Submissions
To submit your art, use our Contact Form and select “Art Submission” as the reason for your message. If you have any questions you need clarification on from our design team before you submit, use the same contact form and select “Question about art specifications” to get in touch with Nyx, our lead designer.