Thanks for coming out!

Well the Rock Your Wear Gala is behind us now and it was a great time. Our sponsors were awesome, the venue was amazing and we really enjoyed getting to meeting everyone that came out. We had a lot of fun dancing, drinking and watching some interesting events like b-boying and a graffitti artist. I know I could never paint like that. It was awesome.

Huge congratulations goes out to Tone, who took the grand prize of $1 500.00 and his own custom t-shirt, curtosy of Wordans. His design was absolutely amazing and we were all impressed enough to vote him the winner. Although, having said that, we had a wide selection of choices and it was a difficult decision choosing the best one. They were all so great! Thanks to everyone who participated and especially to our top ten finalists.

I thought I would post some pictures from the event up here for those who couldn't make it and wanted to see what went on. If you have any pictures that you'd like to share, let us have 'em! We've started a Wordans Facebook Group and everyone is more than welcome to join. Wordans Facebook Group members will benefit from knowing everything before anyone else. Maybe we'll even give them some free stuff and we'll definitely be wishing them a happy birthday when it rolls around. How great is that? Bet you want to sign up now...

Well, if you have any pictures or videos or even comments about last Thursday night's Rock Your Wear Gala, please let me know. I would love to add some better quality pictures up here and on our Wordans Blog. I appreciate it.

Katie

katie@wordans.com

Rock Your Wear Top Ten Finalists

Top Ten Rockin’ Designers

The team here at Wordans has been busily working all day to sort through the contest submissions and choose the ultimate top ten designers, one of which will be the winner of our $1500.00 (plus free custom t-shirt) prize! It’s been pretty intense here, but we finally decided on ten amazing designers and we thought you should know about it.

Before we go about announcing these amazing top ten candidates, we wanted to thank everyone again for sending in their designs. You made our job incredibly tough and we were impressed with the designs that were submitted. Huge thanks (and round of applause) to everyone who sent something in. You guys rock!

And finally (drum roll please…)
The Top Ten Rock Your Wear Contest Finalists

(1) http://www.wordans.com/rockyourwear/fr/user_profile.php?id=79 (williamson dulcé)
(2) http://www.wordans.com/rockyourwear/fr/user_profile.php?id=131 (Mélanie Casavant)
(3) http://www.wordans.com/rockyourwear/fr/user_profile.php?id=118 (Catherine Racette)
(4) http://www.wordans.com/rockyourwear/fr/user_profile.php?id=198 (Tone)
(4) http://www.wordans.com/rockyourwear/fr/user_profile.php?id=114 (Tone)
(5) http://www.wordans.com/rockyourwear/fr/user_profile.php?id=215 (Romain)
(6) http://www.wordans.com/rockyourwear/fr/user_profile.php?id=104 (astwo)
(6) http://www.wordans.com/rockyourwear/fr/user_profile.php?id=103 (astwo)
(7) http://www.wordans.com/rockyourwear/en/user_profile.php?id=99 (Sabrina)
(8) http://www.wordans.com/rockyourwear/fr/user_profile.php?id=86 (Thierry Lacasse)
(9) http://www.wordans.com/rockyourwear/en/user_profile.php?id=216 (Jennifer)
(10) http://www.wordans.com/rockyourwear/en/user_profile.php?id=246 (Vesk)

Remember, the lucky winner will be announced on September 26th, and will be awarded the $1500 winning prize at the Rock Your Wear Gala on September 27th at Club Cherry on 417 St. Pierre in Old Montreal. So see you there!

The Rock Your Wear Gala

Event Details:

On September 27 We'll be hosting the Rock Your Wear Gala at Club Cherry located at 417 St. Pierre in Old Montreal.

The club's new owner, Nelson Dias, (incidentally, he is also part owner of Rage magazine) has re-invented the venue and has made it into something quite unique. It has a very European sexyness to it, what with it's recessed "banquettes" and darkly-lit private backroom areas.

All the details for the event are now confirmed. We have DJ Kobal (Visit his Myspace) who will be on hand providing us with his sonic skills.

We also have a breakdance crew sponsored by Cafe Graffitti who will be putting on a show for us.

Last week we asked Astwo to put on a live painting exhibition throughout the night with the painting up for sale right after the show. We'll be posting the painting for sale on the Wordans website after the party. Astwo is an incredible artist who comes from the Graff scene. You should really come by and check him out doing his thing live.

During the VIP Cocktail hour we're offering an open bar and sushi platters will also be served (courtesy of our sponsor Miso Sushi). Hype Drinks will be attending to hand out special gift packages to all the invited guests.

For those of you wanting to RSVP your invitation and get on the guestlist all you have to do is email us at contest@wordans.com with your personal details and the word "RSVP" in the subject line. We'll call you to confirm your RSVP request. the Cocktail hour is only open to 100 people so if you're interested in making an appearance let us know!

Newspaper advertisements and a new blog article

Today is the first day in a two week run in both the Voir and Hour newspapers, respectively. Take a look through and you'll spot us there. We'll also be appearing in 24 Heures newspaper this week.

The folks over at compete-tee-tion have also graciously provided us with an article which discusses the Rock Your Wear Contest. You can see it here.


Thanks for all your support!

Becoming a Wordans Designer

A question I get asked alot is "Why have a contest?"

Since Wordans.com is Launching soon we felt that the Contest would be a great way for us to gain momentum in the Montreal scene, while at the same time developing and strengthening our ties with the local artistic community and establishing our credibility in the market place. All designers who register for the contest can choose to be part of the Wordans Design Community once the official website goes live on September 15.

Wordans designers have access to their personal online boutique storefront which they can customize to their liking and all designers can set their own prices and choose their own profit margins on t-shirts/garments with their designs on it. So you choose what you want to charge on a design by design basis. All designs are printed with eco-friendly, water-based ink on cotton direct to garment technology.

What’s more, designers retain full copyrights on every design they submit. This means they're free to do with their designs as they wish. Take them down, sell them to someone else, or publish them, whatever. We only ask that designers allow us to promote their t-shirts in the Wordans Marketplace and we keep a percentage of the t-shirt sales for ourselves to cover our operational costs as well as a retain a humble profit . It is a very accommodating arrangement.

We’re like Threadless and Spreadshirt put together.

Threadless in that we use a water-based ink on cotton process and we’ll be opening a real-world store in the plateau area before x-mas which will also sell custom design apparel created by the Wordans Designer community. We’re like Spreadshirt in that we also have a Flash designer application where designers and buyers can further customize their products, blogs, printing methods, and more.

Under Pressure Graffiti Festival 2007

We past by the Under Pressure Grafitti event this past Sunday in Downtown Montreal. Took some video to prove it, so check it out!

Under_Pressure_grafitti_show
Uploaded by Wordans

33mag is on our side

33mag.com is a Montreal-based e-zine that covers the local urban art scene. They've written us up in their "reportage" section - Thanks guys for being so kind! Y'all welcome to my side of the barn any day.

Check out the report here.

Cafe Graffiti is rockin' their wear

Cafe Graffiti, a local hangout for Graffiti artists, has graciously agreed to be one of our sponsors. We here at Wordans truly appreciate street art and are so happy to count Cafe Graffiti as one of our partners. We'd like to thank them for their continued support and encourage all graffiti artists to submit their works to the Rock Your Wear Contest.

Choq Radio Advertisement

We had a radio advertisement commissioned recently. This spot is running all through the contest and is broadcast to over 41000 students attending Uqam, Montreal's French Language University. You can listen to it here.

Contest Event Timeline

Here's the Official Contest Event Timeline.

• Contest ends September 17th, 2007.
  
• Top ten finalists will be chosen by September 18th 2007. Finalists will be informed via email.
  
• All finalists who choose to apply post print effects to their t-shirt will be asked to come in to pick up their printed t-shirt before the 22nd of September.
  
• All finalists who chose to add post effects must take a picture of the t-shirt and send it to us via email before September 26th 2007.
  
• Winner will be chosen on the 26th of September.
  
• Winner will be rewarded at The Rock Your Wear Gala on September 27th, 2007.

If you have any questions feel free to email us at contest@wordans.com or drop us a line at 1-866-218-6116.

On The Streets

The Rock Your Wear contest has begun its print advertising and marketing campaign this weekend. We hit the pavement yesterday and put up posters on Mount Royal Street. Mount Royal is full of the bohemian, do-it-yourself, independant spirit we so love here at Wordans.

You can now see our posters all along the street. I'd like to give thanks to Paul's boutique, Les Folies, and Sound Central, for letting me put up some posters on their walls.

Rock Your Wear Gets Choq Treatment

Choq.fm, is the Uqam student radio station which broadcasts to over 40,000 students on campus and a whole bunch more online.

We asked them to help us spread the word about Rock Your Wear. They so liked our idea, our contest, that they jumped on board as a sponsor! It's amazing the kind of response We're getting from the people we talk to about this thing.

Alex, our chief brand ambassador, passed by the Choq Studio earlier this week for an interview. The piece is now online over at Choq.fm. In it, she discusses the virtues of Rock Your Wear, What Wordans is and what it wants to be to all the talented people out there.

Here's the link to the interview page
Here's the link to the MP3 interview.

Rock Your Wear contest is on!

We've been working extra hard to get this contest off the ground. "Rock Your Wear" is really a labour of love. We know from talking to all the awesome talent we've met over the last several months that there definitely is a need to give Canadian artists a voice, a forum, umm... A t-shirt?

Yeah, a t-shirt! but it's really more like a canvas. It's art for those who love to wear their art instead of hanging it on a white wall some place completely disconnected from its audience.

That's the idea behind this little contest that could.

We want to reward talented people by giving them some serious coin simply for coming up with a completely original piece of sexy. We know that the idea is a novel one. it's like...
"Hey, you know that graphic you designed, and like, spent a gazillion hours on just to let it live in your hard drive or print it and hang it on your bedroom wall or something? Well, guess what? You could make fifteen hundred bucks if you only take a couple of minutes and register to be a contestant on the price is..." oops! wrong contest.

Really though, we have this great contest up and running where you can be a part of something really cool. We're throwing a hot party in late September to honour our top ten finalists and worship our winner, There's a breakdance show, and open bar, an awesome DJ and more. It's all part of the Rock Your Wear Gala, as we all so lovingly refer to it here at Wordans HQ.

So check it out, sit down spend some time here, make a friend or two, and dang it, stop talking to those voices in your head, it's really creepy.