The Can't Stop the Serenity world-wide charity group have announced their 2010 Promo Art Contest. This is a special year because it marks their 5th Anniversary of raising money for Equality Now.

I have entered 2 poster variations as well as a logo and a button/badge/patch all incorporating the 5th anniversary design. All the images are below.

For this year I wanted a few more interesting view angles of Serenity to choose from so I decided to build her in 3D using Lightwave. I could then pose the model in any way I wished. In my spare time over the course of 5 months I built the ship and shuttle while listening to Greg Edmonson's fantastic 'Firefly' score. A huge "thank you" to Sean Kennedy (Treybor) at Foundation3d.com for his online tutorials and reference materials and to QMX for their Serenity Blueprint Reference Pack. (Visit the Quantum Mechanix Bellflower site and see the fantastic work Sean is doing for the film. Visit here and visit the Bellflower site here.)

After completing the ship, the next step was figuring out the overall design theme. I really didn't want to repeat my design from last year so for inspiration I surfed the 2009 CSTS posts. The online photos showing the fun the costumed Browncoats were having when the film landed in their local theatres all around the world reminded me of the old traveling theatre companies of both Europe and North America. In those days, their visits to the towns and villages throughout the land were special and exciting for everyone. I settled on creating an old western/oriental carnival motif and included a background graphic style from the film's fruity oaty bar.

Poster#1 shows Serenity in a similar pose as in the film but I extended her landing gear as she prepares for touchdown. A simple dramatic design with the ship flying out at the viewer was a good way to grab their attention.

My second design was just a fan's silly "what if" experiment. I enjoy artwork that entices the viewer to look at them again and again. It seemed very logical that Serenity herself could bring the film to the towns in the 'verse'.... "No job too small" for her crew. I wondered what that venue might look like and then went overboard with modeling the details. The resulting Browncoat carnival diorama is called the 'Can't Stop the Serenity Travelin' Theatre'. It attempts to illustrate what we might see if Serenity herself were to visit in person. There is a makeshift theatre and a variety of dealer's tents assembled all around her by the crew and the many Browncoat volunteers. CSTS and EQUALITY NOW logos are everywhere to remind us of the important and worthwhile charity. If you look closely there are some other surprises. The poster is a mix of both illustration and 3d bitmap imagery. Hopefully it sparks the imagination and also lures you to step a little closer and wonder what fun is going on inside. For me it also brings to mind the vintage carnival and circus posters of the past as well as allowing me to visit the Firefly/Serenity 'verse' once again. I was aware the end result wouldn't be ideal for every conceivable size requirement but I figured the voters might like to see a crazy "what if" design.

The tag line "We'll be in your world for a spell" sounded like something Mal would say.

My other goal for this important 5th anniversary was to create a logo that combined the number "5" and CSTS/Equality Now logos together. I wanted the logo to be an important design element in the posters. For versatility it can be broken down into parts and used on its own or together with the other elements contained in the bigger logos. The badge/button/crest can be used in a variety of sizes and layouts for t-shirts and printed material.

Voting ends March 1st.