Tag Archives: art education

Draw Outside of the Box 2024: The Winners!

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On January 30, we began receiving the first entries in our ‘Draw Outside of the Box‘ contest, in which creatives of all ages could compete for the opportunity to have their designs grace thousands of OTTO pizza boxes throughout Maine, New Hampshire, and Massachusetts.

Over the course of the contest, we received nearly 500 entries, and those entries received over 13,000 public votes during the competition. The 30 designs with the most votes in each of our age categories (K-12 and All Ages) moved on to the judging phase of the contest on March 30 where our esteemed panel of judges selected our winners.

We want to take a moment to thank each of the amazing artists who competed, our judges who took time out of their busy schedules to select the winning designs, and our friends at Artist & Craftsman Supply, who generously donated a $250 gift card for the K-12 winner’s school, and $100 gift cards for each of our first place winners.

All of us (including everyone at OTTO, our panel of judges, and our customers) were completely blown away by the talent on display in each of the designs.

Although there were so many worthy entries, our judges did have the difficult task of selecting three winning designs in each age category.

Drum roll please…

FIRST PLACE: K-12
Benjamin B
Age 16
St. John’s Prep School
Danvers, MA

Judges admired the level of detail in Benjamin’s deceptively simple design, as well as the use of color to bring the ‘slice’ to life. The intricacy, inventiveness, and sense of humor exhibited in Benjamin’s tiny doodles complement the playful nature of OTTO’s flavor combinations, promising an adventure for taste buds in a slice that’s far from ordinary.

A version of Benjamin’s K-12 winning design will be printed on thousands of ‘small’ pizza boxes and distributed to all OTTO locations throughout New England. Benjamin will also receive a pizza party, a $150 OTTO gift card, a $100 Artist & Craftsman Supply gift card, an OTTO t-shirt, and an OTTO cap. St. John’s Prep School where Benjamin attends, will receive a check for $1000 to support art education and a $250 Artist & Craftsman Supply gift card.

FIRST PLACE: ALL AGES
Amanda H
Age 37
Brookline, MA

Our judges loved the strong composition of this design, featuring an OTTO logo constructed from dough and sauce, and a supporting cast of OTTO lovable, slice-eating ingredients — including potato, pineapple, bacon, artichoke, and butternut squash, among others.

Amanda’s design reinforces OTTO’s commitment to carefully-sourced, high-quality, wholesome ingredients, including our very own OTTO-made dough — the foundation of every pie — and reminds us that every OTTO experience is its own kind of pizza party.

Amanda’s design will grace thousands of ‘large’ pizza poxes throughout New England. Amanda wins a pizza party, a $150 OTTO gift card, an OTTO t-shirt and hat, and a $100 gift card from Artist & Craftsman. 

SECOND PLACE: K-12
Hana G
Age 15
Kennebunk High School
Kennebunk, ME

The judges admired the compositional simplicity and the seashore palette of Hana’s clean, delicate design, suggesting ripples of waves emanating from the OTTO logo. The victorious slice-stealing gull reminds us — stay vigilant, or someone’s gonna snag that last slice!

Hana wins a $75 OTTO gift card, and OTTO shirt, and an OTTO hat.

SECOND PLACE: ALL AGES
Nick T
Age 38
Peabody, MA

Nick’s playful pizza-loving monster design captures that feeling when the pizza arrives — all eyes (and some have as many as five!) are on the slice, the drool is flowing, and there’s not a frown in the house.

We loved the strong composition of the design, as well as the inventiveness and level of detail in each of the monsters.

Nick wins a $75 OTTO gift card, an OTTO shirt, and an OTTO hat.

THIRD PLACE: K-12
Wren R
Age 11
South Portland Middle School
South Portland, ME

A common theme in the contest submissions (both this year, and in years precious) is the persistence and cunning of Maine’s pizza-loving wildlife. Here, Wren has constructed a scene depicting a trio of masked bandits plotting the heist of unattended pizzas from the back of a bicycle. (Another recurring theme — do not leave your OTTO pizza unattended!)

Wren’s use of perspective and shading draws the viewer in to surveil the scene of this very delicious crime.

Wren wins a $30 OTTO gift card, an OTTO shirt, and an OTTO cap.

THIRD PLACE: ALL AGES
Jamie R
Age 36
Portland, ME

Jamie’s design was praised for its rich textures and food-color palette of lush greens, tomato reds, and golden yellow, in a playful extrapolation of the OTTO logo. It’s all about the slice — here an OTTO Margherita slice with basil.

A well-balanced, crisp, and playful design that convey’s OTTO’s commitment to quality and craft.

Jamie wins a $30 OTTO gift card, an OTTO shirt, and an OTTO cap.

SUBMISSIONS GALLERIES
For those who would like to explore the many wonderful designs submitted over the course of the contest, we have collected them into the below online galleries:

K-12 Finalists
All Ages Finalists

K-12: All Submissions
All Ages: All Submissions

Congratulations to all our talented artists and designers! Each of them have done a wonderful job connecting and communicating with our community through art and design. These creations have brought smiles to the faces of thousands from all over the world who followed and voted in the preliminary round of the contest. These designs embodied the joy of food, the communal nature of pizza, the spirit of OTTO, and the unique natural beauty of New England.

We are confident that these artists will continue to make vital artistic contributions to their communities (and the world) for many years to come!

Draw Outside of the Box: Meet the Judges!

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As of 9am on March 30, the public voting phase of the Draw Outside of the Box contest came to a close.  On that day, the 30 entries with the most ‘Likes’ in in each category (K-12 and All Ages/Non-Student) became finalists and have moved on to the judging phase of the contest.

(View our galleries of finalists on Facebook: K-12 category, All Ages category)

Our panel of esteemed creative professionals (and two former contest winners!) have been tasked with determining the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place winners in each category. The judges will make their selections by April 16, by way of ranked choice voting, with an announcement on our social media accounts following soon.

The two first place winning designs will then be prepared for printing, will go to press, and will become the face of OTTO’s pizza boxes throughout 12 locations (plus delivery and catering services) in MA, NH. and ME.  First, Second, and Third place winners in each category will be awarded the prizes outlined in the contest overview.

Ladies and gentlemen, our 2024 ‘Draw Outside of the Box’ panel of judges:

Scott Nash
Scott Nash is the Executive Director of Illustration Institute and a founding partner of BIG BLUE DOT, and NASHBOX. As a designer, Scott has developed an expertise in the branding and creative development of products and programming for the entertainment, consumer product and publishing worlds. In addition to designing identities for Nickelodeon, PBS, ABC, Comedy Central, FX, YTV, Scott’s design clients include American Girl, Disney, Harvard University, Mattel, Milton Bradley, NFPA, The Boston Pops and From the Top.

Scott’s work as a designer and illustrator has been recognized by leading trade organizations and publications such as The Academy for The Arts and Sciences (EMMY award), PROMAX, Broadcast Designers Association, American Institute of Graphic Arts, Society of Illustrators and HOW, Communications Arts, Print and Publishers Weekly Magazines.

He has lectured widely and taught at Boston University, Northeastern University, The Art Institute of Boston, Maine College of Art, and Johns Hopkins University. 

Scott has illustrated over fifty children’s books, including Saturday Night at the Dinosaur Stomp! and The Bugliest Bug, Betsy, Who Cried Wolf! and Betsy, Red Hoodie, the series Snow Day! Beach Day! Rainy Day! and Camping Day! as well as the Flat Stanley series by Jeff Brown.

Scott is also a writer, and is the author/illustrator of TUFF FLUFF, The Case of Duckie’s Missing Brain and The High Skies Adventures of Blue Jay The Pirate. His latest book is BUNNY & CLYDE.

Martin Sorger
Martin is a designer, creative strategist, and painter. His career in design has ranged from tech start-ups to Fortune 500 companies, and include 10+ years on the corporate side as creative director for a Hollywood film production company, a multimedia technology developer, and an online gambling group. Over the years, Martin has worked with brands including OTTO, Harvard Medical School, Roche Bros., Reebok, Disney, Finagle a Bagel, HP, MIT, NEC, NFL, WWE, and BCBS. Since 2018, he’s refocused more time and attention on painting.

Deborah Kovacs
Deborah Kovacs has recently retired from her position as Executive Vice President at Walden Media, a studio that produces films and television. On behalf of Walden Media, she has been responsible for Walden Pond Press, a middle-grade imprint published in partnership with HarperCollins.


Clif Stoltz

Clif Stoltze
As founder and creative director of Boston-based Stoltze Design Group, Clif has nurtured a highly collaborative environment that emphasizes a process based on research, sound strategy
and thorough exploration. This inclusive approach yields compelling communications that effectively articulate and reinforce the message or product.

His agency has been honored by AIGA, the Type Directors Club, Council for Advancement and Support of Education, Graphis, and the Society of Publication Designers.

Clif has taught at Rhode Island School of Design and Massachusetts College of Art and frequently lectures at schools and design organizations around the country. He has served as AIGA Boston vice president and was honored as the recipient of their 2005 Fellow Award. Reflecting his love of music and album art, Clif’s book 1000 Music Graphics was published by Rockport in May of 2008 and he is also curator of POSTGIG, a traveling exhibit of contemporary music posters.

Ella Trout
As an eight grader, Ella Trout was the winner of OTTO’s very first ‘Draw Outside of the Box’ contest in 2013. As a homeschooler at the time, Ella donated the $1,000 prize of art supplies to Spurwink, a non-profit providing behavioral health and education services in Maine.  She has spent the past few years teaching preschool, and is currently pursuing a career in special education. Ella has put her design skills to work by starting up her own business, Puppycat Co., where she sells clothing, plushies, and various accessories made from locally sourced, recycled materials. 

Mali Jones
Mali was the winner of the 2017 Draw Outside of the Box contest as a student of King Middle School in Portland.  She is currently enrolled at Bennington College, studying literature and ceramics.  We are excited to have Mali come back as a judge for this year’s contest.  

We are grateful to our judges for donating their time.  

Stay tuned as we will be announcing our winners shortly after April 16, the end of our judging phase.  Thanks again to all of our contestants, and best of luck to our 60 finalists!

Calling artists of all ages! Design OTTO’s next pizza box and win!

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We are thrilled to announce our third ‘Draw Outside of the Box’ contest, giving creatives of all ages the chance to see their design featured on thousands of OTTO pizza boxes across New England.

New for 2024: designers can now compete in one of two categories: K-12 or All Ages /Non-Students (anyone not in K-12)! In addition, the winner of the K-12 category will also win their school $1000 to support art education!

HOW THE CONTEST WORKS:
After creating and submitting your design (click here for art guidelines), OTTO will upload it to one of two photo albums on the OTTO Facebook page (one album for K-12 entries and one album for All Ages/Non-Students). These albums will serve as public galleries of all submissions. The general public votes for their favorite designs with ‘likes.’

View (and vote, with likes!) all current K-12 submissions here.

View (and vote, with likes!) all current All Ages/Non-Student submissions here.

  • Public Voting Phase (Jan 30 – Mar 30): The thirty designs in each photo album with the most ‘likes’ by 9am Eastern on Mar 30 will move on to the Judging Phase of the competition.
  • Judging Phase (Mar 30 – Apr 16): Our panel of judges will select, by way of ranked choice vote, the first, second, and third place winners in each category.


PRIZES, PRIZES, PRIZES:

First Place (K-12 Category)

    • Winning design printed on small (12”) pizza boxes

    • A check for $1000 for student’s school to support art education

    • Pizza party (for up to 30 students) at his/her school 

    • $150 OTTO gift card

    • OTTO t-shirt

    • OTTO cap

    • $100 Artist & Craftsman Supply gift card

First Place (All Ages/Non-Student Category)

    • Winning design printed on large (16”) pizza boxes
    • Pizza party (up to $250 in food delivered to you!)

    • $150 OTTO gift card

    • OTTO t-shirt

    • OTTO cap

    • $100 Artist & Craftsman Supply gift card

Second Place (One winner in each category)

    • $75 OTTO gift card

    • OTTO t-shirt

    • OTTO cap

Third Place (One winner in each category)

    • $30 OTTO gift card

    • OTTO t-shirt

    • OTTO cap

We are grateful for the support of Maine-based Artist & Craftsman Supply for their donation of gift cards as additional prizes for both first prize winners and the K-12 category winner’s school. They are also generously offering 20% off for contest participants purchasing contest supplies from their Portland location (simply mention “OTTO” when checking out in-store).

The ‘Draw Outside of the Box’ Contest is open to all ages in New England.

HOW TO ENTER:
Entering is as easy as 1-2-3:

1. Create your design

  • K-12: Create your design within a 12×12″ area. 
    Design must include the words ‘OTTO’ and ‘Portland, Maine’ 
  • Non-Students/All Ages: Create your design within a 16×16″ area.
    Design must include the words ‘OTTO’ and ‘Portland, Maine’

Full design requirements can be viewed here. 

2. Take a clear digital picture of the design
3. Submit design at ottoportland.com/draw

We will begin accepting entries on January 30, 2024, and will continue to accept them through 9am on March 30, 2024. However, the sooner your design is entered, the more time it has to earn ‘votes’ on Facebook!

For complete submission requirements, rules, and regulations, click here.

Good luck!