Our annual Cosmetic Design Contest returns for the fifth year. Sharpen your pencil and try and find that tablet stylus because we’re looking for the next player-designed costume and weapon illusion to add to Blade & Soul.

If you’re new to the contest or a returning veteran, welcome! The Blade & Soul community is filled with talented artists and we’re looking forward to seeing what wonderful creations will be submitted. Look below to see the contest winners from previous years and read the official contest rules for the Cosmetic Design Contest before entering!

2015 Winners | 2016 Winners | 2017 Winners | 2018 Winners

Costume Design

Your costume design submission must contain a front and back view of the costume, must be gender-specific, and showcased on a male and female Jin. The overall design of the winning costume will then be applied to the other races and their appropriate genders during the development process.

You can create a design for Summoner Familiars or head and face adornments to accompany your costume, but be aware that they may not end up as a part of the final in-game design.

Weapon Illusion Design

The weapon illusion design submission must include all weapon types: Sword/Lynblade, Gauntlets/Bracer, Bangle, Axe, Dagger/Razor, Staff, Pistols, and Greatswords. Since this category is to highlight weapon designs, only the weapons can be showcased, and no characters should be included within the image. If it helps to better display your design, especially for weapons like the gauntlets/bracer, a hand and/or arm may be included at your own discretion.

You may choose to enter both a costume and a weapon illusion design into the contest, but they will need to be submitted as two separate entries following the above guidelines. Entries submitted together in a single image will need to be resubmitted.

Your artwork can be hand drawn or digital. We’ve provided a male and female Jin template if you’d like to use that to assist you in creating your costume design—the use of it won’t impact judging because we’re choosing finalists based on design ideas and not art quality. However, it must be your own original work; any designs that violate copyright or someone else’s intellectual property will be disqualified. Any design notes and inspirations are optional, but we’d love to see the thought process behind your design.

Prizes

One Costume Grand Prize Winner and one Weapon Illusion Grand Prize Winner will receive:

1 Costume Grand Prize Winner 1 Weapon Illusion Grand Prize Winner Design made into an in-game costume with a personalized tooltip and signature

Delivery of costume once development is completed

8,000 Hongmoon Coin

SteelSeries Headset and Mouse

(1) Costume Outfit of Choice (restrictions apply) Design made into an in-game weapon illusion with a personalized tooltip and signature.

Delivery of weapon illusion once development is completed

8,000 Hongmoon Coin

SteelSeries Headset and Mouse

(1) Costume Outfit of Choice (restrictions apply)

10 Costume Finalists and 10 Weapon Illusion Finalists will receive:

10 Costume Finalists 10 Weapon Illusion Finalists 4,000 Hongmoon Coin

(1) Costume Outfit of Choice (restrictions apply) 4,000 Hongmoon Coin

(1) Costume Outfit of Choice (restrictions apply)

Judging

The Blade & Soul team will select 11 finalists for each category—costume and weapon illusion—with the players voting for the Grand Prize Winners from August 7 through August 14 via the forums. The Grand Prize Winner and Finalists will be announced the same day after voting as closed on August 14.

Judging will be focused on creativity and coherence of the design, as well as overall fit with the theme and style of the Blade & Soul aesthetic.

Entry Period

You may enter the contest starting July 3 at 9:00 a.m. PDT / 18:00 CEST. Submissions will no longer be accepted after July 28 at 11:59 p.m. PDT / July 29 at 8:59 CEST.

Submissions

All entries are to be submitted to BNSCommunity2@ncsoft.com and include the following information:

Email subject: 2019 Cosmetic Design Contest – Costume 2019 Cosmetic Design Contest – Weapon Illusion

In-Game Character Name and Server

Region (North America or Europe)

Attached image of your design

The following statement within the body of the email: I hereby confirm this is my original artwork to be submitted as an entry in the Blade & Soul Cosmetic Design Contest.

Please follow the following guidelines when submitting your email:

Maximum 1 image per design category

A short description of the design in 150 words or less

Image file formats must be in .jpg or .png format

Please keep file sizes under 10mb

Entries that don’t meet these requirements will be disqualified.

All entries will be subject to NCSOFT and Team Bloodlust modifications where necessary. Finalized in-game versions of your designs may vary. Grand Prize winners will be contacted and requested to provide a tooltip description and signature files for the in-game item.

Submit Here

Please read the official contest rules before entering.