I know there was a old thread about new derby ideas. I am here to start a new one.
This week and last week were pretty wide open. Contrary to the beliefs of the noobs; more constraint will force better art and higher sales. I believe that when you open the theme, the art becomes more generic. It can still be highly skilled, but less focused.
So lets all put on our thinking tuques and come up with some NEW and exciting ideas!
PS: I miss the no text rule. I think at least one derby a month should have this restriction.
Howdy! We agree that creativity often thrives under constraint. But we also like to widen things up every now and then, just to see what happens. You guys continually surprise and delight us! 
That said, this weeks write-up was constraint without clarity…which isn’t a winning combination, is it? So we posted an update to try and remove some of the ambiguity. Not a lot, just a little nudge. Hope it helps. Posting it here, too:
“UPDATE: Poetry is powerful. Or whimsical. Or serious. Or silly. It has meaning, impact, emotion. It takes the abstract - ideas, thoughts, feelings - and distills them into something tangible. Your mission is to do the same thing with your submissions. We’re looking for art that is poetic, not just artistic renderings of poetry (though this is good, too). Just remember, no plagiarism, and no cream tees!”
PS- I’ll like your suggestion! We’ll have to bring the “no-text” rule back soon. Thanks!
Thanks for the reply. Was not expecting it. Just threw it out there to see what would germinate.
I have been designing for the contests since 2009; my first win wasn’t until 2012.
Anyway. I did not mean this post to be any admonition to woot. Just offering some fodder for discussion.
After reviewing the first 500 derbies on the now defunct wootstalker website; it does feel like almost everything has been done.
Still, trends do change. Maybe dusting off some old themes with new twists? Or each week’s winner gets to decide the next next derby (obviously not the immediately following derby)?
Or hyper focus themes from the past…
Pick a specific animal or species for the theme? Or animals of specific colors? Maybe certain music genres? Or pick a random century? Lets get granular, baby!
First, I like the granular idea. But I can’t ever see running out of ideas. Just take ideas from existing submissions.
For example, almost every week someone submits a “404: ____ Not Found” design. Am I bored of it? Sure. But do I also think “404” would make a great derby subject? Absolutely.
Look at past entries and figure out what elements of them would make great derbies. That’s just one idea.
Shirt.woot history says that is NOT GOING TO HAPPEN.