GOAL
We are the "Con Rồng Cháu Tiên Việt Nam" (CRCTVN) and we wish to have a distinctive and original emblem that will come to represent us well. Our emblem will be used to symbolize our Society. Contestants are encouraged to learn more about the Con Rồng Cháu Tiên Việt Nam Society by visiting our website at www.crctvn.com.

ELIGIBILITY
Anyone or any group can enter. Collaboration is allowed.

COMPETITION RULES
a) The design must represent the "Con Rồng Cháu Tiên Việt Nam Society". Please refer to the section “Our Vision and Concepts” for the description of our own vision and concept of the emblem.
b) No more than four colors may be used in addition to black and white.
c) The design must reproduce plainly in black and white/grayscale and at various sizes for letterhead, posters, billboards, etc.
d) The design must be free of "details", but eye-catching and able to represent the Con Rồng Cháu Tiên Việt Nam Society clearly and quickly.
e) The work must not have been used previously.
f) No limit is placed on the number of submittals. If you intend to have more than one submittals, we recommend that one of your submittal should be an enhancement of our emblem mockup (see section “Our Vision and Concepts”)
g) Entries must be submitted...
· by March 15th, 2003.
· in final form.
· in full color.
· in an electronic version in .EPS format or any of the following formats: Photoshop; Corel Draw; Macromedia Firework; and Adobe Illustrator.
· accompanied by a completed entry form.
· You may include description of the key features of your design (this is not a mandatory requirement)
h) Entries submitted will not be returned.
i) By submitting the design, the contestant certifies that the submission was conceived solely by the contestant or contestants and no third party has rights in the design.
j) All submissions become the property of Con Rồng Cháu Tiên Việt Nam Society, and may be included in all publications and advertisements of the Con Rồng Cháu Tiên Việt Nam Society including, but not limited to, both electronic and print media. Entering contestants agree to surrender all rights of their submissions to Con Rồng Cháu Tiên Việt Nam Society.
k) The winning design may be altered and/or modified by the Con Rồng Cháu Tiên Việt Nam Society.
l) The Con Rồng Cháu Tiên Việt Nam Society reserves the right to not select any of the submitted designs. If no submitted design is selected, no award will be distributed.

ENTRY FORMS
Entry forms can be obtained from...
· download in pdf format.
· download in Word format.

ENTRY SUBMITTAL OPTIONS

By Email: designcontest@crctvn.com

or

By mail:
Con Rong Chau Tien Vietnam Society
3889 Keith Street – Suite C2
Burnaby, British Columbia
Canada, V5J 5K4

PRIZES
Open Category (open to all)
First Prize: US$ 500.00
Second Prize: US$ 200.00

Youth Category (open to youths under 18 years old only)
First Prize: US$100.00

JUDGING
Judging will be done by a committee of Con Rồng Cháu Tiên Việt Nam Society members. No one serving on the committee will be allowed to submit an entry.

ANNOUNCEMENT OF WINNING ENTRIES
The winners will be announced by email no later than April 11, 2003. The winners’ names and winning designs will be posted on the CRCTVN website for a brief period after April 11, 2003. The award check/money orders will be made out, and mailed, to the person or group whose name and address appear on each winning entry form.

OUR VISION and CONCEPTS


This section describes the idea we had for the "Con Rồng Cháu Tiên Việt Nam" (CRCTVN) Emblem, the mockup illustration of our concept is found on the first page. We hope to have a better, distinctive and original emblem that will come to represent us well. Please note that, it’s not mandatory to follow our mockup illustration. However, if you intend to have more than one submittals we recommend that one of your submittal should be an enhancement of our mockup illustration.

DIRECTING IDEA FOR OUR EMBLEM
‘Con Rồng Cháu Tiên’ means children of Dragon and Fairy is a very familiar expression of Vietnamese people. It comes from the legend of ‘Âu Cơ and Lạc Long Quân’, our first parents. According to this legend, our first parent gave birth to an envelope which contains one hundred eggs. From one hundred eggs came one hundred children. Then, fifty children followed mother Âu Cơ to colonize the lands on the mountains; fifty children followed father Lạc Long Quân to establish in a vast, grassy plain next to the sea. The journey of the ‘Lạc Việt’ nation then begins… From this legend, our conception of life and our national specificity have been built and developed… In fact, Việt Nam is the only nation who has a double emblem: TIÊN (Fairy) and RỒNG (Dragon) while most of other nations all have a simple emblem: Beaver for Canada; Eagle for USA, Cock for France; Bear for Russia; Dragon for China; Lion for England;

The double emblem represents a very important concept of life. Tiên (fairy) is the symbol of feminity, beauty, delicacy, nobility, wisdom and charity which represents the negative force of Creation; Rồng (dragon) is the symbol of masculinity, force, courage, determination, majesty and righteousness which represents the positive force of Creation. Tiên also is a transcending metamorphose from human while Rồng (dragon) is an ascending metamorphose from snake. Tiên and Rồng, negative and positive force, unite to form universe which is represented by a round egg. From this ‘egg’, which reminds that we were at one from the beginning, one hundred children were born. The number ‘one hundred’ represents the wholeness or totality. Then fifty children followed mother Âu Cơ (negative force) to colonize mountain-land (positive force), and fifty children followed father Lạc Long (positive force) to colonize the sea-land (negative force). By studying the legend of ‘Âu Cơ-Lạc Long Quân’, we can recognize the quintessence of Vietnamese culture and their conception of life, a conception that our ancestors have wisely and ingeniously wrapped up in a single story to perpetuate and transmit from generation to generation, that is:

HARMONIZING THE NEGATIVE and THE POSITIVE, UNITE THE OPPOSITES TO ADVANCE and TO TRANSCEND.

Based on this cornerstone conception, we draw the ideas to invent and build the emblem of ‘Con Rồng Cháu Tiên’.

DIRECTING IDEA FOR OUR MOTTO
Our nation has a long history of almost 5000 years with many cultural specificities and richness. These constitute the foundation of the spirit, the character and the motivation of our people which warrant the survival and development of the nation through the up﷓and﷓down of history. Contemporary history of Việt Nam has been written by tears and blood: Foreign dominations, civil wars with all its destructive and tragic consequences have harmfully eroded the culture, the spirit and the character of Vietnamese people. In the beginning of 20th century, a reformist Phan Chu Trinh with the movement ‘Duy Tân’ proposed a visionary project of renew and rebuild the country by this now famous phrase: Hậu dân sinh, chấn dân khí, khai dân trí. It means: Upraise the spirits; uplift the civism to revitalize the people.

Now, in the beginning of 21st century, we, the movement ‘Con Rồng Cháu Tiên’, are convinced that this is the best and the most appropriated way to reform, to renew and to rebuild our wounded nation. Therefore, our motto will be:

NÂNG CAO TRÍ KHÍ
(meaning: Uplift the spirits and civism)

CONTENTS OF OUR EMBLEM
Our emblem ‘Con Rồng Cháu Tiên’ will have 7 figures:
1. Stork (chim Lạc) symbolizes our mother Âu Cơ
2. Dragon (Rồng) symbolizes our father Lạc Long Quân
3. The bronze drum which symbolizes universe
4. The name of our association ‘Con Rồng Cháu Tiên’ graved on the bronze drum
5. The golden rice flower which symbolizes the vitality, the prosperity and the Vietnamese culture born of agricultural society through the ages. From the rice flowers, a human figure opens out in an ascending position with his two arms raised up in V. This symbolizes for the transcendence and the accomplishment
6. The ribbon with our motto ‘Nâng Cao Trí Khí’
7. The yellow flowers of apricot, the specific flower of Việt Nam

CONSTRUCTION OF EMBLEM
In the middle of the emblem is the figure 5: The rice flower with human figure, two arms raised in V ascending from the flowers. This figure will bear the color of yellow.

Figure 5 is printed on figure 3: The bronze drum bearing the colors of white and black. The center of the drum has the image of the sun with 8 rays. The rice stem rises from the center of the drum with 7(seven) flowers growing straight up to the border of the drum. From the seventh flower, a human figure opens out with his two arms raised in V position ready to ascend out of the rice flower and the drum.

The name ‘CON RỒNG’ and ‘CHÁU TIÊN’ are graved near the circumference of the drum, on the two sides of the rice flower. It bears the color of blue. The letters’ dimension is approximately ¼ of the drum’s radius. The letters and the rice flower wouldn’t exceed 2/3 of the drum’s circumference.

In the left of the drum is the figure 2: The black dragon. The figure of dragon must express the vision and the feeling of masculinity: strength, majesty and righteousness. It covers all the drum’s left side. The head is on top; the tail is at the bottom. The dragon is flying up with its two arms holding the drum; its body protects the drum’s left side. Its head lies under the left arm of human figure and looks up to human figure as protecting and supporting the human in his process of ascending. The dragon is the symbol of male (positive force) and black is the symbol of negative force. By drawing black dragon, we unite the two forces.

In the right side of the drum is the figure 1: White stork (chim Lạc trắng). The white stork is flying up and like the black dragon, it covers all the right side, hold the drum with its two legs. Its head lies under the right arm of human figure and looks up to human figure as protecting and supporting the human in his process of ascending. The figure of white stork must inspire the vision and the feeling of feminity: beauty, delicacy, wisdom and charity. Stork (chim Lạc) symbolizes the female (negative force) and white is the color of positive force. By drawing white stork, we unite the two opposite forces.

Under the drum is the ribbon with the motto ‘NÂNG CAO TRÍ KHÍ’ written in red on the white background. The border of the ribbon is blue. The width of the ribbon is 1/3 of the drum’s radius approximately; the letter’s dimension is approximately equal to the letters ‘con rồng cháu tiên’ graved on the drum. The ribbon is symmetrically placed under the drum, the letters ‘NÂNG CAO TRÍ KHÍ’ is placed between the stork and the dragon. The two sides of the ribbon are curved under the stork and the dragon and the two extremities are stretched far outside.

Under the ribbon is the figure 7: The yellow flowers of apricot. The flowers and the stems run under the ribbon. It must be at least 4 flowers with two flowers in profile and two flowers in face. The flowers, leaves and stems could curve and embrace the ribbon and their drawing is up to the creativity of the artist.

GENERAL IMPRESSION
The look at the emblem will show up the outline of the golden rice flower with human figure which inspires the transcending and irrepressible vitality based on a fine balance between strength and wisdom, courage and beauty, majesty and charity and between masculinity and feminity symbolized by dragon and the stork. The bronze drum points to our Lạc Việt identity as individual and as association. The motto written in red with the yellow flowers of apricot reaffirms our determination to fulfill our mission ‘NÂNG CAO TRÍ KHÍ’ to renew and to bring a productive, prosperous and joyful life to the people of Việt Nam.